Page 58 of Only Lovers in the Building

“A Monstera.”

“Do you have a photo?”

“Do I have a photo? Ha!”

She had a folder full of photos of her little monster at various stages of development. When they pulled up to a traffic light, Lily showed him her favorite shot of the houseplant basking in sunlight. At the time, it was positioned under the living room window, which happened to be her kitchen window. Her apartment was that small.

“Pretty,” he said. “Will it survive without you? You’ve been away for more than two weeks now.”

“I’ve asked my mom to check in on her.” They rode the rest of the way in comfortable silence. At the building, Ben walked her to her door, which was no big deal considering it was directly across from his.

Determined to play it cool, she took a breezy tone and said, “Thanks for a lovely—”

It was tough playing it cool with trembling hands. Her little satin clutch slipped out of her grip. Her keys, lipstick, breath mints, and money clip scattered across the floor. Ben gathered everything and dropped it all into her purse, except the keys. He first unlocked her door and then placed them in the palm of her hand.

Suddenly, there was nothing but their breath and a heady silence between them. At the end of the hall, static noise crackled from a faulty Art Deco sconce. Lily was desperate to kiss him, but she wouldn’t. If he wanted her, he’d have to make the move. She’d made a fool of herself once—never again! She was so caught in these thoughts that when Ben pressed his mouth to hers, she was completely caught off guard.

The unexpected kiss was scorching hot, lighting a fuse deep inside her, setting her soul on fire.

Despite having opened her door, they ended up stumbling into his apartment. Kissing madly, hands roaming each other’s bodies, they made their way to the bed. Ben pulled her onto his lap. She took his face in her hands, looking for assurances in his heated gaze. Are we really going to do this?

He kissed her again. It seemed the answer was yes.

As she worked off his jacket, his phone slipped out of the pocket, landing face up on the bed. It lit up suddenly with a text message. The words PODCAST, I’M SERIOUS, and CALL ME leaped at her.

“Oh my God!” she cried.

“What’s wrong?” Ben asked.

He’d pulled the pin out of her hair and rushed his fingers through her curls with urgency, as if he’d been waiting to do it all night.

“You have a text message. Read it.”

Ben pounced on his phone, scanned the message, and laughed. “It’s just Allison,” he said. “Thank God. For a second I thought it was . . .”

He didn’t have to finish the sentence. Lily slipped off his lap and onto the bed beside him. The memory of his ex-girlfriend knocking on his door had knocked sense into her. After Bella had returned his things, had they gone no-contact? Or did they still exchange the odd text message after midnight, as recent exes are wont to do?

Ben scanned the message and dismissed it, tossing his phone aside.

Lily cleared her throat. “She mentioned a podcast.”

“She’s not serious,” he said.

“It’s in all caps! Of course she’s serious.”

“No way,” Ben insisted. “Allison’s a major snob when it comes to literature.”

“She didn’t come across that way to me. She was the only one who supported our romance-reading.”

“For the intellectual upper hand,” Ben said. “Everyone was against it, so she had to be for it.”

“You’re clearly against it.”

He paused. “Is this something you’d be interested in?”

“No, of course not.”

“Lily, you’re a lot of things, but not a good liar.”