Then he asks if he can kiss me. It is a question I don’t usually like. Just do it, I always think.

But one thing I have to say about Darcy and dating is this: she never blew us off for a guy. She always put her friends first- which is an amazing thing for a high school girl to do.

But I have learned that you make your own happiness, that part of going for what you want means losing something else. And when the stakes are high, the losses can be that much greater.

I think that we have to consciously be aware that every moment we're in, every different stage in our lives, we can control.

I nod, thinking of how difficult marriage can be, how much effort is required to sustain a feeling between two people - a feeling that you can't imagine will ever fade in the beginning when everything comes so easily. I think of how each person in a marriage owes it to the other to find individual happiness, even in a shared life. That is the only real way to grow together, instead of apart.

Nothing is ever perfect. It is what you make of it.

I really try to focus on my books and readers.