Nora Goes Off Script

by Annabel Monaghan

At the corner of arrogance and cluelessness, you find the worst kind of person.

Characters like Fagin get to the core of what it means to be a human being—we are both light and dark.”

Newton must have been thinking of twentysomethings in long-term relationships with hard-to-secure wedding venues when he decided that objects in motion tend to stay in motion.

I think our whole marriage was about me trying to make him glad he picked me.

“Well, this is new,” I say. “It is,” he says and takes my sweaty hand. “I mean, it’s a nice change from my old loop.” “I mean, you’re the first person I’ve ever been in love with,” he says. Just like that. It’s a Wednesday, I think, but I’m not even sure. In a meadow dotted with trees, covered in sweat with birds chirping around us, Leo Vance is in love with me. In that second, my life is like the tea house—I can see all the way through to the other side where there’s an entirely different reality.

I don’t ever want to eat another chicken that wasn’t roasted by you.”