“If facial expressions had fur, then I’d snuggle your sneer. It’s so ugly it’s cute, like one of those little dogs, the kind Ryan Lilly has.”

“...Usually i’d sit back and just enjoy the view for what it was because it’s not often you come across something so ridiculously out of place, a girl like you, on the subway, it’s like spotting a unicorn at the zoo.I reasoned how to pull this off, to get you, to say hi, to ask your name, what your voice sounded like, if you had a cute smile because i like cute smiles. In ten minutes I had a thousand thoughts of you and you had no clue...”

“I think zombies are kind of cute.”“Seriously?”“I may be thinking about bunnies. Which one has the fluffy little tail, zombies or bunnies?”“Bunnies.”“Then it’s bunnies I’m thinking of.”

“Your moustache,” I continue. “It’s kind of like me wanting to be a writer. It’s part of me. I don’t know who I’d be if I didn’t want to be a writer.”

“I would have told you earlier, but as it was your birthday . . . What do you give the man who has everything? I thought I’d give you . . . me.”He puts the keychain down on the bedside table and snuggles in beside me, pulling me into his arms against his chest so that we’re spooning.“It’s perfect. Like you.”

“I found a Cairn Terrier online. It’s perfect.”“A what?”“Pidge is from Kansas. It’s the same kind of dog Dorothy had in the Wizard of Oz.”Shepley’s face was blank. “The Wizard of Oz.”“What? I liked the scarecrow when I was a little kid, shut the fuck up.”“It’s going to crap every where, Travis. It’ll bark and whine and … I don’t know.”“So does America … minus the crapping.”