“She found the evenings long and empty, and the nights worse. She dreaded the weekends.”

“…it's so dreadful to have nothing to love — life is so empty — and there's nothing worse than emptiness…”

“And since she drove to work every morning, I could only use the car on weekends. Well, weekends and the middle of the goddamned night.”

“Her future, she thought, was likely to be worse than her past, for after her years of contented renunciation, she had slipped back into desire and longing; she found joyless days of distasteful occupation harder and harder; she found the image of the intense and varied life she yearned for, and despaired of, becoming more and more importunate.”

“Lena always described how she dreaded and mourned things before they even happened. Carmen was beginning to suspect that she was permitting herself to mourn this long separation only now that it was over.”

“If he only knew how often she and Eileen had discussed the benefits of Netflix on dateless weekend nights.”