The Switch
by Beth O'Leary
“”Never been one for worst-case scenarios,” Jackson says…. “When they happen, you cope. And it’s usually one you’ve not thought of that gets you, so why worry?”
God, what I would give to think like that. The sheer simplicity of it.
“I just want to be sure I’m doing the right thing,” I say. “I’m worried about - I don’t know, you know those books you read as a kid, that let you choose what happened next, and you turned to a different page depending on what you picked?”
“Right, well I’m trying to slip ahead so I can work out the best one.”
“Best one for what?”
I pause. “What do you mean?”
“Best for you?”
“No, no, I mean just… best. The right thing to do.”
“Huh,” Jackson says. “Interesting.”” (p. 179-80)
“”Are you sure? I know it’s a lot for me to ask.”
“If a woman needs a place to stay, and I’ve got a bed to offer, then, well. That’s that.” (p. 250)
“It’s the unintentional confidence he has as if he’s wholly himself and couldn’t possibly manage being somebody else if he wanted to.” (p. 320)
“I don’t know how to explain the way Jackson makes me feel, how freeing it is to be around something so completely themselves, so utterly without guile.
“When you’re here, I’m here too,” I say, turning my face up to his. “Which is amazing, because most of the time, I’m always somewhere else. Looking back or looking ahead, worrying or planning or…”” (p. 322)
“”When people talk about loss, they always say that you’ll never be the same, that it will change you, leave a hole in your life.”...”And those things are undoubtedly true. But when you lose someone you love, you don’t lose everything they gave you. They leave something with you.” (p. 328)