“She loved attention. It was like a glass of the best champagne—bubbly and intoxicating—and as with champagne, she always wanted more of it. Still, she didn’t want to seem like an easy mark. “If you must know, I’ve come to join a convent,” Evie said, testing him.”

“You’ll have champagne. All girls like champagne.” All girls didn’t like champagne. I preferred root beer. Willie preferred anything that smelled like gasoline and burned her throat. She could hold her liquor better than any man, and I wished she was there to help me navigate John Lockwell.”

“Fun, like champagne bubbles, can't completely fill you up.”

“Because of you. I fell in love with you, Alexis Brown, and Idon’t want to lose you over a glass of champagne.”

“If she were to die, it would be out here. Not that she wanted to die. She really didn’t. She just felt suddenly like she needed, wanted more. There had to be more to life besides the constant training, orders, the rules, having every move you ever made watched and recorded. There had to be more. More what she didn’t know, but she wanted it.”

“... she had always found risk headier than the finest champagne.”