“If he only knew how often she and Eileen had discussed the benefits of Netflix on dateless weekend nights.”

“And since she drove to work every morning, I could only use the car on weekends. Well, weekends and the middle of the goddamned night.”

“He thought how much he liked her and had in common with her, and how much she'd like and have in common with him if she only knew him.”

“She found the evenings long and empty, and the nights worse. She dreaded the weekends.”

“When she got to Eileen Reilly, Eileen turned red and said, "I would rather not say." This astounded me, for her father was a handsome, charming salesman at Home Savings Shoes on Main Street - Stan the Shoe Man, my mother affectionately called him. But his daughter had absorbed some disappointment - his, or her mother's - and did not want to speak of how he earned his living. Perhaps that was the moment I learned this as a source of personal shame, or observed the possibility of it.”

“Cassandra's grandmother smiled then, only it wasn't a happy smile. Cassandra thought she knew how it felt to smile like that. She often did so herself when her mother promised her something she really wanted but knew might not happen.”