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Such a small thing, a nice hairdo, but it was nice to know she could still appreciate small joys.
“A huge part of getting attention is signaling you’re up for attention,”
“It’s a bit . . . I’m no good for you, baby. I’m married to the sea,”
she liked the more lighthearted, larky side of her nature he seemed to unlock.
This hurt, more than she bet it was meant to. Following Dan’s departure, Laurie was sensitive to accusations of being vanilla.
The sort of sharpness that works in courtrooms but not in a marriage.
Kerry could find anyone’s weak spot; it was her superpower.
“Like the NYPD, I protect and serve.”
“Let her say what she wants. It’s more fuel thrown on to the fire, which we have set.”
Laurie didn’t know why she dared with Jamie, she just knew she did.
You do make me laugh—slash—say the strangest things.”
They beamed at each other, a moment of unadulterated mutual appreciation,
I’m over thirty, I’m not so arrogant or as optimistic as to think I’m ever going to meet the person I could have that with.”
the One Who Comes into Your Life Unexpectedly and Changes Everything.
I don’t want to be changed. I like myself as I am.”
“I told her . . .” Jamie paused. “I said I don’t want to share you. That’s what I said.”
“You’d be so good at it though. You’re photogenic and witty.”
“Imagine if we’d known this would be adulthood.”
She had not started her law degree, and yet with her innate fiery sense of right and wrong and moral duty, she suspected she might be a good fit for it.
everything she didn’t know she wanted until that moment. They couldn’t stop smiling at each other because it was so right, and they both knew it.
It was all good things turning up at once, and Laurie felt her life had finally taken off.
a lovestruck Dan was discussing infidelity. They both recoiled from the idea that they would ever break the sacred covenant between them. It was unthinkable.
“Let’s promise each other, here and now,” Dan said, putting out his hand for Laurie to shake. “Let’s pledge that if either of us even thinks about being unfaithful, we tell the other one before it can start. That way neither of us ever has to worry. Complete and total honesty.”
She felt like laughing, remembering that now. The way life was so simple to kids in love.
Find the right person, promise not to cheat on them. It’s not difficult!
What would success look and feel like to you?
“I did try to warn you. You’re the wrong fit for this, because you’re overburdened with conscience,”
“Would you?” Emily said. “I don’t know.” “The point when it’s a definite no, that’s when you’re cured.”
“Be honest with me. Was this all written when I didn’t chuck him over the one-night stand? Is this my payback for being a walkover?”
“He said it was a horrible mistake and asked for forgiveness and you trusted him. That was a big thing to do. You have to have trust in a relationship, or what’s the point?”
“I’m never going to trust on that scale again. O...
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“I love your clarity!” Laurie said. “Would he have forgiven you the same?” Nadia said. “No. He said he wouldn’t have.” “There’s your answer, then. Why should you have done?”
Dan got his way, pretty much all the time. He didn’t give to Laurie what Laurie gave to him.
In this moment, she made herself a promise: in the very unlikely event she found herself in love with anyone again, she’d assert herself. She’d say what she wanted, not endlessly accommodate his needs. If
There were no rewards to being a walkover.
I’m more setting out the problem. To a smart and sensitive person, who might know what to say to them.”
she had learned not to take acceptance for granted,
She liked being this unflappable Laurie again. Go-with-the-flow-and-handle-it Laurie. Not the stifling presence, who made life feel like a tunnel.
Why had he been so worried about asking her?
What if they couldn’t stand her and she let Jamie down, and he wished he’d never asked her?
You’ve told lies. The law of unintended consequences.
As with her mother and her father’s behavior, some things you were never past, the way others expected or wanted you to be. Instead, you lived with it.
you don’t show off. You are all substance, not image.”
She’s a hippie free-spirit type. Free love, no rules .
these were things that had happened to her, not things she’d chosen to do.
“You’re a survivor,” Jamie said. “Of some difficult things. What needs explaining or apologizing for about that?”
survivor. She turned the word over in her mind: she liked how it sounded, applied to her. It wasn’t victimhood and it wasn’t self-aggrandizing, it was about coping.
“Nothing wrong with starting with the man in the mirror, as Michael Jackson said,” Jamie said. “I think at some point you’re supposed to stop looking in the mirror,”
It was so easy, this platonic romance.
“It’ll be OK. You’ll be OK.”
