“Got what you needed?” he asked over his shoulder. Not quite, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

“Rome wasn’t built in a day, but that's because they never used Cosmic Ordering.”

“rome wasnt built in a day!”

“Do what the Buddhists do. Every day, have a little bird on your shoulder that asks, 'Is today the day? Am I read? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person i want to be?'" He turned his head to his shoulder as if the bird were there now. "Is today the day I die?" he said.”

“Night, Pidge,” he whispered, turning over.I fidgeted, not yet ready to sleep. “Trav?” I said, leaning up to rest my chin on his shoulder.“Yeah?”“I know I’m drunk, and we just got into a ginormous fight over this, but….”“I’m not having sex with you, so quit asking,” he said, his back still turned to me.“What? No!” I cried.Travis laughed and turned, looking at me with a soft expression. “What, Pigeon?”

“Bracelets with white symbols?” Michael made the question casual; in fact, he bent his head and concentrated on tuning his guitar, not that it needed it. Every note sounded perfect as it whispered out of the strings. “Do you remember?”“No.” She felt a pure burst of something that wasn’t quite panic, wasn’t quite excitement. “Does that mean they have Protection?”He hesitated for about a second, just long enough for her to know he was surprised. “You mean condoms?” he asked. “Doesn’t everybody?”