She had, in short, done everything right and she had built a good life, the kind of life she wanted, the kind of life everyone wanted. Now here was this Mia, a completely different kind of woman leading a completely different life, who seemed to make her own rules with no apologies. Like the photograph of the spider-dancer, Mrs. Richardson found th

This is this money and here is how we’re spending it and if you want to be able to make those kinds of decisions, you should make this kind of money. It was never said. It was just beyond what was said, and he knew (and she had to know) that he wouldn’t be able to bear to hear it actually voiced, and so he tiptoed to the edge but never plunged into

And the flavor of Pippa’s kiss—bittersweet and strange—stayed with me all the way back uptown, swaying and sleepy as I sailed home on the bus, melting with sorrow and loveliness, a starry ache that lifted me up above the windswept city like a kite: my head in the rainclouds, my heart in the sky.