“A waiter visited to find out if everything was okay. A preposterous question.”

“It hadn't taken very long to come clean, after so many years of so many lies. It was surprising how undifferent she felt, now that everything— nearly everything— was out in the open.”

“Now that it was finally here, she wasn’t surprised to find herself still reluctant to start it. Reluctant to end the part of her life when this conversation hadn’t happened yet. Reluctant to find out what her life would look like after it.”

“She knew what he was thinking: if she was asking questions like these, she was trying to understand. Trying to forgive him. He was right.”

“We all see ourselves as the center of everything.”

“This had been part of her training, part of her career, part of herself: whatever was going on, live like a normal person. Do normal things, see normal people. Don't give anyone a reason to question you, investigate you. Don't give them any meaningful answers to prying questions that might be asked after you've disappeared. Don't create any suspicion that you were not who you claimed to be.”

“And everyone's in the same situation, basically: we're all finding our separate ways, together.”