“Should I have a doughnut or my disgusting cardboard?” asked Gwynn, as she drew up languidly before me at a study table in a bookstore on State Street, raising a puffed rice cake in the air. My eyes narrowed attentively at her face, but as I hesitated, she announced eagerly, “Disgusting cardboard it is!”

“I thought you loved your husband.” She blows air through her nose.The action reminds me of an agitated horse. Her eyes rove from my shoes and land in disgust on my face. “I love yours too.”

“I made lasagna for dinner," Tamsyn called out. "That work for you?"He continued to look at her, as if he'd drink her up with his eyes. "Anything is fine.""Maybe I shouldn't waste my lasagna on you, then." Tamsyn grabbed a container from the cooling unit. "How about some cardboard instead?"Brenna found herself amused in spite of the blood that continued to scent the air and the taut expectation that stretched between her and Judd. Lips twitching, she waited for his response."Cardboard has no nutritional value." Utterly toneless. "Lasagna would be a better choice.”

“When Livia turned, she had to tip her head back to see his face as she handed him his cardboard. He’s beautiful.”

“The clear light of the library was slanting in through the glass-paneled doorway to my right, falling on the table between my tutor and me and on dust motes hung in the air. The tiny flecks drew my eye, and I watched as they dipped and swirled in invisible currents."They are beautiful in the light, are they not?" my tutor asked. They were, catching the sun and shining like tiny stars themselves. "You know, there are just as many outside the sun's rays that are invisible," she said. Then, in the way of dreams, she lifted her hand into the air and moved a single dust mote into the light. "And you?" she asked. She lifted her hand again, just beyond the edge of the light, and I knew she held another mote and could move it as easily into the way of the sun, and I said, "No, thank you. I am content where I am.”

“She got a confused, disgusted look on her face, like she done salted her coffee instead a sugared it.”