Page 52 of Only Lovers in the Building

Lily fit the puzzle pieces together. Ricky was the father of Roxanna’s child. He’d likely been MIA for a while. A team of cousins had filled in as best they could. Ben picked up shifts at the bar so Roxanna could spend more nights at home. He would have gone on doing so without complaint. For Roxanna, though, it wasn’t enough.

“Do you remember what he did to you?” Ben asked.

“Yes, of course. But he’s changed. He’s not that person anymore.”

Change. They’d been back and forth with this one issue. Both Ben and Lily were trying to change. Roxanna was betting her and her child’s future on the hope that a partner had changed. These were high-wire acts that should only be attempted by professionals.

“Could you be happy for us?” Roxanna implored him.

Lily looked to one then the other, wondering what Ricky could have done that was so awful that Ben, the man with such keen insight into the complexities of the human psyche, could not forgive or forget. Yet it broke her heart to see Roxanna, seemingly so confident, so self-possessed, crack open like this. It showed how much his approval mattered to her. The swelling tension in the room suddenly deflated when Ben pulled his cousin to his chest. The very strong, very proud Roxanna buried her face in his shoulder and let herself go. These cousins, as close as siblings, had navigated life together. Ben couldn’t abandon her now.

“I just want you to be happy, Rox,” Ben whispered. “I know you think Oscar needs his dad, but I promise you, he’ll be fine either way.”

Roxanna snorted. “Says the guy with his dad’s ashes under his bed.”

Lily gasped. Which bed? Certainly not the one they’d slept in the other night?

Ben abandoned his cousin to reassure Lily. “Don’t listen to her.”

Lily moved to peek under the bed. Her motto was When in Doubt, Trust Women. Ben grabbed her by the arm and stopped her. “There’s nothing there,” he promised. “My father’s ashes are scattered off the coast of Key West like he wanted.”

“Okay,” Roxanna said. “But what’s in that box?”

Lily followed Roxanna’s pointed gaze to the bookcase. A worn leather box the color of tobacco sat between the PS5 and a collection of vintage police procedurals.

“Papers,” Ben said flatly.

That small box grew large in their collective imaginations, taking up space, until Ben cleared his throat and said, “I’m making coffee.”

Roxanna collapsed on the couch and invited Lily to join her. “Poor thing. You must be so confused. This is what you get for hooking up with Ben.”

“Ben and I are just friends,” Lily repeated, stupidly.

“If we hook up, we’ll send out a press release. Okay?” Ben called out. “For now, we’re friends.”

“Ricky was my friend until I got pregnant.”

“Tell her the whole story,” Ben said from the kitchen. “Tell her how he abandoned you.”

“He didn’t abandon me!”

“What do you call what he did?” Ben asked.

Roxanna pleaded her case to Lily. “It’s not as dramatic as all of that. Ricky and I were on-and-off for years. It was a situationship, at best. Then I got pregnant. We decided to lock it down, raise the kid, start a family. It was going to be simple, just a trip to city hall.”

“Don’t stop there,” Ben said. “Tell her everything.”

“He never showed.”

“He abandoned you at the altar?!” Lily cried.

“Not on the wedding day,” Roxanna said quickly. “The week before. We’d planned to meet at the courthouse to apply for the marriage license.”

Lily shook her head. As if that minute point made any difference.

“Keep talking,” Ben said.

“He got overwhelmed,” Roxanna said in her man’s defense. “Everything was happening so fast. We hadn’t thought it through.”