“I weave the papers through the branches, in a long loop. Up and down, my knees bending. My arms above my head, like the girls I saw once in a painting in a cave. There is a rhythm to this, a keeping of time. I wonder if I'm dancing.”

“I wanted his hands at my back and his lips speaking poems on mine and our journey to each other to be completed, the miles between us consumed and all distance closed.”

“I've burned words and buried them, I thought, but I haven't tried the water yet.”

“When we fall in love the first time, we don't know anything. We risk a lot less than we do if we choose to love again. There is something extraordinary about the first time falling.”

“These branches will be my bones, I thought, and the paper will be my heart and skin, the places that feel everything.”

“Cassia Reyes, the Society is pleased to present you with your Match.”

“It is strange how we hold onto the pieces of the past while we wait for our futures.”