Page 1 of Only Lovers in the Building

There was nothing to rush home to except her prized Monstera plant.

Lily pondered this at the airport gate, boarding pass in hand. She’d quit her job, walked out mid–corporate retreat in Miami.

Now what? Her life revolved around work. Without it, she was stuck, wheels spinning. While her fellow passengers rushed to

How did I get here?

Like all bad choices, her late-night decision to quit was spurred by social media. Would she have walked out of the banquet

if her Instagram feed weren’t flooded with photos of her ex’s wedding? Then again, would she have been held up in the ladies’

room, scrolling Instagram, if the idea of a drawn-out dinner with colleagues hadn’t left her numb? Finally, without the images

of her ex—now someone’s new husband—dancing in her head, would she have snapped when the CEO gave a new colleague full credit

for her work? Well, probably. But she would never know for sure. Such was the vicious circle of doomscrolling.

Yesterday evening, Lily slipped on a little black dress, swiped on red lipstick, and left her hotel room for the final event of the week.

She shared an elevator with a woman in a bikini who spent the entire ride rummaging through her tote for a vape pen.

In the lobby, Bikini Lady joined her friends, and they trotted off toward the pool.

Lily followed the signs leading to Ballroom 2, her heels catching on the carpet.

Had that been the fork in the road? It was summer in Miami, one of the most colorful cities in the world, and Lily could only peek out at it from behind sheer curtains.

A pool party raged outside. She would spend the night making small talk with her boss, her boss’s boss, and a battalion of VPs.

The thought alone drained her. The night hadn’t yet started, and already she needed a break.

She dipped into the ladies’ room and took a seat in the adjoining lounge for a social media scroll. On Facebook she liked

a photo of her mother’s orchids. She posted a status update on her favorite new app, BookTap.

@LilyLyon: Busy week. Did not get much reading done. Currently halfway through The Sweetest Lie by Teresa Star. Will finish up on the

flight home tomorrow.

Eventually she got around to Instagram and lurked a bit until she came across a college friend’s post. It was a photo from

a wedding they’d attended, bride and groom in standard attire, kissing on a beach. She might have scrolled past if the proud

groom hadn’t caught her attention. With a fit of nausea, she recognized Darren Gordy.

From then on, it was impossible to put the phone down. Even at the dinner, she kept it open on her lap, scrolling between

bites of chicken parmesan. By dessert, she’d gathered enough images to recreate, with some imagination, the entire wedding

in her mind: vows, cocktail reception, dinner and dancing, the cutting of the coconut cream cake (his favorite), and fireworks

to cap off the night.

“Is that your brother?”

The question came from Gus, a new attorney on the team.

“My brother? Where?” Lily looked up, half expecting to see her brother stroll into the ballroom in his hospital scrubs.

Gus pointed to the phone on her lap. “There.”

Darren’s face lit up the screen. His dark brown skin glowed, and his brown eyes sparkled with unfiltered joy. She had never

seen him so happy.

“He’s not my brother,” Lily replied. “He’s a friend. We went to college together.”

She silenced her blabbing with a sip of wine. My first boyfriend, my one true love. Haven’t thought about him in ages. Split at graduation, went our separate ways. Mr.

What-If.

“Did you skip the wedding to be here?” Gus asked. “A shame. If you want my advice, don’t ever let work take over your life.

That’s a mistake you’ll regret.”

Gus was a good decade older than Lily and positioned himself in a fatherly role, the hip office dad, of sorts. Like her own

dad, he was a fountain of so-called advice, sharing his opinion on anything from taxes to real estate to car maintenance—not

that anyone in their Manhattan office owned a car. As it turned out, she didn’t want his advice. If Darren had invited her

to his wedding, she would have RSVPed no . Gus Porter was new to the ACE ecosystem. Poached from a top law firm, he’d been given princess treatment since he’d started

the job late January. He clearly wasn’t aware that skipping the annual retreat was unthinkable. This year in Miami, last year

in Aspen—it was always a show, a three-ring circus under a fancy big top. Their role as good little employees was to clap

and squeal and eat the cotton candy. Gus was a smart man: he’d figure it out soon enough.

Kendall Hill, their CEO, rose from the head of the table and launched into his speech. As always, he assured them the state of the union was strong. Lily zoned out to replay the wedding from start to finish in her mind. That could have been us, she thought. Had she gambled and lost?

Kendall called out her name, and Lily straightened up. It was that time in the speech when he acknowledged the year’s strong

contributors. This year she’d done well, closing a major deal. But Kendall didn’t mention it. Instead, he thanked her for

creating a welcoming environment for Gus. He thanked Gus for simply existing and for taking the reins of the Brooks merger.

Great, except the Brooks merger had been her deal.

Gus bowed humbly. “I couldn’t have done it without Lily.”

So thoughtful of him to acknowledge her in this way, but what had he done, exactly? Aside from breezing in and out of the

office, regaling the support staff with dad jokes, taking a few calls, and sitting in on a few meetings, she couldn’t think

of one significant contribution to the merger deal in particular or the company as a whole.

“Your friend’s a handsome guy,” Gus whispered, picking up their conversation as if nothing had happened, as if they were office

besties mid–gossip session. “The bride is mid, don’t you think?”

Lily clocked it: the straw that broke her back. The last two years had been consumed by this one big fucking deal. If it had

dragged on so long, it wasn’t because of some failing on her part. It was a complicated deal with many moving parts. Gus’s

timely arrival hadn’t made those parts move any faster. Was that why they’d brought him in, to take the reins? God... if

this was a circus, she was the clown.

Lily threw down her napkin and pushed back her chair. She caught her wineglass before it toppled over and took it with her,

leaving everything else behind. She was vaguely aware of Gus asking if she was feeling okay. She ignored Gus and the others

and did the unthinkable: she quit the circus.

By the time final boarding was announced, her mind was made up.

She could not get on that plane. She could not fly home.

Like a child who’d misbehaved, she needed a time-out.

Lily returned to the business travelers’ lounge to plan.

She set up her laptop, ordered a late lunch, and posted a status update to her 710 BookTap followers, not that any of them would care .

@LilyLyon: Change of plans: nothing but sunshine, beach reads, and cocktails for the summer. Follow for more. #MiamiBeach #Beachbumming

One follower replied straight away.

@Angieslittlelibrary: Sounds good! Keep us posted on the books you read.

Lily needed no further encouragement. She was on the right track. Down and out, where better to wash up than the hot sands

of Miami Beach?

She booked an Airbnb.