Home > Work > Proposal (The Mediator, #6.5)
1 " I was too emotional to say anything. I was experiencing many “feels” as the kids on Tumblr—my computer-savvy friend CeeCee has told me about it—often say. "
― Meg Cabot , Proposal (The Mediator, #6.5)
2 " I’m Suze Simon,” I said. “And you thought being dead was bad? Buddy, your eternal nightmare’s only just begun. "
3 " Cementerio El Encinal meant Cemetery of Many Oaks (I'm taking Spanish so that when Jesse and I have kids, I'll understand what he's saying when he yells at them in his mother tongue). "
4 " Jesse, you're not going to lose me. I had the situation totally under control." Sort of. "But I have to say that after so many years of you keeping your feelings for me hidden out of propriety, it's really nice to hear you say all those things. Plus, it's emotionally healthy that you're letting them out this way. Keep unburdening yourself." I wrapped my arms around his neck. "What is it exactly, that you find so irresistible about me? Is it my magnetic personality? Or my emerald green eyes? Or maybe it's just my hot bod?" I felt something against my torso. "Oh, I'm getting the impression that it's my hot bod. "
5 " After more than one hundred and fifty years of living alone in the darkness, I met you, Susannah, and through you, I met Father Dominic. Everything my mother said in her letter came true. It wasn’t the same church, and it wasn’t the same priest. But the letter and the ring were there, all because of you. And now I want to give that ring to you. "
6 " He was even more overprotective than my stepfather. But in a boyfriend, that kind of thing is actually attractive. "
7 " I stared at the screen, aware that my heart rate had sped up. Sped up? I was so angry I wanted to ram my fist into the monitor, as if by doing so I could somehow ram it into Paul Slater’s rock hard abs. -Suze Simon "
8 " Yeah. He gets me. Well, except for the part where I’m totally fine with premarital sex and am also convinced that God, if he or she exists, is, too. “Well, "
9 " As hard as it is to date someone with nineteenth-century manners-seriously, it's getting to a point where I spend so much time swimming laps in the campus pool to work off my sexual frustration, my highlights are becoming brassy-I still feel a thrill every time Jesse calls me Susannah. He thinks the name everyone else calls me-Suze-is too short and ugly for someone of my strength and beauty. "
10 " The thing about secrets, though, is that they get out. And trust me, if you’ve got a secret, eventually, it’s going to get out. "
11 " If you have the right shoes, you can do anything. "
12 " Bursting into parties to which I wasn't invited - but acting as if I had every right in the world to be there - is another one of my many gifts. It's basically all about confidence - and having the right shoes, of course. If you have the right shoes, you can do anything. "
13 " So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when I was applying for campus housing and overheard Andy telling my mother that the only way I was going to be safe from all the sexual assaults he'd heard about on National Public Radio was if I lived in an all-girl dorm.Never mind that I have been kicking the butts of the undead since I was in elementary school, and that almost the entire time I resided under Andy's roof, I had a hot undead guy living in my bedroom. These are two of those secrets I was telling you about. Andy doesn't know about them, and neither does my mother. They think Jesse is what Father Dominic told them he is: a "young Jesuit student who transferred to the Carmel Mission from Mexico, then lost his yearning to go into the priesthood" after meeting me.That one slays me every time. "
14 " Only a couple of people have figured out what a weirdo super freak I am on the inside. And those people all have a reason to keep my secret, because...well, I've helped them resolve their own secrets.One person especially. Miraculously, he fell in love with me.Don't ask me why. I think I'm fabulous, but I'm not entirely sure what he sees in me (except the fact that I've saved his life a few times. But he's returned the favor). "
15 " But there's only one other person besides me in the Monterey Bay area who could pick up on spectral sound waves-especially now that Jesse is going to school so far away-and that person happened to be away at a seminarian retreat in New Mexico. I knew because Father Dominic likes to keep his present (and former) students up to date on his daily activities on Facebook.The day my old high school principal started his own Facebook account was the day I swore off social media forever. So far this has worked out fine since I prefer face-to-face interactions. It's easier to tell when people are lying. "
16 " Instead the only place I got into was the local community college, where I live in a suite in what's not-so-jokingly referred to as the Virgin Vault, with a practicing witch, a klepto, and a girl whose family's religion doesn't allow her to speak to men outside of their faith.I keep assuring Mom it's cool. Another one of our suite mates came out last semester as a lesbian (to the surprise of none of us but herself), and a fifth is sleeping with a guy who's in an actual motorcycle gang."See, Mom?" I'd told her. "Way better than Harvard. There's so much more diversity!"Like so much of my jokes, she didn't find that one funny. "
17 " We can go in like we were invited. Too bad we didn't bring that bottle of sparkling wine. It would have been a nice hostess gift, to throw them off."Jesse pulled into a space as close as he could get to the house, though we were still going to be soaked as we made our way in."That's one of the many things I love about you, Susannah," he said. "You're always so polite to the parents of the kids you've unintentionally set up to be murdered.""It's just the way I was raised. "
18 " I know your first impulse is going to be to send the bracelet back, but why? That undead cholo boyfriend of yours can’t afford to get you anything nice for Valentine’s Day, so just pretend it’s from him. It can be our little secret, like the other little secrets we have from him ;-)Love always,Paul "
19 " Never mind that I have been kicking the butts of the undead since I was in elementary school, and that almost the entire time I resided under Andy's roof, I had a hot undead guy living in my bedroom. These are two of those secrets I was telling you about. Andy doesn't know about them, and neither does my mother. They think Jesse is what Father Dominic told them he is: a "young Jesuit student who tranferred to the Carmel Mission from Mexico, then lost his yearning to go into the priesthood" after meeting me.That one slays me every time. "
20 " It was Valentine's Day, and where was I?Freezing my butt off in a cemetery, that's where. Romantic, right? "