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Quote by Tracey Garvis Graves

“One of the best things about reconnecting with Annika is how natural it feels to be with her. Standing on the sidewalk, I wonder if she remembers how it felt to be in love with me. I haven't forgotten how it felt to be in love with her. As soon as we're settled in the back of the cab, she snuggles up next to me. Her body relaxes until I can feel her melting into me. She goes limp and falls asleep with her head on my chest. I don't mind at all, and I hold her until we get home. With my arms around her, she feels like mine again. It's only when we're inside her department that I realize the evening- and the performance required of her to endure it- has taken everything she had and there's simply nothing left. She's done. She walks into the bedroom, and I follow. She pulls a T-shirt out of a dresser drawer and turns her back to me, not because she's upset that I followed, but so that I can unzip her dress. I oblige, and as soon as I've lowered it, the dress hits the floor. Her bra and underwear follow, which tells me that modesty is still a completely foreign concept to her. I'm not going to ogle her like the horny college student I once was, but I appreciate the view of her naked backside just the same. She turns around and when I see the front view, maybe I ogle just a little. I mean, I'm human.”

Quote by Tracey Garvis Graves

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The Girl He Used to Know

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Tracey Garvis Graves

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“With the amount of time I spent volunteering in the clinic, one might think I aspired to a career in veterinary medicine. Animals were one of the few things that brought me extreme happiness, especially those in need of my attention. The other volunteers might have assumed the animals provided a respite from the loneliness and isolation that surrounded me during my college years, but few would understand that I simply preferred the company of animals over most humans. The soulful look in their eyes as they learned to trust me sustained me more than any social situation ever would. If there was one thing I loved almost as much as animals, it was books. Reading transported me to exotic locales, fascinating periods in history, and worlds that were vastly different from my own.”

“Though it has been a long time, it sometimes feels like it was yesterday. I can hardly remember the names of the girls who came before her, and after her there was only Liz. But I can recall with unbelievable clarity almost everything that happened during the time I spent with Annika. Probably because no one has ever loved me as fiercely and unconditionally as she did. I look over at Nate. "Did you ever fall in love with a girl who was different? Not just from any girl you'd ever dated before, but from most people in general?" Nate signals the bartender for another beer. "Marched to the beat of a different drum, did she?" "She marched to the beat of an entirely different band. One you've never heard of and under no circumstances ever expected to like.”

“The University of Illinois Wildlife Medical Clinic accepted native wild animals in need of care due to illness and injury, or because they'd been orphaned. The goal was to rehabilitate them and release them back into the wild. Veterinary students made up the bulk of the volunteers, but there were a few- like me- whose undying love for animals, and not our future vocations, had led us to the clinic behind the veterinary medicine building on the south side of campus. I had a tendency to gravitate toward the smaller animals, but I also felt a special affinity for the birds. They were majestic creatures, and there was nothing more satisfying than releasing one and watching it soar off high in the sky.”

“They'll take one look at you and forget how to play the game." "I don't think so," I said. "These players are really good. I can't imagine they'd suddenly forget how to play." "I meant because you're so pretty. They'll be too busy looking at you and it will blow their concentration." "That probably won't happen." He let out a short laugh. "Just me then, huh?" My brain figured out what he meant a few minutes later and I yelled "Oh" loud enough to make Jonathan jump in his seat a little. "Were you flirting with me?" "I was trying to. I thought I was halfway decent at it, but now I'm not so sure." "Jonathan?" He took his eyes off the road for a second and looked over at me. "I totally thought you were flirting. I was just making sure." Then he gave me another one of those smiles I'd told Janice about.”

“It's nice to see her so passionate about her job, and even more than that, so comfortable with me. Her demeanor has changed significantly, and for the better, since our coffee date. She's not the only one who seems more relaxed, because Annika has always had that effect on me. Currently, there are very few people in my life I can be one hundred percent myself around, but she's always been one of them. I don't have to put on a show or try to impress her the way I did with Liz. It's very liberating.”

“He seemed calmer, but he kept bringing up all the times I'd said or done the wrong thing. It made me feel like crying. But then I remembered that no one can make me feel inferior without my consent." "Did Janice tell you that?" "Eleanor Roosevelt did. But Janice is the one who gave me a whole book of her quotes, and I memorized all of them. I also really like the one that says 'A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it's in hot water.”

“I love you, Jonathan." "I love you, too. I've been thinking about how I was going to tell you." "If you've been thinking about it, why didn't you just say it?" "Because the first time you say it to someone, you hope they'll say it back. And if you're not sure they will..." "Why wouldn't I say it back? I did say it. Just now." I thought I was the one confused by relationships and everything that went along with them. "Maybe there was a small part of me that worried you wouldn't. I don't always know what's going on up there," he said, tapping my temple gently. "I never know what people are thinking. It's like visiting a country where you don't speak the language and you're trying so hard to understand but no matter how many times you ask for juice, they keep bringing you milk. And I hate it.”

“Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn't have the power to say yes," Annika says. In theory, yes, but in this case I'm pretty sure Sherry's boss has the power to say both. "What's that?" Sherry says. She sounds hesitant, as if she's not sure where this is going. "It's a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt," Annika says. "Are you familiar with them?" "I know a few," Sherry says. "My best friend bought me a book of them. 'Do one thing every day that scares you' is what got me through my twenties. 'Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you'll be criticized anyway.”