Devin

Devin is a former colleague of Lily Bloom from the marketing firm where she worked before opening her floral shop, Lily Bloom's. He is gay, a fact he references with characteristic blunt humor when he tells Lily, "Relax, Lily. I've touched way better boobs than yours and I'm still gay." Though they were not close enough to become active friends outside of work, Devin was one of Lily's favorite people at the firm, and their connection persists after she leaves that job. His appearances in the novel are brief but significant, marking moments when Lily's past and present lives intersect and when she needs the comfort of an old, uncomplicated friendship.

Role at Allysa's Party

Devin's most prominent appearance comes when he accompanies Lily to a party, serving as her escort because she does not want to show up alone. He stops by the floral shop that afternoon, and Allysa Kincaid takes to him almost immediately, begging him to come to the party with her. Since Lily also does not want to arrive unaccompanied, she ends up begging him to come as well. As he walks her toward the elevator, he loops his arm through hers and tells her to stop fidgeting, a small gesture of easy intimacy that reflects their comfortable rapport. When Lily protests that she is not fidgeting, he teases her again, and she deflects by joking about his familiarity with better breasts than hers. His response—"True, but that's half your fault. You're the one who left us high and dry to play with flowers"—playfully chides her for abandoning the marketing world to pursue her floral dream. The exchange reveals both the warmth of their friendship and the fact that her career change has created some distance between them, a distance that the party momentarily closes.

Presence at the Baby Shower

Devin reappears later in the novel at the baby shower that Allysa throws for Lily, an event Lily has been dreading for weeks. Sitting on Allysa's couch surrounded by gifts, Lily notes that the girls from the floral shop came, along with a few friends from her old job, and that even Devin came. His attendance at this intimate gathering signals that he has remained a steady presence in her life despite the professional separation, and that the bonds formed at the marketing firm have endured. The baby shower itself is a moment of respite for Lily, who is pregnant and facing the escalating violence of her marriage to Ryle Kincaid. Devin's presence among the guests—alongside her mother, Jenny Bloom, and Ryle's mother, who flew in for the occasion—places him within the circle of people who care for her, even as the novel's darker currents run beneath the surface of this celebratory scene.

Friendship as a Counterpoint to Isolation

Devin's role in the novel is defined less by his own actions than by what his presence represents in Lily's life. He is a figure of lightness and continuity, a friend from a simpler time before her marriage to Ryle and the violence that came with it. His easy teasing and affectionate gestures—looping his arm through hers, joking about her departure from the marketing firm—stand in stark contrast to the escalating abuse she suffers at home. Where Ryle's touch becomes a source of pain, Devin's arm through hers is purely supportive. Where her marriage isolates her, Devin's attendance at the party and the baby shower keeps her connected to a wider social world. In a narrative dominated by the cycle of violence—the kitchen incident, the stairwell push, the assault after Ryle reads her journals—Devin offers a reminder of the ordinary friendships that persist alongside the trauma. His appearances are brief, but they anchor Lily in a community that exists beyond her marriage, a community that will matter as she ultimately finds the strength to leave.