“It was all the things you could never understand and could never possess that made you ache.”

“You could try and understand people, you could read books and understand words and concepts and ideas, but you could never understand enough or have enough knowledge to keep away the surprises that both fate and human beings had in store.”

“Being needed was a handy trick. It could fill you up so full you never even noticed all the places that were empty.”

“Things that came apart could be put together again, but never exactly the same.”

“You … You had always made the future feel safe. As long as you were in it too, beside me, I could be okay.”

“We had lain together, skin on skin, been as close as two people could, and he was a stranger. He was that someone who you are afraid of as a child, stranger. They never told you that stranger might be someone you knew.”

“A person could leave you so quickly. So much history and time and memories, but they snuck away from you, and other things took their place. How could you hold on? Wait. A bigger question. The biggest. How could you hold on andlet go?”