She comes from the school of getting it out of your system, whereas he comes from the school of stewing over it.

That someone can want something out of another person who gives absolutely nothing in return astounds me.

We look at each other for a moment and for once I feel awkward. It's not that I'm not into humility; I've just never had to practise it.

We were playing Rock, Paper, Scissors," she told him once. "I was paper and she was rock so I lived and she died.

But you're almost eighteen. You're old enough. Everyone else is doing it. And next year someone is going to say to someone else 'but you're only sixteen, everyone else is doing it' Or one day someone will tell your daughter that she's only thirteen and everyone else is doing it. I don't want to do it because everyone else is doing it.

It's too late. Seventeen-year-olds don't need fathers. Oh god. I'm thirty-four years old and I need a father. I can't even begin to think what my daughter needs.

When I turn around, he cups my face in his hands and he kisses me so deeply that I don't know who is breathing for who, but his mouth and tongue taste like warm honey. I don't know how long it lasts, but when I let go of him, I miss it already.