15-05-2021-052358It-Ends-with-Us

“Ready to go?” he asks, looping his arm through mine.
I nod. “Yes. So ready.”
We find Allysa in the main living room. I tell her and Marshall
goodnight, using the excuse that I’m just exhausted from opening
week and I’d like to get some sleep before work tomorrow. Allysa gives
me a hug and walks us to the front door.
“I’ll be back on Monday,” she says to me, kissing me on the cheek.
“Happy birthday,” I say to her. Devin opens the door, but right
before we step into the hallway, I hear someone yell my name.
I turn around and Ryle is pushing through the crowd on the other
side of the room. “Lily, wait!” he yells, still trying to make his way over
to me. My heart is erratic. He’s walking quickly, stepping around
people, growing more frustrated with every person in his way. He
finally reaches a break in the crowd and makes eye contact with me
again. He holds my gaze as he marches toward me. He doesn’t slow
down. Allysa has to step out of his way as he walks straight up to me.
At first, I think he might kiss me, or at least give a rebuttal to
everything I said to him upstairs. But instead, he does something I’m
not at all prepared for. He scoops me up into his arms.
“Ryle!” I yell, gripping him around the neck, afraid he might drop
me. “Put me down!” He has an arm wrapped under my legs and one
under my back.
“I need to borrow Lily for the night,” he says to Devin. “That okay?”
I look at Devin and shake my head, wide-eyed. Devin just smirks
and says, “Be my guest.”
Traitor!
Ryle starts to turn and walk back toward the living room. I look at
Allysa as I pass her. Her eyes are wide with confusion. “I’m going to
kill your brother!” I yell at her.
Everyone in the entire room is staring now. I’m so embarrassed, I
just press my face against Ryle’s chest as he walks me down the hallway
and into his bedroom. Once the door is shut behind us, he slowly
lowers my feet back to the floor. I immediately start to yell at him and
try to push him out of the way of the bedroom door, but he spins me
and shoves me against the door, grabbing both of my wrists. He
presses them against the wall above my head and says, “Lily?”