“Elizabeth: "Maybe he'll surprise you."Meghann: "Birdie, they all surprise me. Last week, I hugged my date at the door and felt a bra strap.”

“Hey, Meg," she said without preamble. I need you to write a letter of recommendation for me. I'm applying for grad school."Meghann screamed into the phone. "Oh, my God! I'm so proud of you. I'm hanging up now; I have to draft a letter that makes my best friend sound like da Vinci in a bra and panties.”

“Stacey: "I'm surprised you haven't thrown me out."Comfort: "At your current weight, I'd need some sort of catapult.”

“It's not a date. I bought my own drink and I didn't shave my legs.”

“The heat made people crazy. They woke from their damp bedsheets and went in search of a glass of water, surprised to find that when their vision cleared, they were holding instead the gun they kept hidden in the bookcase.”

“I kept an image of you in my mind through all of it.”

“Vietnam...war...it did something to us. Or maybe not. Maybe the bad seeds were always in me, and war gave them a dark place in which to grow.”