“but i was young, and i got so cross. in the early days we made up easily. had fun making up, in fact. ”

“I don't remember why it all went so wrong. I mean, I do remember. I remember what i did. I just don't remember why anymore. This - you and me - this feels so right. It just seems stupid - so stupid - that we had it before, and we let it go. We wasted so much time. I'm sorry.' She was close to tears.'Hey. Don't. There's no point in that. It's the past, and that's where it belongs. This is us now. We're here.'But where's here? We're hiding out. We're playing house. This isn't real life.''It feels real to me.''But it isn't.”

“all this pain. all this crying. it wasn't that she hadn't expected it. she just underestimated it. it felt like a heavy, dark blanket that had been pulled across all of them. she hadn't know that it would make it difficult to breathe. she hadn't guess that it would seem so enveloping. and so total, and so permanent. ”

“i want to live. simple as that. we all do, don't we?”

“i just want my girls to have babies. that's all. so they know what i know. ”

“You care about me. We're in a room together, with a hundred other people, and you know ehre I am, who I'm talking to. We enjoy each other. We're a bit alike, but different enough. You see things in me that you don't see in your wife and you know, deep down, that if we had met in another time, when it wasn't impossible for anything to happen between us, that we could have had something. And you think it might have been spetacular. And you know you might be a different person if you were with me, and that scares the hell out of you. And when youve had a few drinks, you fancy the arse off me." (...)He gave her a little sideways smile. "Nearly right."She raised an eyebrow. God, this felt good. (...)"Just to be sure we're both clear on this, I'm about to kiss you, Lucy.”

“life's too short, after all, isn't it? not to do the things you want - the things that make you happy? hannah had been thinking that quite a lot t. oday”