“I turned to him and he reached for my hand. It would have been easier to walk away. But the wind still blew around us and the house still stood.”

“You wanted a wife but I wasstill a girl.”

“Girls spilled drinks down their dresses and flicked their hair. Wishing anyone, maybe even you, would notice them... You were someone to me.”

“He had the red serviette tucked into his t-shirt at the neck which made me laugh. He hadn’t done this since our third date when I had told him off for his bad manners.”

“The scratching came from the attic. At night, when Rory turned out the light I would lie awake and wait for it to skit, skit, skit lightly across the floorboards above our heads and down behind the water pipes.”

“I cried for all of those things that should have just been for us...”

“The chandelier was wearing on its rubber support and the crack at the side of the ceiling hold was getting bigger. “One day that’s going to fall on us and spear you through the heart,” he said. I turned to kiss him on the shoulder and closed my eyes.”

“The diamonds glinted under the glare of the chandelier and they looked like a thousand spider eyes”

“These were the things we would never notice were missing.”

“I turned to him and he reached for my hand. It would have been easier to walk away. But the wind still blew around us and the house still stood.”