The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine QUOTES

1 " She held a violin delicately tucked in between her soft neck and athletic shoulder, and she was dressed in a white goddess-like gown that pooled on the floor. Wide gold cuffs covered her wrists, dangly earrings hung from her ears and an ornate headband haloed her sharply bobbed black wig. Her eyes were outlined in a smoldering, liquid black, and her lips were the color of blood.
She was dressed as Cleopatra.
Is there a moment in every relationship when it becomes life-threateningly dangerous? When you realize that your heart is so comfortably resting in someone else's hands that should they decide to drop it you would never fully recover? In the case of my relationship with Matilda Duplaine it was at this very moment. "

― Alex Brunkhorst , The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

2 " She wore a summer dress and it smelled of Hawaii- of the ocean, sun, teriburgers and plumeria. I squeezed her dress in my hand, wanting to be back there. "

― Alex Brunkhorst , The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

3 " Assumptions are the mother of all fuck-ups. "

― Alex Brunkhorst , The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

4 " You taste salty-" Matilda licked her lips "-like pretzels."
It was an intimate gesture. I brushed her lips with mine, and it brought me back to that magical night at the estate bowling alley when I treaded carefully with my lips.
"You taste sweet," I said. "Like sugar."
"Like guava." Matilda grinned playfully.
"I missed you." It came out before I could think about it.
"I missed you squared, times seven, plus four," Matilda replied.
It reminded me of something Matilda would have said at the estate- childish in a way. She was a completely different woman than the girl I had met on the tennis court, yet in some ways still the same. I needed to love the woman she was becoming, not just the girl she had been. "

― Alex Brunkhorst , The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

5 " I learned quickly that once Los Angeles decides to sprinkle you with its stardust, it shakes so generously you glitter. "

― Alex Brunkhorst , The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

6 " When's your birthday?" I asked.
"The twentieth of April."
"A Taurus."
"A what?" she asked.
"Astrology. Do you follow it?"
"Not only do I not follow it, I've never even heard of it."
I paused, wondering if the girl was kidding, but I didn't detect a note of sarcasm in her voice.
"I'm from Milwaukee- we don't believe things like that there, either. It's all hocus-pocus if you ask me."
"Milwaukee's in Wisconsin. Wisconsin's capital is Madison. Its state bird is the robin and it's known as the Dairy State because it produces more cheese and milk than any other state," she said, as if reading from a teleprompter. "This thing called astrology- what is it exactly?"
"That's a good question," I said. "It has something to do with the stars. I've never really understood it, either."
"You mean astronomy, then?"
"No, they're two different things- astrology and astronomy."
"So what are you in astrology terms?"
"A Scorpio."
"A scorpion. In other words, you're an eight-legged, venomous creature to be wary of?"
Her tone was deadpan.
"No poison here, just a nice guy from Milwaukee."
She let out a jovial laugh.
She was a curious creature, and I was intrigued. Her manner of speech was officious and old-fashioned. She was interested and reserved, insecure and confident, coy and bold. She was unlike anyone I had ever met. "

― Alex Brunkhorst , The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

7 " She was wearing a long white Juliet-style nightgown. I was not exactly a ladies' man, but I had been with enough women to know that these weren't garments women wore to bed anymore. "

― Alex Brunkhorst , The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

8 " This isn't one of your movies, Father, this is real life. There are not a bevy of directors, writers, actors, designers and editors to set this film. It is yours alone. "

― Alex Brunkhorst , The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

9 " Strategically placed spotlights illuminated the garden, and when she moved in front of one I could see the outline of her body through her filmy nightgown. She was curvy and woman-like, but her aura exuded innocence.
In the past twenty-two days I had convinced myself that I was wrong, that it was curiosity or my quest for a story that fanned those sparks that had been dead in me for so long. But now, here, I knew it was a primal attraction I hadn't felt since Willa- the sleepless nights with her, the sleepless nights without her. "

― Alex Brunkhorst , The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

10 " Let me know if you want more flowers, because Daddy says they don't have flowers in Manhattan. Why would you want to live in a place with no flowers? "

― Alex Brunkhorst , The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

11 " There was something about those birds in the glass aviary that was foreboding and sad. They could fly, but they had no sky. The one who had escaped- the homing pigeon- was mourned, but shouldn't he have been celebrated? He had freedom; he had escaped his predictable route between Malibu and Bel-Air and was now flying in bigger and brighter skies, with a flight plan that was spontaneous and new.
And then there was the girl: I had forced myself to forget her but was only successful for an hour or two, and then she would creep back in, the way a spider returns to a musty corner of a room to spin her web. "

― Alex Brunkhorst , The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

12 " Just then, the reel snapped off the projector and the screen went black. We stood under the chandelier for one last moment. It cast stars on the floor below us, and we were surrounded by so much velvet I felt like a diamond nestled in a jewel box. But the stars weren't real, and I wasn't a gem. In fact, it was only then that I realized that pretty much everything about the gilded life of Matilda Duplaine was make-believe. "

― Alex Brunkhorst , The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

13 " It was then that I noticed the hibiscus tree. Its magenta flowers were in bloom, brilliant and full with fertile golden centers. The tree was incongruous with its surroundings- the dirt, the man weathered from the sun and life. "

― Alex Brunkhorst , The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

14 " Sometimes what isn't there is more important than what is. "

― Alex Brunkhorst , The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

15 " I put my hand over Matilda's, caressing the little blue veins that swam just below the skin and squeezing the chunky black pearl-and-diamond ring that adorned her middle finger. Happiness washed over me. We were in a magical place between warm sky and cool grass, between a soft cashmere blanket and a glittering sky. There were so many stars they seemed to rain like confetti at a celebration, and I felt as if Matilda and I were its guests of honor. "

― Alex Brunkhorst , The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

16 " She was the one to kiss me, nervously, because it was something she had never done before- with me or with anyone else. At first she just brushed her lips on mine, and she was on the precipice of doing something more, but she didn't quite know what to do. I took over then, leaning into her and kissing her. She tasted of tears and toothpaste, salt and sweet. "

― Alex Brunkhorst , The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

17 " It was that pause at the end of the evening when you savor every morsel of time, every crumb of it. I didn't want to leave, so I made a bold move. I leaned closer to Matilda, touching my lips gently in that place where her face met her ear. Her shoulder blades tightened together, and the wisps of blond hair on her arms stood straight up. It wasn't necessarily a kiss, but I would remember it as our first. "

― Alex Brunkhorst , The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

18 " You should have told me earlier. It was an expensive lesson,” I said. “It drained my emotional bank account. "

― Alex Brunkhorst , The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

19 " It’s hard for me to say now if I would have called her classically beautiful, but she was that star in the sky that you can’t take your eyes off, even if it’s surrounded by brighter ones. "

― Alex Brunkhorst , The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

20 " Supposed to’ is a terrible phrase because it’s always followed by something nice that didn’t happen, "

― Alex Brunkhorst , The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine