Sally Thorne Quotes

• “Books were, and always would be, something a little magic and something to respect.”

  Sally Thorne

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• “The trick is to find that one person who can give it back as good as they can take it.”

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• “Watching you pretend to hate the nickname is the best part of my day.”

  Sally Thorne

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• “I want to know what’s going on in your brain. I want to juice your head like a lemon.”

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• “What are you imagining? Your expression is filthy.”
  
  “Strangling you. Bare hands.” I can barely get the words out. I’m huskier than a phone-sex operator after a double shift.
  
  “So that’s your kink.” His eyes are going dark.
  
  “Only where you’re concerned.”
  
  Both his eyebrows ratchet up, and he opens his mouth as his eyes go completely black, but he does not seem to be able to say a word.
  
  It is wonderful.”

  Sally Thorne

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• “How You Doing, Little Lucy?” His bright tone and mild expression indicates we’re playing a game we almost never play. It’s a game called How You Doing? and it basically starts off like we don’t hate each other. We act like normal colleagues who don’t want to swirl their hands in each other’s blood. It’s disturbing.
  
  “Great, thanks, Big Josh. How You Doing?”
  
  “Super. Gonna go get coffee. Can I get you some tea?” He has his heavy black mug in his hand. I hate his mug.
  
  I look down; my hand is already holding my red polka-dot mug. He’d spit in anything he made me. Does he think I’m crazy? “I think I’ll join you.”
  
  We march purposefully toward the kitchen with identical footfalls, left, right, left, right, like prosecutors walking toward the camera in the opening credits of Law & Order. It requires me to almost double my stride. Colleagues break off conversations and look at us with speculative expressions. Joshua and I look at each other and bare our teeth. Time to act civil. Like executives.
  
  “Ah-ha-ha,” we say to each other genially at some pretend joke. “Ah-ha-ha.”
  
  We sweep around a corner. Annabelle turns from the photocopier and almost drops her papers. “What’s happening?”
  
  Joshua and I nod at her and continue striding, unified in our endless game of one-upmanship. My short striped dress flaps from the g-force.
  
  “Mommy and Daddy love you very much, kids,” Joshua says quietly so only I can hear him. To the casual onlooker he is politely chatting. A few meerkat heads have popped up over cubicle walls. It seems we’re the stuff of legend. “Sometimes we get excited and argue. But don’t be scared. Even when we’re arguing, it’s not your fault.”
  
  “It’s just grown-up stuff,” I softly explain to the apprehensive faces we pass. “Sometimes Daddy sleeps on the couch, but it’s okay. We still love you.”

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• “I always thought you’d live underground somewhere, near the earth’s core,”

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• “Shyness takes so many different forms. Some people are shy and soft. Some, shy and hard. Or in Josh’s case, shy, and wrapped in military-grade armor. “Josh,”

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• “Truth or Dare,” he says. He always knows the exact right thing to say.
  
  “Dare.”
  
  “Coward. Okay, I dare you to eat the entire jar of hot mustard I have in my fridge.”
  
  “I was hoping for a sexy dare.”
  
  “I’ll get you a spoon.”
  
  “Truth.”

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• “So, how was work? You clearly missed me.”
  
  I put my hands on my face in embarrassment and he just laughs a bit to himself.
  
  “It was boring.” It’s the truth.
  
  “No one to antagonize, huh?”
  
  “I tried abusing some of the gentle folk in payroll but they got all teary.”
  
  “The trick is to find that one person who can give it back as good as they can take it.” He takes out a pan and begins to fry the vegetables in a single, stingy drop of oil.
  
  “Sonja Rutherford, probably. That scary lady in the mailroom that looks like an albino Morticia Addams.”
  
  “Don’t line my replacement up too quick. You’ll hurt my feelings.”

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• “When you get so little of someone, you take what you can get.”

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• “How somebody can’t recognize their own eyes, I’ll never know.”

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• “I tug him down to lie on me properly. “I’m pretty heavy. I’ll flatten you.” “I’ve had a good life.”

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• “I’m probably not good at a lot of things, but I will try to be”

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• “How long have you done it?”
  
  “Since the second day of B and G. The first day was a bit of a blur. I’ve always meant to compile some stats. Sorry. Saying it aloud sounds insane.”
  
  “I wish I’d thought of doing it, if it makes you feel better. I’m equally insane.”
  
  “You cracked the shirt code pretty quick.”
  
  “Why do you even wear them in sequence?”
  
  “I wanted to see if you noticed. And once you did notice, it pissed you off.”
  
  “I’ve always noticed.”
  
  “Yeah, I know.” He smiles, and I smile too. ”

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• “He glances over his shoulder, no doubt hearing my insanely loud shoes stop in their tracks. Then he looks again. It’s a double take for the record books.
  
  “I’m out stalking,” I call. It doesn’t come out the way I’d intended. It’s not lighthearted or funny. It comes out like a warning. I’m one scary bitch right now. I hold my hands up to show I’m not armed. My heart is racing.
  
  “Me too,” he replies. Another cab cruises past like a shark.
  
  “Where are you actually going?” My voice rings down the empty street.
  
  “I just told you. I’m going out stalking.”
  
  “What, on foot?” I come closer by another six paces. “You were going to walk?”
  
  “I was going to run down the middle of the street like the Terminator.”
  
  The laugh blasts out of me like bah.I’m breaking one of my rules by grinning at him, but I can’t seem to stop.
  
  “You’re on foot, after all. Stilts.” He gestures at my sky-high shoes.
  
  “It gives me a few extra inches of height to look through your garbage.”
  
  “Find anything of interest?” He strolls closer and stops until we have maybe ten paces between us. I can almost pick up the scent of his skin.
  
  “Pretty much what I was expecting. Vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, adult diapers.”

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• “The Kissing Game goes like this, Shortcake. Press, retreat, tilt, breathe, repeat. Use your hands to angle just right. Loosen up until it’s a slow, wet slide. Hear the drum of blood in your own ears? Survive on tiny puffs of air. Do not stop. Don’t even think about it. Shudder a sigh, pull back, let your opponent catch you with lips or teeth and ease you back into something even deeper. Wetter. Feel your nerve endings crackle to life with each touch of tongue. Feel a new heaviness between your legs. The aim of the game is to do this for the rest of your life. Screw human civilization and all it entails. This elevator is home now. This is what we do now. Do not fucking stop. He”

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• “He taught me things in the space of two minutes that the span of my lifetime did not.”

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• “He sits on the edge of the couch, his hair damp and ruffled in every direction. I turn the page and unfortunately a lurid diagram of an erect penis glares up at me. “I am trying to be a bit more normal.” He looks at the page. “How’s it working out so far?” “I’m glad this isn’t a pop-up book.”

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• “Josh thought you were lying about your date because he can't imagine you with anyone but himself.”

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• “It’s going to happen, Josh. We just need to get it out of our systems. I think that’s what it’s all been building toward.”
  
  “You sound a little resigned.”
  
  “I can only apologize in advance for the things I’ll do to you.”

  Sally Thorne

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• “I’ve got so much inside me I have no idea about. I’m like the mayor of a city I’ve never seen.”
  
  He smiles at my phrasing. “If you knew the kind of little miracles happening every moment you breathe in, you wouldn’t be able to handle it. A valve could close and not open; an artery could split, you could die. At any moment. It’s nothing but miracles inside your tiny city.” He presses a kiss to my temple.
  
  “Holy shit.” I clutch at him.
  
  “You wouldn’t believe the stats on people who go to bed one night and never wake up. Normal, healthy people who aren’t even old.”
  
  “Why would you tell me this? Is this what you think about?”
  
  There’s the longest pause. “I used to. Not so much anymore.”
  
  “I think I preferred it when I thought I was full of white bones and red goo. Why am I now thinking about dying tonight?”
  
  “Now you see why I can’t do small talk. ”

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• “He advances like a floating Dracula. The menace is ruined by the sporting-goods-store bag loudly crinkling against his leg. A shoebox is in it, judging from the shape.
  
  Imagine the wretched sales assistant who had to help Joshua choose shoes.I require shoes to ensure I can effectively run down the targets I am paid to assassinate in my spare time. I require the best value for my money. I am size eleven”

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• “Dad calls you other names starting with J, but never your real name.”
  
  “What?” He looks alarmed. “You’ve told your dad about me?”
  
  “He’s mad at you for being so mean. Julian and Jasper and John. One time, he called you Jebediah and I nearly peed myself. You’d have to grovel to my dad, that’s for sure.”
  
  Josh looks so disturbed I decide to cut him a break and change the subject.”

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• “Joshua is glaring at me with angry eyebrows. I use my brainwaves to transmit an insult to him, which he receives and pulls himself up straight.”

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