“She pulled a deck from a drawer and sat across from Tyler. "What would you like to play?" She looked at Tyler."Strip poker?"Carlie started to rise, her mouth drawn in annoyance, but Tyler stopped her. He was laughing. "Okay, okay. Bad jest. Sorry."She nodded grudgingly. "So. What should we play?"With a twinkle in his eyes, he asked innocently, "Old maid?"She threw the cards at him, then sat there glaring."Well, I suppose that decides it." He grinned wryly, a card sitting on top of his head, the rest scattered in his lap and on the floor. "Fifty-two pickup it is."-Carlie and Tyler”

“Tyler caught her wrist. "You can't walk home now. It's raining.""Believe me, it won't bother me a bit.""Now, Carlie, don't be obstinate.""Tyler, I'm dangerously close to laying you low." She had to get away from him. Now. "Violence? My, my, your cold is making you surly."She tugged, but he didn't release her. "Tyler, what did you intend to do today, before you came here and decided to harass me?""I was going to harass Brenda, but you'll do better.”

“Tyler rounded the hood and opened the door. 'What?' he asked when she grinned at him. 'You've got a slide-over-here-honey seat!' His eyes crinkled with laughter. 'Well, what are you doing all the way over there?”

“Tyler lies back and asks, "If Marilyn Monroe were alive right now, what would she be doing?"I say, goodnight.The headliner hangs down in shreds from the ceiling and Tyler says, "Clawing at the lid of her coffin.”

“tyler said she was good, but she was having sex with him, so his vote didn't count”

“I asked if Tyler was an artist. Tyler shrugged...What Tyler had created was the shadow of a giant hand. . . he said how at exactly four-thirty the hand was perfect. The giant shadow hand was perfect for one minute, and for one perfect minute Tyler sat in the palm of a perfection he'd created himself. One minute was enough, Tyler said, a person had to work hard for it, but a minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection.”