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1 " But that’s the thing about almost: you can be ninety-nine per cent there, you can be an inch away from doing it, but if you stop yourself from stepping over that line, nobody will ever know how close you were. "
― Beth O'Leary , The Road Trip
2 " Everyone’s got the potential to do the wrong thing – if we were measured that way, we’d all come up short. It’s about what you do. "
3 " Love as a bargain. Like, giving up your heart is scary, but doable if the other person does it at the exact same moment, like two soldiers lowering their weapons. "
4 " Settle what down? What is there that needs settling? I know who I am and what I want. I don’t need some guy to make me complete, or whatever it is they’re meant to do. "
5 " To be true to yourself, you have to have a sense of self to work with. "
6 " He's not looking at me like he's never seen me before. He's looking at me like he's never seen anyone else. "
7 " know how fiercely I’d protest that consent is an ongoing process. That no means no whatever you’ve said before it. But then the clarity’s gone again. There’s just horror and shame. "
8 " I keep pressing Esc but I’m still here "
9 " the hint of a wish of a chance "
10 " Darling, have you no shame? Cherry had said, What’s shame good for, except keeping people down? "
11 " Terry’s the “fun guy” of the boys you’d see at a pub quiz machine. The one who never gets laid but talks like he’s screwed every girl in the bar. That guy, but twenty years on. Still “fun,” still not getting any. "
12 " Twenty-five years,” Mum says, glancing over her shoulder with a smile. “And it’s all about compromise, I’d say.” “Like how you always let Dad watch the telly after dinner and you tidy up?” I say, raising my eyebrows. “Exactly. He cooks!” “But you do all the thinking about what to make,” I point out. “And the shop.” She frowns. “We each do our fair share.” There is no point talking to my mother about mental load. For her, Dad is the ultimate modern man because he irons his own shirts. "
13 " If I really thought I wasn’t good enough, I’d stop writing. Deep down, I love what I write and I think other people might too, one day. "
14 " Everyone’s got the potential to do the wrong thing. If we were measured that way, we’d all come up short. It’s about what you do. "
15 " Sometimes a poem arrives almost whole, as if someone’s dropped it at my feet like a dog playing fetch. "
16 " I think he’s going to say it, and once he has, that’s it, like he’s putting a time stamp on our lives. Creating a before and after. "
17 " I think of that poem, about how scary it is handing over your heart, like a soldier lowering his weapon. "
18 " Unchanged and changed/Eyes trained on mine/and I’m—I’m what? What am I? I’m a mess. "
19 " I try to sober up and listen to what she’s saying — something about the shutters — but my mind is busy stuttering over a new idea, something about quick little hands with bitten-down nails. "
20 " Nobody falls in love a hundred times,’ I say, before I can stop myself. ‘You couldn’t. It would kill you. "
