I don't think he likes girls", I said. "Or boys. Look at the horror on his face. He doesn't look like a people person.

Who ever he is, I agree with your mother," said Dad as he entered the kitchen. "Stay away from him. Stay away from them all until you're of marrying age. Once you reach a nice, mature fifty-four, gentlemen callers will be welcomed here.

The drab brown front of the house made it look as if it had been built from rusty spare parts. Someone always put lace curtains in the windows of dreary houses, and Nick was unsurprised to see the curtains making their attempts in every window of this place. There was a china garden gnome on the doorstep, wearing a desperate, crazy smile. "It's not so bad," Alan said. "You never take me nice places anymore, baby." said Nick, and was mildly gratified by Alan's ring of laughter, like a living bell that had been caught by surprise when it was struck.

You're dying every minute, but you won't die yet.

And they all lived happily ever after (barring death, divorce, arrest for tax fraud, that incident with the pool boy...)

Better overcautious than missing a jugular vein, as the saying goes." That was a very morbid saying. Maybe only vampire said it.

I don't have deal breakers," Alan said. "I look on tempests, and am never shaken.