“Taking a breath, I stepped into the line to find him standing right where I’d left him, smiling with his hand extended. (Rachel and Al)”

“Your carriage awaits, my lady.” I walked up to him and slipped my hand in his extended arm. “Ever the gentleman,” I teased. “Whatever it takes to make the lady smile.”

“Where did he go!” he bellowed, gloved hands clenching. “I had him in a snare that would take Alexander the Great a lifetime to untwist, and he did it in a week!” Al took a step, pinwheeling as his booted heel found an ice cube.”

“She looked at him and smiled. She placed her hand upon his shoulder.He took her right hand in his left and placed his other at her waist, looking at her as if she were an unexploded bomb.They began to dance.”

“Now, Bill, sit where you are," said the beggar. "If I can't see, I can hear a finger stirring. Business is business. Hold out your right hand. Boy, take his right hand by the wrist and bring it near my right."We both obeyed him to the letter, and I saw him pass something from the hollow of the hand that held his stick into the palm of the captain's, which closed upon it instantly.”

“You take the breath right out of meYou left a hole where my heart should be”