More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“Scott. It’s like you said. Love always wins.”
Well, wow . . . You are a phenomenal person, Harriet Hatley. xx
She could only hope he’d write a better part.
Cal looked at her with what looked like acute fondness.
“We’re going to stay in touch, right?” Cal said,
“This isn’t goodbye-...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
It was a bittersweet achievement to be the prescient one for a change.
Instead of looking back on a brief, strange, but golden time and rejoicing, they’d both get a squirmy sense of what happened there?
“You’re not seeing anyone?” Cal said. “Hah. Nope.”
“If those questions about me were security checks on whether it’s unethical for anything to happen between us, it’s not.”
“Say it,” Cal said. “Whatever it is.”
Maybe he had the gift of making everyone feel this way, but she’d never been kissed like this before: with exactly the right degree of pressure and intent.
“I’ve wanted to be here so long. With you.”
“Harriet, you are too much”—if they were about to do
She knew what Kit meant about her being wrong for him, and she was sure Cal did too. That didn’t mean she wanted to face the hard limits here, by confirming it in so many words.
Harriet couldn’t stop thinking about him. Actually, thinking about herself too.
she’d let him think that, for fear of looking too keen and foolish. She’d thought she was being so self-aware and self-protective,
What mattered was that she had the bravery—now, in a truly post-Scott world,
she understood the value of saying what she meant.
I’d started to think that life was mostly to be endured. I’d lost hope that I could ever sincerely feel certain ~feelings~ again.
When I think back to the voyage of self-discovery that was living with you, it’s the laughing I’m going to remember the most.
That’s how you’ve made me feel. Thank you for being the off-brand cola to my coin.
You demonstrated that life can be good, Calvin Pants. Better than I ever thought it could be, in fact. For that I will be so eternally grateful. I want every wonderful thing for you, and you’ll forever have a place in my heart. Love always, Harriet x
You don’t have a place in my heart. You have it. Cal xxx
“Apologies, I meant to reply: ‘Good to hear,’” Harriet said, doing a thumbs-up. Cal laughed and they exchanged a look of purest mutual adoration.
“I wondered if we might be in one of those situations where I’m madly in love with you and you’re at least slightly in love with me, and neither of us are saying so, in case the other isn’t.
Harriet, I’m in love with you.”
“OK then, I admit it. I’m in love with you, Cal.”
“There, was that so difficult? What was so hard about tapping that into WhatsApp, and going on with your day?” Cal said.
“And what was ‘I don’t want to stay in touch’ about?”
“That messed with my head and knocked my confidence, right when I was working u...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
She kissed him like she owned him, and the moment, and had no fear. She kissed him like they were the only people there.
“Was I imagining that you always ruled me out as a prospect, somehow?”
“Even after our night together, it was like . . . thank y...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
we’re so different . . .” “I should hope so. Why would I want to date myself? The thing is, we’re not. I’ve never felt so understood by someone.”
eloquently made his point that they were perfectly right for each other.
You’re only a little girl right now, but I already know you have the spirit to lead a happy and full life, without us.
when I look at you, above all, I feel hope.
Whatever you’re doing now, whatever you go on to do—I want you to know this, Harriet. I am very, very proud of you indeed. All my love, Mum x
In truth, writing is quite a messy, unfocused process—I grab inspiration from all kinds of things, and, eventually, the shape of a story emerges from the mist.
wanted to write about coercive control, and, secondly, that I wanted to explore the bad choices we can make AFTER the first bad choice.
the importance of social media. The way it can be raised as a weapon with such ease, and how people enthusiastically join mobs on the shakiest of information.
Harriet saying he wasn’t the love of her life, he was an abuser, and to confuse the two “seemed impossible.”
how being an intelligent and caring person is no protection: in fact, your good qualities can be used against you.
We all know the dopamine-flooded early rush of new love is when we’re at our most susceptible and most unwilling to see problems in the person we’re head-over-heels for.
Never realizing that it’s what we do, not who we say we are, that counts.
Harriet and Cal find a person who’s good for them, rather than trying to manipulate them.
learns of the letter from Harriet’s mum and encourages Harriet to read it when she feels ready, and doesn’t ask her to disclose the contents when she has.
Cal, Harriet learns what support with no strings attached...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
