“So what is your middle name?""O. That's my middle initial.""Hmmm. It's probably something hideous like Orville, that would be so funny...Oh...it's not really...Orville. Is it?"He nods."Nooooooo!"He nods again."I'm so sorry. I can't believe that. It's not hideous...but really? Why would your mama do that to you? I mean-" I give up because now he's wiping his eyes and it really is too funny.”

“You hurt,too?" When the female nodded, Marissa was stunned. Then a little relieved. "It wasn't all painful. I mean, what led up to it was ... is amazing. Butch makes me... he's just so... the way he touches me, I get... Oh, God, I can't believe I'm talking like this. And I can't explain what it's like with him."Beth chuckled. "That's all right. I know what you mean.""Really?""Oh, yeah." The queen's dark blue eyes glowed. "I know exactly what you mean.”

“I'm sorry," he says."What? Why?""You're fixing everything I set down." He nods at my hands, which are readjusting the elephant. "It wasn't polite of me to come in and start touching your things.""Oh, it's okay," I say quickly, letting go of the figurine. "You can touch anything of mine you want."He freezes. A funny look runs across his face before I realize what I've said. I didn't mean it like that.Not that that would be so bad.”

“He yawned again, this time very loudly, and lazily opened his eyes."I'm sorry I woke you up," she said quickly."Was I sleeping?"She nodded."So there really is a God," he muttered.”

“What are you really studying?"He leans back to look at her. "The statistical probability of love at first sight.""Very funny," she says. "What is it really?""I'm serious.""I don't believe you."He laughs, then lowers his mouth so that it's close to her ear. "People who meet in airports are seventy-two percent more likely too fall for each other than people who meet anywhere else.”

“Do you ever wonder what it's like to be so angry that you...And then something happens, and after that, everyone figures that's what you're like, and that's what you're always going to be, and so you just decide to be it? But the whole time you're thinking, Am I going to be like him? Or am I already like him? And then you get angrier, because maybe you are, and you want...He stopped. He wiped at his eyes. I'm not lying. My brother wiped at his eyes.”