“But what slayed Robert was that for all these years, all his adult life, he'd never believed in relationships and commitment. They were highly overrated as far as he was concerned. Some people's entire lives revolved around love...finding it, keeping it. People had written poetry about it, had sacrificed for it, had even died for it. And he'd never been able to understand why. Why would anyone want to invest themselves in such a fickle emotion that sounded too good to be true because it was too good to be true. When the going got tough, even when someone claimed to love and be committed to the people in their lives, they really only honored that commitment when things were good.”

“Life is strange sometimes. It throws things at us that, at the moment the events are happening, we can’t possibly believe or understand they could be good in any way, we can’t believe it’s what’s supposed to happen to us. But sometimes really hard things that make us hurt, that make us struggle, that make us fight for what we want, are blessings in disguise. Sometimes we have to live through them in order to have a better appreciation of our lives and the good things that happen.”

“He didn’t get it—guys like that never flirted with men like him.In spite of the fact he was a cop, which he liked to hope had givenhim a little bit of visible macho cool after eight years on the job,his sister still said his looks and style were “nerd meets librarian,”which to him meant he was about as bland as they came. Notexactly a balm to his ego. The man sprawled out in the chair overhis right shoulder, however, didn’t have a bland bone in his comeon-baby-you-know-you-want-to-fuck-me body.”

“Because you see..." He cradled Alec's face between his hands. "I'm in love with you, Alec. The kind of love that not only makes my balls ache, but that makes my chest so tight sometimes I think I can't breathe. The kind that makes my skin tingle and my heart pound and my knees weak whenever I'm around you. I'm deeply ... powerfully ... unequivocally in love with you.”

“There you go! That's better! You look good smiling! You know, you really shouldn't be gloomy all the time. I've met a good amount of gloomy people and they were just that--gloomy. Mopin' around like the end of the world had happened. Thinkin' that if they crack a grin they'll be carried away by goblins and such...”

“I don’t know. I don’t know, Jess,” he said as a sob shuddered through him. “Because I am a damned fool. Fuck! Ihave everything I want right in front of me, I love you so damned much I can’t think straight, and then it’s like…I don’tknow, like I’m so afraid of losing you, that I keep pushing you away so maybe I’ll stop caring as much and then it won’t hurt as bad if I do lose you. It’s so fucking twisted even I don’t understand it.”

“Like one of those damned clapper lights. Love on. Love off.Robert musing about his parents love for him”