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“Thank you,” Jamie said, brightening. “How do you do that?” “What?” “Say the right thing.”
Laurie felt looked after. She was being better looked after by a pretend boyfriend than she had been by her real one.
this was what had slipped away in the last few years with Dan—his seeing her. She became scenery, a prop.
Her soul ached somewhat. You could miss so much and not notice or mind, until the “here’s what you could’ve won” comparison was right in front of you.
This felt . . . good. Surprisingly good. Laurie hadn’t realized how much she missed being held close like this.
You don’t know what it means to me, especially tonight. You get to an age in life where what really matters becomes obvious. And it’s family and friends.
Look after each other, be kind to each other.
“Money didn’t matter. Promotions didn’t matter.
I tell you what I know for sure. You all matter, very much. Time with the ones you love. That’s all that matters.”
Laurie didn’t know what this meant, or why she suddenly wanted to do it, she only knew she wanted to kiss him badly.
She didn’t expect lust to make a surprise reappearance in her life, so soon.
“Haha! I’m not a trophy, agreed.” Laurie grinned. “No, you are. But one with real value.
“He’s always had this other, much better side to him. More serious, more reserved. Almost fiercely moral, actually. You fit with that.”
“He’s madly in love with you. I can see it in the way he looks at you, the way he’s so affectionate with you. I’ve never seen him like this before. He’s transformed.”
I was in love, and he let me down gently.
That is the side of himself he keeps under wraps. When you’re his friend, he will go to the ends of the earth for you, and he won’t tolerate anyone being damaging toward you. Whatsoever.”
Sooner or later, one or the other of you is going to wonder if you mean it.
“It’s OK to be sad,” Laurie said hotly, stroking his hair, his head resting against her chest. “You’re allowed to be really sad, and not apologize for it.”
“Do you want to tell me? I won’t judge you,”
they want your dad’s remaining time to be about love and happiness, and not anger or recriminations.”
“You have survivor’s guilt. I think you push yourself super hard to try to be both sons, to make them doubly proud.”
“But they’re already proud of you,” she added. “You’re enough as you are.”
“I try not to think about it for the most part. That’s what living life is, isn’t it? Coping,”
If she could be helpful to Jamie in a time of need, it was therapeutic for her.
The world had dealt him an almost intolerable blow at a very early age and this constant forward motion, and refusing to care too deeply about anyone, it was his coping strategy.
“I want to hold on to you.”
Oh, so that was it. Making it clear he regretted their intimacy.
“Sorry. That was morning me and you didn’t deserve that.”
“The truth is, I’m terrified of the First One After Dan and it comes out as pushy bravado.”
She’d seen Jamie naked, figuratively speaking, and she felt more able to expose herself.
“How do you know, when you’ve fallen for someone in a long-term, could marry, settle-down-forever sort of way?
This was a role reversal, Laurie feeling like the knowledgeable one.
It feels like a conversation that you never want to end, I suppose. A renewable energy source.
Falling in love is the extreme opposite. Endless fascination. It’s effortless. A spark turns int...
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“Why are you wondering what love is like? Do you want to know what love is, like Foreigner?”
“I might have . . . met someone,”
“After everything you said!” “Yeah.” Jamie looked sheepish. “No one’s more surprised than me.”
Oh, to be loved like that again.
He’s not who I’d have predicted putting a smile back on your face in a million years, but I’m glad he has.”
“You do what you did to me, I start seeing someone else, and you think you have the right to sabotage the relationship?
It’s lying, and lying goes wrong. Lying is just bad karma.
“Any man fancying someone as beautiful as you is natural. It’s not about you, it’s about who he is.”
didn’t get any rights when you left me for another woman, who you’d spent months having an emotional affair with behind my back, making stupid running playlists together.”
This whole ‘splitting up’ that you chose, means neither of us have any powers to tell each other what to do, or with whom we do it with. We’re totally independent actors.
You’re not a liar, which is why you shouldn’t get involved with a big bout of lying.
think of the two of them as her beloved family.
It put you on show. It was purest Emily.
there’s not a day that goes by I don’t think it might topple over.”
“That’s why you work so hard. That’s why you’re so good. You don’t take anything for granted.”
“You’re very real, Emily. You’re dynamic and clever as hell and you never complain.
