“Do you know what I did to the last guy that called me Tinkerbelle?"
"Slept with him?"
Darryl was silent for a second. "After that.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“Tell me something good about your life," I whispered, needing to hear that he wasn't as broken as I thought him to be.
Peter breathed into the handset for about two minutes. I began wondering if he was about to hang up, or had fallen asleep, when he answered. "You."
It was so quiet I almost didn't hear it. And then he hung up before I could ask him to repeat himself.
I fell asleep, grinning, with the phone still clutched in my hand and my milk souring on the coffee table.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“Peter to Austin:
"Hard-ons don't make you think less. They make you think stupid. Which makes me think you must have one 24/7.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“You're rich, spoiled and used to getting your own way."
"Not true. If I had my own way you would have kissed me and ridden me like a cowboy while screaming 'yeehaw'.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“He's painting your living room as a thank you."
"Huh. My decorator might screech, but I'm okay with that."
"Your decorator? Seriously? How did you not know you were gay?”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“Let me know when you're done with this conversation. Peter needs his tongue bath. I mean sponge bath.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“Gay sex, one. Straight sex, zero”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“I'm not gay.” That wasn't what I meant to say.
“Congratulations. Would you like a medal?” Bunny Slippers asked.
“I already have a medal. For bravery, not for being gay. I think you made me gay.”
“I made you gay?” He set down the napkin he was holding. “Is that better or worse than the person who made you stupid?”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“I looked at our hands, caked and coated in red, but entwined. The pristine moment when they were clasped like that earlier in the day seemed weeks ago.
"Clean." Peter said.
"Can I get a water bottle or something to clean his hands?" I scanned the crowd. He drew my attention back to him with a pull of my hand.
"No," Peter said. "I'm...clean."
I had missed who Peter was until that very moment.
I had called him names and treated him callously. I had read every micro expression in a vacuum of how it related to Austin Glass. And in return Peter had cared for my wounds, treated me tenderly and assured me that he was HIV negative while bleeding out in a hallway of strangers.
I broke. It wasn't a visible fracture. I didn't sob or explode into anguish. I didn't give in to my vomitus urge that came from the burst of self-loathing. But I shattered nonetheless.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“I've given up my living room, guest room, job, career, heterosexuality and my stance on no pets in the house, but I'm not giving up my room. I'm drawing a line.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“"Tell me something good about your life," I whispered, needing to hear that he wasn't as broken as I thought him to be.
"You." It was so quiet I almost didn't hear it.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“I was not insecure. I was a perfectly normal combination of arrogant and narcissistic.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“You know what I find ironic? My homophobic mother offers
you her cabbage rolls as a truce and you respond by asking her if
it was 'tacit approval' to suck my cock.”
“She shoved a phallic symbol my way and told me to eat it.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“Bunny Slippers watched my appraisal for at least a full
minute before clasping his hands and resting them on the table.
“You stand in the doorway, clothes sticking to you like you just
got out of the shower and didn’t dry off.” I hadn’t dried off
actually. “Your hair is wet like it’s been raining, but it’s near
ninety outside. You glare at me for a good ten minutes before
you come over. Sit across from me in my booth, without an
invitation. Don’t introduce yourself. Don’t say hello. You
announce you’re not gay, but that I made you gay, and I am
confusing you?
Well, when he said it like that.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“Out of curiosity, when do I grow up and become a fullfledged
man with a penis?”
“When words like ‘hump day’ don’t make you giggle like a
twelve-year-old,” he retorted, blowing smoke my way.
“Wow, that long?”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“Your daughter is gay? Where are all these gay people coming from? Gay friends. Gay daughters of friends. Gay sisters-in-law. Gay suspects. I ask one guy for a kiss and suddenly I’m living in Ancient Greece.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“People aren't always who they seem, Detective. Am I anything like you thought?"
"No," I admitted. You're a million times better than I could have imagined.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“Peter to Austin: “Here are the facts, Austin. You’ve been engaged four times.
You’ve cheated on every single one of them. You’re cruel
sometimes and superficial and spoiled and really fucked up
emotionally. You talk about my being inscrutable, but you treat
nothing as if it matters to you. Something terrible happens? You
make a joke and shrug it off. You feel too much? You get angry
and lash out at me. So no, I’m not in love with you. I’m fighting
it every fucking step! I just wish I could stop it.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“Even the road to Disneyland has potholes”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“Gay Sex Three, Straight Sex Nil”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“I made a mental note to call. Later.
Tomorrow. Next month. Or January.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“Whiskey, glass, pour, toss back, glare. Repeat. “Cop out,” I slurred in retaliation, pointing the empty glass at Peter.
“Don’t get drunk. Fuck. I need you sober,” he yelled, snatching the glass out of my hand.
“There’s the problem right there. You need me sober. You need my help. You need something from me.” I laughed, tossing the bottle on the sofa, ignoring the glug glug glug as it emptied over my cushions. “And I just need you.”
“Need me to what?” He asked with a huff, tipping the bottle right-side up.
“Nothing. I just need you,” I whispered and flopped into a nearby recliner.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“Fundamentally I believed that I was unlovable.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“Ask me for money, Peter.” I grabbed his wrists and pushed him against the wall.
He looked everywhere but at me, no attempt to free himself. He was definitely stronger than I, but right that second I didn’t care if he was being patronizing. If it forced him to answer me, then patronizing I’d take.
“No,” he murmured.
“Ask me for money, goddamn you.” I punctuated it with a slam of his wrists, hard enough to jar, but not painful—I hoped. The next time my shirt wouldn’t be there to cushion it. I was
that pissed.
“I have!” He spat back, easily extricating his hands and pushing me away. I grabbed his arm, turning him around.
“For Cai. For sex. Not for you. You’d rather go fuck a bunch of strangers—”
“I don’t fuck anyone but Darryl anymore,” he denied. “It’s just a show for a bunch of voyeurs. No one gets hurt.”
“I get hurt!”
“I don’t have any other way, Austin.”
“You have me. Ask me,” I said, hating the pleading sound in my voice.
“No.”
“Jesus Christ, why the fuck not?”
“Because I don’t want you to be a fucking trick!” The shout was so loud I felt the vibrations along my spine.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“Then I guess the rest of my life will be resigned to doggy style sex." The words were out of my mouth before I could think about them. "I mean however long...when we're...that wasn't a fucking proposal."
"Okay."
"Don't smile that. Smugness doesn't become you."
"Okay."
"Scoot the fuck over. You're hogging the bed."
Austin and Peter. :')”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“At some point all of this is going to catch up with me,” I said.
“What is?”
“Gay, boyfriend, job loss, career in the toilet, gay, criminals in my house, criminals in my bed.”
“You said the gay thing twice.”
“It deserves double billing.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“What the fuck are you doing with your life?”
“Dating hookers, learning the gay, housing criminals, pissing off my fellow cops, and taking in what everyone says is a cat, but which I’m definitely sure is not a cat. I’m undecided on its actual species. I think it’s a cross between a rat and some kind of alien life—”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“McCleary was an unpolished, semi attractive man in his late thirties or early forties. His hair was grey. His suit was cheap. His cologne was cheaper and his attitude was a hundred percent asshole. He have me an instant boner.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“Do you know any gay guys?"
"Why? Are you switching teams?"
"I'm not sure. Maybe."
"Yeah, I know some gay guys. And you do, too."
"I know some gay guys?" News to me.
"Jake and Terry."
"They're not gay," I argued.
"Yeah? You better tell them to stop sleeping together, then.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
“When I was in eighth grade, I used a self-timing camera to take nude pictures of myself in various stages of erection. I then exchanged my biology teacher’s slides with the images. The teacher, in a state of panic, kept rapidly pressing the ‘next’ button. It was like a pornographic flip-book. That was the last straw in a very heavy pile of straws. I was expelled, and I ended up transferring mid-year from boarding school to a public school near home.”
― Dani Alexander, quote from Shattered Glass
Dani Alexander
Born place: in The United States
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“What we needed was a two-sided badge that said ‘Mature’ on one side and ‘Childish’ on the other. Then at any moment we could turn it to whatever side we felt like being and the adults could treat us accordingly.”
― John Marsden, quote from Darkness, Be My Friend
“I'm here to tell you, separate was never equal.”
― John Grisham, quote from Bleachers
“Now, bitterly, with one sweep of the front door, the compassion was spent. To the degree that Lawrence's face was familiar, it was killingly so - as if she had been gradually getting to know him for over nine years and then, bang, he was known. She'd been handed her diploma. There were no more surprises - or only this last surprise, that there were no more surprises. To torture herself, Irina kept looking, and looking, at Lawrence's face, like turning the key in an ignition several times before resigning herself that the battery was dead.”
― Lionel Shriver, quote from The Post-Birthday World
“...Please tell me it's not like eighty degrees in Malibu."
"It's not. It's raining, which means the natives are convinced the end is near and are engaged in ritual auto pileups in an attempt to appease the angry gods.”
― D.B. Reynolds, quote from Rajmund
“faster but the picture remained entirely static. The stillness of a deserted office descended and held steady as time rushed by. “When do the cleaners come in?” Reacher asked. “Just before midnight,” Froelich said. “That late?” “They’re night workers. This is a round-the-clock operation.” “And there’s nothing else visible before then?” “Nothing at all.” “So spool ahead. We get the picture.” Froelich operated the buttons and shuttled between fast-forward with snow on the screen and regular-speed playback with a picture to check the timecode. At eleven-fifty P.M. she let the tape run. The counter clicked ahead, a second at a time. At eleven fifty-two there was motion at the far end of the corridor. A team of three people emerged from the gloom. There were two women and a man, all of them wearing dark overalls. They looked Hispanic. They were all short and compact, dark-haired, stoic. The man was pushing a cart. It had a black garbage bag locked into a hoop at the front, and trays stacked with cloths and spray bottles on shelves at the rear. One of the women was carrying a vacuum cleaner. It rode on”
― Lee Child, quote from Without Fail
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