The Seven Year Slip

“I loved how a book, a story, a set of words in a sentence organized in the exact right order, made you miss places you’ve never visited, and people you’ve never met.”

“Nothing lasts forever. Not the good things, not the bad. So just find what makes you happy, and do it for as long as you can.”

“Sometimes the people you loved left you halfway through a story. Sometimes they left you without a goodbye. And, sometimes, they stayed around in little ways. In the memory of a musical. In the smell of their perfume. In the sound of the rain, and the itch for adventure, and the yearning for that liminal space between one airport terminal and the next. I hated her for leaving, and I loved her for staying as long as she could. And I would never wish this pain on anyone.”

“Isn't it strange how the world works sometimes? It's never a matter of time, but a matter of timing.”

“That was love, wasn't it? It wasn't just a quick drop -- it was falling, over and over again, for your person. It was falling as they became new people. It was learning how to exist with every new breath. It was uncertain and it was undeniably hard, and it wasn't something you could plan for.”

“You only live once. And if you do it right, once is all you need.”

“Because the things that mattered most never really left. The love stays. The love always stays, and so do we.”

“Sometimes the people you love don’t leave you with goodbyes—they just leave.”

“There was something just so reassuring about books. They had beginnings and middles and ends, and if you didn't like a part, you could skip to the next chapter. If someone died, you could stop on the last page before, and they'd live on forever. Happy endings were definite, evils defeated, and the good lasted forever.”

“I didn't need to be fixed. I just needed...to be reminded that I was human.”

“You never commit a mundane moment to memory, thinking it'll be the last time you'll hear their voice, or see their smile, or smell their perfume. Your head never remembers the things your heart wants to in hindsight.”

“You are who you are, and you like what you like. You are you, and that's a lovely person to be.”

“My aunt used to say, if you don't fit in, fool everyone until you do.She also said to keep your passport renewed, to pair red wines with meat and whites with everything else, to find work that is fulfilling to your heart as well as your head, to never forget to fall in love whenever you can find it because love is nothing if not a matter of timing, and to chase the moon. Always, always chase the moon.”

“You kiss like you dance." "Terribly?""Like someone waiting to be asked. You can just dance, Lemon. You can take the lead.”

“Love was an invitation into the wild unknown, one step at a time together.”

“The sadness will last forever. It wasn’t a lie. There was sadness, and there was despair, and there was pain—but there was also laughter, and joy, and relief. There was never grief without love or love without grief, and I chose to think that my aunt lived because of them.”

“New things are scary.” “They don’t have to be.” “How are they not?” “Because some of my favorite things I haven’t even done yet.”

“Universal truths in butter. Secrets folded into the dough. Poetry in the spices. Romance in a chocolate. Love in a lemon pie.”

“He was an adventure. One I suddenly knew I wanted to take.”

“Your life changed because of some French fries?""The things you least expect usually do.”

“If you don't fit in, fool everyone until you do.”

“There was a gap between early twenties and late twenties that only people existing in bodies in their late twenties understood. You could still fight god, but you'd have to ice your knees afterward.”

“Romance wasn't in chocolate, it was in the gasp of breath as we came up for air. It was in the way he cradled my face, the way I traced my finger over the crescent-shaped birthmark on his collarbone. It was n the way he uttered how beautiful I was, the way it made my heart soar. It was in the way I wanted to know everything about him -- his favorite songs, finally guess his favorite color.”

“Everything would run its course - come into my life and then leave again, because nothing stayed. Nothing ever stayed.But things could return.”

“I didn't find out who I wanted to be until I was almost 40. You have to try on a lot of shoes until you find some you like walking in. Never apologize for that.”

“And I knew I was falling. The kind of falling that would hurt when I hit the ground. The kind of falling that would shatter me into pieces.”

“I used to have lovely dinners with a man named Iwan, who told me that you could find romance in a piece of chocolate and love in a lemon pie.”

“He clicked this tongue to the roof of this mouth, studying me for a moment, his eyes a shade darker than they had been before. "I think your favorite color is yellow," he guessed, and watched as the surprise trickled across my face. "But not a bright yellow - more of a golden yellow. The color of sunflowers. That might be your favorite flower.”

“For all the food lovers out there who burn popcorn in the microwave: we’d be too strong if we could cook, too”

“That was love, wasn't it? It wasn't a quick drop - it was falling, over and over again for your person. It was falling as they became new people. It was learning how to exist with every new breath. It was uncertain and it was undeniably hard, and it wasn't something you could plan for. Love was an invitation into the wild unknown, one step at a time together.”