“I'm used to desperate, buddy. Desperate's my factory default. But thanks anyway.”

“Sometimes you have to be a bad person to save yourself, and it takes a little chunk out of your soul, but you do it anyway.”

“You're right. I'm not the kind of woman to do something foolish out of defiance. I am, however, the kind of woman who would do something just to prove that you can't tell me what kind of woman I am.”

“Fashion magazine disease articles. My personal Kryptonite.”

“I'm thinking about that afternoon you came to the empty restaurant, that day after the Alchemist. You were so alone." He pauses. I was. I'd never felt so alone. "Nobody saw it, but I did. I always see you. And you came in that door and came up to me and everything was new.”

“Then I level my smile at Simon, and this smile is one I do feel, and it’s definitely an activity, too — the activity of fist suppression.”

“Without warning, Packard reaches out--I think he's going to touch my cheek, but he slides his hand around the nape of my neck and pulls me to him, kissing me warm and strong, lips soft, breath like coffee. The kiss takes me by surprise. My whole body wants to follow deeper into him, but he pulls away, and we're looking into each other's eyes, and the moment stops. And everything seems to fall out beneath me."Good luck," he whispers."Packard--"He opens the door. "It's okay."I stare at the open door. It feels like a closed door. And I leave.”