“Don’t tell me there are more things like that on the streets.” “Okay,” he said.”

“Mr. Green Sweater looks normal, but his wingman looks hard-core bad boy,” said Vee. "Emits a certain don’t-mess-with-me signal. Tell me he doesn’t look like Dracula’s spawn. Tell me I’m imagining things.”

“You look like hell,' he said to me in a low voice.'Gee, Dax, don’t coat it with honey. Tell me what you really think,' I said.”

“I’ll fix this, okay? I don’t want anyone thinking less of you because of me,” he said with a troubled expression.”

“He's also pretty good looking. Okay more than good looking. He's hot-like, the kind of hot that makes you stop walking in the street and get hit by traffic.”

“Okay,” he said. “I gotta go to sleep. It’s almost one.” 
“Okay,” I said.
 “Okay,” he said. 
I giggled and said, “Okay.” And then the line was quiet but not dead. I almost felt like he was there in my room with me, but in a way it was better, like I was not in my room and he was not in his, but instead we were together in some invisible and tenuous third space that could only be visited on the phone. “Okay,” he said after forever. “Maybe okay will be our always.”
 “Okay,” I said.
 It was Augustus who finally hung up.”