Did you like it?" he said. "I could have given you...jewelry, but I wanted it to be something that was wholly yours. That no one else would hear or own. And I am not good with words, so I wrote how I felt about you in music." He paused. "Did you like it?

She shook her head. She was so pale under the diffuse lamp-light that she looked almost transparent, as if Simon could have looked right through her. The way, he supposed, he always had.

That was the justice of Heaven. I trust that you are not dismayed.

Is this some manly bonding thing I can't be a part of? Are you getting matching haircuts?

He was wearing a look that she found odd and compelling - that amusement that didn’t seem to pass beyond the surface of his features, as he found everything in the world both infinitely funny and infinitely tragic all at the same time.

Love makes liars of us all.

It was stupid to hope, she knew. But sometimes hope was all you had.