I could tell Hugo was convinced that he would get to walk back up these stairs: after all, he was a civilized person. These were all civilized people. Hugo really couldn't imagine that anything irreparable could happen to him, because he was a middle-class white American with a college education, as were all the people on the stairs with us. I had no such conviction. I was not a wholly civilized person.

all my bounce has gone flat, like soda with the top left off.

You might have been paid back enough to suit you" I said, "but I don't know if you've been paid back enough to suit me.

Softie was not a word you could use in the same sentence as Eric.

The sweetest part of being a couple is sharing your life with someone else. But my life, evidently, had not been good enough to share.

Well in two months, it'd be sunbathing time. That made me smile. I enjoyed lying in the sun in a little bikini, timing myself carefully so I didn't burn. I loved the smell of coconut oil. And I don't want to hear any lectures about how bad tanning is for you. That's my vice. Everybody gets one.

I am a woman, hear me roar," I said. Gosh, what prompted that?" Amelia asked, and I jumped