“I think I must be smiling at him because he's smiling at me, but he's smiling like he might be petrified; he's breathing like he's forgotten he's supposed to, looking at me like he's not sure how to do this, hesitating like he's unsure how to let me see him like this. Like he has no idea how to be so vulnerable.But here he is.And here I am.”

“He had a new girl, and I told him she looked like Marilyn Monroe. He smiled because he thought I meant she was beautiful, and I smiled because I meant she looked like a corpse.”

“...I have never seen him smile like that—it’s intoxicating, especially because I never thought he would smile like that at me.”

“His eyes opened and he smiled at me like he understood everything, like I was everything.”

“I needed to see you." He repeats himself.I smile. I like that word, need. It's not want. He had no choice because it was a need to see me. I like that.”

“Ben kissed me like he could kiss me forever, like he had to kiss me forever and he wanted to, he wanted me, and when he felt my surprise at that, I could feel again how beautiful I was to him, how I was beautiful beyond words.”