Memories, even hard memories, grew soft like peaches as they grow older.

We're connected, as women. It's like a spiderweb. If one part of that web vibrates, if there's trouble, we all know it, but most of the time we're just too scared, or selfish, or insecure to help. But if we don't help each other, who will?

Like magic, she felt him getting nearer, felt it like a pull in the pit of her stomach. It felt like hunger but deeper, heavier. Like the best kind of expectation. Ice cream expectation. Chocolate expectation.

The next morning dawned bright and sweet, like ribbon candy.

Memories, even hard memories, grew soft like peaches as they grow older.

She'd always known he didn't love her. But it was easier to bear when he didn't know she loved him. That way they were even. Now he knew he had all the power.

It had always fascinated him that she'd consumed so many words, that her head was full of stories, told a thousand different ways.