“I’m doing boy detox. Like a diet, only for my emotional health.”

“It would be like a cleansing diet. The problem was, the only diet I'd ever been on backfired. Once I tried to go an entire month without chocolate. Not one bite. At the end of two weeks, I broke down and binged on more chocolate that I would have eaten in three months. I hoped my chocolate-free diet didn't foreshadow what would happen if I tried to avoid Patch.”

“My life sucks when I’m only half-aware of it. If I quit drinking and saw what it’s really like, I’d probably jump off a bridge.”

“And anyway, the first three letters in the word diet should tell you what I want it to do.”

“I’m really starting to like all this spy work,” Vee said. “When my normal life gets boring, all I have to do is sidle up next to you.”

“Mr. Green Sweater looks normal, but his wingman looks hard-core bad boy,” said Vee. "Emits a certain don’t-mess-with-me signal. Tell me he doesn’t look like Dracula’s spawn. Tell me I’m imagining things.”

“Quit calling me Grey. It makes me sound like I’m a boy. Like Dorian Gray.”“Dorian who?”I sighed. “Just think up something else. Plain old Nora works too, you know.”“Sure thing, Gumdrop.”I grimaced. “I take that back. Let’s stick with Grey.”