Atmosphere

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

‘You have to have something on the line, for it to be called character.’ ”

Bravery is being unafraid of something other people are afraid of. Courage is being afraid, but strong enough to do it anyway.”

I remember knowing exactly how stupid it was, what I was doing, and doing it anyway.”

Vanessa laughed, her head thrown back. And Joan wished she hadn’t seen her laugh like that with other people. So that she could take more pride in eliciting the response now.

She was no longer Joan, or no longer only Joan. She was also part of this larger body, this larger self. That could only exist when they were together.

In all of her time spent watching others, she hadn’t picked up on this part of falling in love, that someone could look at you as if you were the very center of everything. And even though you knew better, you’d allow yourself a moment to believe you were worthy of being revolved around, too.

Joan laughed, too, but these were the moments of legacy she found the most compelling: the chance to share something of the past with a person who could bring it further into the future. She knew most of the world was focused on bigger triumphs—scientific discoveries, great works of art—but a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a strawberry milkshake seemed to Joan, at that very moment, a grand thing to carry forward.

“If Sally so much as sneezes at the wrong time, everyone will blame it on the fact that she’s a woman. And then none of us will go up there for a very long time.”