In the dim light of the computer screen he seemed otherworldly; Julia thought him beautiful, though she knew it was the beauty of damage.

What is more basic than the need to be known? It is the entirety of intimacy, the elixir of love, this knowing.

It comes out so quietly that I have to ask her to repeat it: “It’s just that I thought maybe you were married to me.

Why is love intensified by absence?

I never understood why Clark Kent was so hell bent on keeping Lois Lane in the dark.

I place my hands over her ears and tip her head back, and kiss her, and try to put my heart into hers, for safekeeping, in case I lose it again.

Each spine was an encapsulated memory, each book represented hours, days of pleasure, of immersion into words.