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Kindle Notes & Highlights
“Are you here to tell me about your Lord and savior Jesus Christ?” “I’m Jewish.”
“Your soulmate gives you the greatest possible sense of belonging,” he says with genuine conviction. “They heal your existential wound. It’s the basis of modern love.”
“You’re so afraid of rejection, you have to latch on to some cultural studies bullshit to support your behavior.”
And in this city, offering storage space is the ultimate expression of love.
“No one should marry the person who makes them happy,” Josh continues. “Marry the person you want by your side at your absolute lowest point.”
He would completely move on with his life, the way people do when they’re in relationships—when friends become people you squeeze into your schedule because your world revolves around your significant other. The idea of it makes her heart constrict—thinking of Josh as another person who’ll inevitably leave her behind.
“Rats are the real New Yorkers,”
“I tried to be what she w-wanted because it felt so good when she was happy with me. All that bullshit about anarchy and demolishing hierarchy had nothing to do with it. She just didn’t want me anymore.”
“You’re the only person I’m nice to. If you weren’t around, I’d have no redeeming qualities.”
He isn’t sure if Abby says it or his champagne-soaked subconscious imagines her saying it.
“I’m one hundred percent sure that I’ll never give another person this…power ever again. I just want someone who makes me feel good for an hour and who won’t trick me into thinking it’s anything more than that.”
Right now, “just friends” is a comfortable certainty. A gravity blanket. A subtle vanilla-scented candle.
“Josh!” She turns to the side and takes tiny, shuffling steps, feeling ridiculous. “I can’t get up the hill.” “I guess you’ll just have to live there,”
“I’m happy to go on resenting you. It motivates me.”
If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward.
Rad notices the little things other people miss. It compels Ari to work extra hard at expressing nothing but bland okay-ness.
She’s managed to trigger a specific kind of loneliness that only happens when you alienate everyone who knows you—really knows you.
“No one should marry the person who makes them happy. Marry the person you want by your side at your lowest p-point. Marry the person you…you never get sick of. Who you always want more from. Who makes you proud to be theirs.”
“If you do happen to find your person, it’s an act of courage to tell them that. To say, ‘please love me back.’ To let someone else hold your heart in their hands, knowing it could—actually, it probably will—end badly. Knowing that they’re going to fuck up. Knowing you’ll both hurt each other. But if that’s your person, it’s worth the risk. Because your person will see the best version of you. They’ll have a whole list of reasons why they think you’re irreplaceable. And they’ll tell you.”
Maybe being in love is knowing that you’d live it all over again—every part, suffering included—to get right back to the place where you’re standing.
Maybe there’s no such thing as soulmates. Maybe there are only people who trust each other enough to begin something without being assured of the end.
