Life after Joe Quotes

“There was life after Joe. There had to be, hadn't there? I just wished that instead of my constantly having to muster every scrap of my strength in order to feel normal, it would happen of its own accord. I didn't want happy. Normal would have done.”
― Harper Fox, Life after Joe

“An oil rigger? He would be. I found, to my surprise, I could still laugh. Somewhere a Village was missing one of its People.”
― Harper Fox, Life after Joe

“It's not the breaking up that kills you, it's the aftermath.”
― Harper Fox, Life after Joe

“I’m not sure what this is yet, but our first bust-up feels like a milestone,” and he’d given me one of his benediction kisses, the ones that bypassed all my erogenous zones and buried themselves in my heart.”
― Harper Fox, Life after Joe

“Are you all right?” he said. “You look like a ghost.” I felt like one, I wanted to tell him. My life had died, and since then I had haunted its old scenes and routines, bloodless and unreal.”
― Harper Fox, Life after Joe

“His hand was on my shoulder, then my chest. In any other circumstances, being gently forced down onto the bed by him would have overwhelmed me with desire. As it was, all I could feel was the shattering relief of being horizontal, of not having to fight anymore.”
― Harper Fox, Life after Joe

“My mind was backpedalling from its confession. A stupid mistake, a blip. A secret I’d thought to take to my grave. He’d think I was a nutcase at best. At worst, a hysterical drama queen he was about to escort back to the lift and press the Down button. “Matthew,” he repeated fervently, and put out a gentle hand to my face. He brushed his thumb across my lips. “Thank God it didn’t work. Thank God.”
― Harper Fox, Life after Joe

“Okay,” I said, the truth on my lips before I had time to censor or pull up. “I…think I tried to kill myself last night.” It sounded absurd. I couldn’t take it seriously. “It’s all right. Nobody noticed.”
― Harper Fox, Life after Joe

“I want to take you home, and I have to know yes means yes.”
― Harper Fox, Life after Joe

“Bricks and mortar. It shouldn’t have mattered, and yet, when she was gone, a kind of dull panic seized me. If Joe had been the heart of my life, this flat, these rooms, had been its bones, an enduring skeleton. Structure and shelter in the mess. Christ, it was like he’d died, and she’d come round and told me I couldn’t tend his grave.”
― Harper Fox, Life after Joe

“Not Joe’s problem if I had dedicated the last few months to preserving some kind of mausoleum of our life together. Grocery cupboards still full of his favourite soups, wardrobes with the clothes he had left behind neatly hung up and ready for use. His toothbrush still in its holder beside mine. That one was pathetic actually. Watching Marnie, who was very sympathetically watching me, I made a mental note to bin the brush.”
― Harper Fox, Life after Joe

“Maybe being thought worthy of respect even in such a condition was making me think twice about further self-harm.”
― Harper Fox, Life after Joe

“I had, over the last six months, continued to keep the place neat and pleasant. It was a kind of habit, I supposed. I’d never been domestic, but Joe liked things that way. I’d left a light on because Joe hated coming home to darkness.”
― Harper Fox, Life after Joe

“The track, obviously a record-length extended mix, thudded on. This close to the speakers, the bass was enough to staple-gun you to the wall. I let it—allowed a momentary fantasy that each beat was a nail, punching through flesh and bone.”
― Harper Fox, Life after Joe

“Forever, if only he’d seen it that way and not discreetly conducted a two-year affair of such perfect thoroughness that, when he finally broke it to me, his new life was a done deal. Fait accompli, inarguable. He loved me, always would. But he couldn’t live forever in the subculture. He wanted kids. He wanted someone to take home who wouldn’t make his mother cry and his dad’s face turn apoplectic purple. Basically, he wanted a girl, and over the past two years he had found, wooed and won one. Joe had walked out to get married.”
― Harper Fox, Life after Joe

“The wheat sheaf got displayed to best advantage if I gave it a casual push back with one hand.”
― Harper Fox, Life after Joe