“Estene aleera hesaad de viren aneda." And now, you are forever mine.”

“How was I supposed to know that you let two little bears hurt you, Goldilocks?""Ah, yes, that mouth. I missed it. All mine now.”

“In death, they all looked the same. This morning they spoke, they breathed, they kissed their loved ones good-bye. And now they lay dead. Gone forever.”

“My ego doesn't need soothing. I don't want him soothing anything of mine, including you.”

“Well, check this out. Mine is bigger.”

“I think of you a lot. Do you think of me, Andrea? Don’t lie to me.”“Yes!” I snarled, my face burning. “Yes, I do! All the time. I can’t get you out of myhead. I wish I could!”He hugged me so hard, my bones nearly crunched. “You’ve made yourself into anew person and so have I. We deserve a fucking chance. I want you and you wantme. Why aren’t we together? I’ll deal with your hang-ups if you’ll deal with mine, butif you’re still too scared to even try, then you’re not worth waiting for. I have somegoddamn pride left and I won’t wait forever.”

“What did you write on here? ‘Don’t die’?”“No, I wrote, ‘Don’t be an asshole!’”I headed for the house.“On yours or mine?”“On yours.”“Well, in that case, your magic isn’t working. I’m still an asshole.”