Mia and I had been together for more than two years, and yes, it was a high school romance, but it was still the kind of romance where I thought we were trying to find a way to make it forever, the kind that, had we met five years later and had she not been some cello prodigy and had I not been in a band on the rise - or had our lives not been ripped apart by all this -I was pretty sure it would've been.

Love is not something you protect. It’s something you risk.

Her hands were freezing, just like they always were, so I warmed them, just like I always did.

She said if she couldn't play, she had nothing left. What about me?

If I stay. If I live. It's up to me.

Willem, I suspect deep down you know exactly why you're here, exactly what you want, but you're unwilling to the wanting, let alone the having. Because both of those propositions are terrifying.

It feels like the city is telling secrets down here, privy only to those who think to listen.