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Kindle Notes & Highlights
I had a tumor in my BRAIN and was still the wittiest and coolest and sexiest [and humblest] person any of you knew).
Side note—do you both have PhDs now? That’s absurd. The things I’ve seen … they’ll give those to anybody, I guess.
Note: change title, too long and it sounds too much like the lyrics of “Cotton Eye Joe”
Southern Jewish History Road Trip Note: Nia’s titles are BORING
my aveulo says kahal kadosh beth elohim is the oldest synagogue in the South lmao Oooooh the girlies are fighting
THIS IS GONNA BE SO COOL!!!!! ONCE WE HAVE A BETTER NAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jade saw the fingers that once memorized every inch of her body (and, concurrently, Cheyenne’s, as she later discovered)
At least with her hand couched in the fur of Luna’s stomach, she can pass it off as an actual activity. She’s petting her dog, see? Could someone existing outside their body move their hand? No. It doesn’t matter if hours pass by like minutes.
The dog is some sort of mutt, her short fur the color of a Hershey’s bar except for a lily-white belly. Her eyes are wide and bright, her mouth even wider, and her floppy ears are far too large for her head. It almost looks like she’s smiling. She is truly and thoroughly adorable.
Jonah dresses like a guy who was in a frat at Columbia (which he was), and Jade has this sort of stylish-but-lazy tattooed Brooklyn lesbian thing going (which she is).
They tilt their heads to the left, squint, and nod back almost perfectly in sync, obliging when Nia beckons them over.
“Calling the Research Triangle ‘country’ is like calling Westchester ‘the city,’”
“You’re my third-favorite Pardo, how could I not?” He furrows his brow for a moment, then gives her an unimpressed look. “I’m below the fucking dog?”
“I swear you have ‘give me weed’ tattooed on your forehead.”
“That’s because you look like you smoke out of a gravity bong. Jade gives off more of a ‘my blunts have lavender in them, too’ vibe.”
“See, Jonah, she gets it,” Jade says. “Andy is an ally. He supports girl blunts only.”
“Dogs are supposed to grow out of carsickness when they get to about a year old.” “Are you suggesting we stand on the side of the road for the next six months?”
She just sighs, finds the contact that says Do Not Call If Drunk (a helpful hint from Jonah two years ago), and hits dial.
It’s woven into a tapestry of Consulting Bro and General Tool, but Gentleman is also a fundamental thread of his personality—one she often forgets.
None, unless you count the excited licking that narrowly misses Nia’s open, laughing mouth.
“Really? I, for one, was certain I’d be a potter when I started my neurobiology doctorate.”
Sometimes, they whispered swear words—“motherfucker” was Michal’s favorite, while Jade liked “ass” for its simplicity—
Michal. Not Michelle. It’s Brooklyn, for God’s sake, he’s never met a fucking Jew before?”
“Hey, I already get oat milk! If it were iced, I’d be a walking bisexual stereotype.”
JADE CALLED KAHAL Kadosh Beth Elohim two weeks ago to inquire about the possibility of bringing a well-behaved (she hoped) young dog for the museum and cemetery tours,
Nia brushes her fingers along Jade’s elbow, and Jade feels hairs stand on end in their wake. It’s this weird reaction she’s always had to her. Like, no matter how much her mind knows it’s just Nia, her body screams, BEAUTIFUL GIRL! BEAUTIFUL GIRL IS TOUCHING YOU!
The oldest American synagogue in continuous use was built by enslaved Africans.
They were Jews who did Passover Seders every year, while enslaving people.”
She doesn’t bother with the top three, either, revealing the olive branches below her clavicles and the חי pendant that lies flat against the thorax of the butterfly inked on her sternum. God, sometimes …
“It’s almost definitely the brother this time. There’re never twins unless one is evil.” She nods her head toward where Jonah is passed out and (presumably) snoring on the other side of a couple of doors.
But she’s spent the last three years, and maybe a long time before that, deeply afraid of breaking her. Even after it felt like Jade had broken her, Nia treaded carefully.
Trails of water snaked from her clavicles and disappeared into her cleavage. It was a beat too long before Jade looked away (it’s just Nia was an unfortunately common mantra of hers).
“I’m sorry,” Benji says. They look at him for a moment. Jade tilts her head. “For … slavery?”
Maybe going to the beach with your best friend after waking up in intimate contact with said best friend’s tits is not the best idea in the world.
It’s one of the fundamental laws of the universe that people look sexy when they emerge from water, flipping their hair out of their eyes and smoothing it back with their hands: the perfume ad effect. Particularly people who look like Nia.
Luna perks up, trying to lick Jade’s face (unsuccessfully, otherwise Jade herself would probably be heaving),
“I DON’T KNOW THESE WOMEN.” “I SHARED A WOMB WITH HIM,” Jade says. “I’VE NEVER SEEN THEM BEFORE IN MY LIFE,” Jonah insists,
“DON’T LISTEN TO HER. SHE IS AS DELUDED AS SHE IS SMALL.” “THEN I AM ONLY AS DELUDED AS THE AVERAGE AMERICAN WOMAN!”
“Okay, fine,” she said. “I will work on a new bit. Or at least adapting the bit in a different way, so as not to lose the interest of my most valued audience members.”
But you gotta hurry because if the line gets too much longer, you’re gonna get shivved by a Disney adult.”

