“This is like dating. This is...weird.”

“Why do you think they don’t like me? They hired me for God’s sake. It’s not like there was any mystery about my history.”“I heard you used iambic pentameter once when you should have used a catalexis.”“Huh?”“Believe me, whatever the reason is, it will make as much sense.”Swift thought this over. Max was probably right, but it was still a weird, unhappy feeling. His mouth curved. “Do you really know what catalexis is?”“Not a clue. I heard you mention it once. It stuck in my memory because it sounds like a cross between a Cadillac and a Lexus.”

“Rachel delivered it like an official pronouncement. Like she was one of the fairies gifting Sleeping Beauty's christening: Beauty. Intelligence. Heterosexual.”

“I hadn't liked him at first. He did sort of grow on you after a while. Like the cosmopolitans. Or maybe because of the cosmopolitans.”

“She didn‟t look like the athletic type to me.” “Maybe Nemov carried her. He looked like he could.” “He looked like he could carry his SUV. I don‟t know why he didn‟t.”

“I liked you the first time I saw you. You were sitting on the floor surrounded by books, and you looked up when I opened the door and smiled right at me. It felt like you had been waiting for me, like you were welcoming me home.”

“So you're like a ... an amateur sleuth?""God no. I'm more like the hapless guys in those film-noir flicks we used to watch. I keep getting tangled up in bizarro events.""Oh yes?” His eyes lit with enthusiasm. I was speaking his language now. “Guy Pearce in L.A. Confidential or William Hurt in Body Heat?""I was thinking more like Woody Allen in Play It Again, Sam.”