Hadn’t he taught her that monogamy was a social construct that held no relevance with the reality of the human heart? That the heart could love, over and over again and unshackle itself from the bondage of loyalty it owed one person without a smidgeon of guilt.

That was the only time she'd allowed herself to break down before the teenaged Aisha, who was finding it difficult to wrap her head around the fact that the father she hero-worshipped had feet of clay.

Running away from home. Or running away from myself within my home.

Vanity seemed meaningless, in this outpost in the back of the beyond, when the only person looking back at her was the reflection in the mirror.

Wasn't hate merely love flipped over onto its back, kicking and squealing for attention, the angst of unrequited emotion that would not be denied?

Heer laughed again, wave upon wave of laughter that hit the eardrums and broke into a scatter of happiness around the room.

It felt like whatever the issue was, it was being repeated by spectral beings who were taking sides.

It was the stretch and give of the lycra. And the deep blue, invitingly deep, the deep blue of sleep she longed for, blank and intense, and dissolving everything that would make her toss and turn endlessly through the night.

They were tied to each other by tenuous bonds that perhaps only death would break.

I had come to this city because I wantedto disappear into its amorphous multitudes of people who didn’t know me. I wanted to be seen only when I chose to be seen.Cities allowed you that, they took you in like quicksand and spat you out if they found you indigestible.