David Nicholls: Herring

“She made you decent, and in return you made her so happy”

“Do you miss her?'
'Who? Emma? Of course. Every day. She was my best friend.”

“A moment passed, perhaps half a second when their faces said what they felt, and then Emma was smiling, laughing, her arms around his neck.”

“As the possibility of a relationship had faded, Emma had endeavored to harden herself to Dexter's indifference and these days a remark like this caused no more pain than, say, a tennis ball thrown sharply at the back of her head.”

“She shouldn't speak her thoughts; nothing good ever came of speaking your thoughts.”

“The future rose up ahead of her, a succession of empty days, each more daunting and unknowable than the one before her.”

“As soon as she'd met him at the arrivals gate on his return from Thailand, lithe and brown and shaven-headed, she knew that there was no chance of a relationship between them. Too much had happened to him, too little had happened to her.”