“Whenever you're around her she's calm. She's more aware. It's like you carry a frequency she can tune into.”

“It's the secret smile you get from knowing that, somewhere, there is someone who is yours. Not in the sense that you own her or control her. She is yours because you can say anything to her, whenever you need to. And she can do the same, whenever she needs to.”

“She’s aware of the changes, the ringing round her eyes, fur around her mouth. […] Dressed out like an animal, she thistles and fickles. She fawns in a murmur of milk. Grows feral.”

“But i do love her more. She's amazing. Innocent, yes, but so damn passionate. It's like we're one person and we instinctively know what the other needs. The love she has for me seeps right into my skin whenever she touches me, Aaron. It's that intense. Being with her was like nothing i've ever experienced in my life.”

“It's the way you look whenever she mentions her fiance. My cat looks like that before he hacks up a hairball.”

“I'm not myself," she offered, guiltily. She softened around Tik Tok, and when she did she was, for those rare moments, girlish.He smiled. "You can never say that. You're just a piece of yourself right now that you don't like.”