“‎"Repeat that?""It's National Talk Like a Pirate Day. Didn't you know?""Somehow I missed the memo.""You mean, 'Somehow I missed the memo, arrr!'""Precisely. Arr. So, Mrs. Jack... Er, is that still your name? Or, I tremble to ask, have you adopted a pirate identity?""Arr, matey, of course I have! It's..." She pulled an eggplant from the grocery bag. "Captain Eggplantier." She needed to stop speaking the first words that popped into her mind."Captain Eggplanteir." He sounded very doubtful. "That's right. A family name. It's Belgian.”

“How could you miss it? Just the sound of her voice makes my chest feel tight, my face gets hot and my mouth goes dry whenever she's near. It's getting so bad, all I have to do is see her and I'm already thinking, 'What does she want? What can I do for her?' She's got some power over me, there's no question, and what else could it be?~Razo”

“Though it's still not right. I have other best friends, and this is different. Besides, Mike is my absolute best friend.""Yeah, I was going to say..." Mike nodded..."That's right, honey. Felix, you're...something different.""Amen," Mike said."You're not like a good neighbor or a companion for Saturday shopping, and certainly not like my husband. But you are something more than what the word 'friend' can contain. Mike has my heart, completely, eternally, no second thoughts." She grabbed Mike's hand. "But you have my...say, my liver."Felix frowned, pondering that. "Livers are good. Positively essential, from what I remember of biology. And good eating, if the need arises. Very well. I will be your liver...”

“Have you had unprotected gay sex?"This time he got a snort and a laugh. "I ain‘t no butt pirate."Roan felt the urge to say, " Arr matey, prepare to be boarded," but somehow managed to repress it.”

“Well do I remember the first night we met, how you questioned my opinion that first impressions are perfect. You were right to do so, of course, but even then I suspected what I've come to believe most passionately these past weeks: from that first moment, I knew you were a dangerous woman, and I was in great peril of falling in love."She thought she should say something witty here. She said, "Really?”

“My friends call me by my name.""You don't have any friends.""I don't want you to be my friend, Selia, or my servant, not now. I thought you were both. You have let me know I was wrong. So are you to treat me so. You are wrong.”

“Its important to know stories. I felt the earth shift to make a place for you when you were born, and I came to tell you stories while you are young. And like me, you were born with a word on your tongue.”