“Waitress!" Hedge called. "Six double espressos, and whatever these guys want. Put it on the girl's tab.”

“The waitress tapped her pen on the tab. "So do you guys know what you want?"And then he did it, just as he always had whenever he'd been asked that question―he looked straight at Keri with blatant hunger in his eyes and said, "Yes, ma'am, I do.”

“I ordered a cheeseburger and a beer from a waitress who looked as though she wanted to be in one of those want-to-get-away? commercials. She called me hon. I love when a waitress calls me hon.”

“Six pull-tabs lay in the ashtray like scales from a mermaid.”

“You can put a name on anything, call it whatever you want, doesn't make it real. Doesn't make it true.”

“What makes a girl a girl? What makes a guy a guy? Do you have to be what they want you to be? Or do you stop and listen to that voice inside you? I know who I am. I'm Petra West. And I'm a girl. You want me to sleep somewhere else, fine. Whatever. But I'm not going to pretend to be somebody I'm not. I've done enough of that.”