Page 50 of Only Lovers in the Building

From the recording studio, they drove straight to the building. Ben parked at his reserved spot in the garage and cut the

engine. “I have to see Noah about the watch,” he said. “The appraisal is in.”

Lily could not face Noah right now. He’d take one look at her and just know. “I’m going for a walk,” she said. “I’ll meet

you later for a last swim?”

“Why last?” he asked with a tight smile. “The pool isn’t going anywhere.”

“Who knows? What if it rains tomorrow?”

“It’s not like you to be so pessimistic.”

She took one look at his face and knew what he would say next. Do you want to talk? The answer was no . There was nothing to talk about. Her flight was booked. Dr. Jake had scheduled a walk-through. The time for talking was

over.

“Say hi to Noah for me, please.”

Lily climbed out of the car and walked away briskly.

She exited the garage through a side door, stepping out onto a busy corner.

Midafternoons in Manhattan were chaotic, but Miami Beach had its moments.

Tourists raced past on foot, on Vespas, or in sexy little sports cars.

The city drew people from all over the world looking for fun.

When they returned to their lives, they’d annoy their friends with accounts of their time in the sun.

I spent a week in Miami... Unreal! they’d say.

As if the city were a fictional place and the locals, paid actors.

Ben, Kylie, Noah, Roxanna, Sierra, Nicolas,

and Jeremy were as real as anyone, and so was her love for them.

Lily hadn’t made it around the block when she got a call. She stopped abruptly on the sidewalk, phone in hand, staring in

disbelief at the caller ID.

Slowly and with caution, she brought the phone to her ear. “Mom?”

“You know, Liliane,” her mother said in a breezy tone, as if picking up a conversation they’d started over a glass of wine,

“I lived in Miami once.”

“I... didn’t know that.”

“It was the summer I turned sixteen. We hadn’t been in the US long. We stayed with relatives. Your grandfather couldn’t find

a job and decided to move us north.”

“You never mentioned it.”

“It was such a brief time, but I loved it,” Mom said. “So warm. So sunny. I could see myself staying there forever. You know

how much I struggle in winter. But there was no work for your grandfather at the time. There wasn’t much work for him up north,

either, to be honest. So he started the business. You know the rest of the story.”

Lily had heard this story millions of times, minus their short stay in Florida. Her grandfather, a civil engineer in his native

country, had moved the family to New Jersey. Frustrated with menial jobs, he’d started a thriving construction business, firmly

landing the struggling family at the tippy-top of the middle class within a decade.

“I appreciate how hard my grandfather worked and how much he sacrificed. If you’re trying to guilt me for taking time off—”

“Either you quit your job or you were fired, but you’re not taking time off. Be serious, Liliane.”

“Fine!” she cried. “I quit my job. I don’t think there is any shame in that.”

“I’m not trying to shame you,” Mom said. “I want the truth. That’s all. Is this why you never called me?”

“I called you twice!”

“Early on Sundays when you knew I’d be at church,” Mom retorted. “That’s an old trick, Liliane. Don’t think I wasn’t on to

you.”

“Fine. Can you blame me, really?”

“Yes, I can,” Mom replied. “There’s no excuse. Were you afraid I’d belittle you?”

Lily stepped under a shop awning to get out of the sun and out of the way of foot traffic. “Or shame. Or manipulate. Or any

combination of the three.”

“Is that what you think of me?”

“You gave me the silent treatment!”

“You went away for a weekend and never came home! Your father had to track you down.”

“Okay. Maybe you have a point.”

“I’m not here to score points.”

“It won’t happen again. I’ll be home soon.”

“I’m not asking you to come back.”

“Don’t you want me to?” Lily asked, miffed. Was her mother willing to cut her off after two short months of absence?

“I had never seen you looking as beautiful, as rested, as on our call last weekend. You were glowing, and I thought maybe

Lily has finally found happiness.”

“Mom, I saw you on that call. No way you were thinking that.”

“Well, it’s true. Patrick would never let anyone talk him out of his choices. You were always holding out for your father’s

approval.”

“Yours, too! Don’t worm your way out of this.”

“In that case, you have it,” Mom said. “If you’re happy in Florida, stay there. Enjoy the weather, the beaches. Our people

are meant to live in the sun. I’ll visit often, sit with you, and flip through magazines while you read your books.”

Hmm... How often would she visit? Lily wondered, even as she tried not to burst into tears on the sidewalk. She’d been

labeled a daddy’s girl since childhood. As it turned out, all she ever needed was her mother’s blessing.

“Would you take care of Monster?” Lily asked.

“I picked her up weeks ago,” Mom said. “She’s flourishing in the den.”

Long after the call ended, Lily stood under the shop’s awning, taking all this in, until a sales associate came out and handed

her a catalog. “In case you’re interested, we’re running a sale.”

It was a polite way of saying Come in and shop or quit loitering . The shop was a high-end boutique, and the catalog was thick and glossy. On its cover, Jeremy— their Jeremy —was posing on a rowboat like a young Paul Newman. Jeremy, who only ever wore faded T-shirts and ripped jeans, was sporting

a polo shirt and pleated shorts. Lily, who’d been weeping a moment earlier, started laughing. The mystery was solved! Jeremy

wasn’t a starving or struggling artist, he was an honest-to-goodness model/artist of the kind every New York waiter claimed to be. He was probably doing better than all of them combined. Did Kylie know this?

She couldn’t wait to find out!