The Golden Couple Quotes
"I never know what to expect when I open my door to new clients."
"Therapists aren’t supposed to accept gifts from clients. But I’m not one to follow the rules."
"The shift in the room is palpable; it’s as if the temperature plummets."
"I don’t betray my surprise, even though Marissa didn’t mention a child in her initial phone call."
"I’ve wanted to tell you this for a while. I just didn’t know how."
"I don’t see how talking about bullshit like my issues with my father and my dreams can help us get through this."
"I’ve got Mace on my key chain, my bushes are cut too low to provide cover for anyone, and my alarm system is almost impossible to override."
"Other people’s issues are so much easier to fix than my own."
"Acelia was letting me know they knew who I was and what I’d done. And that they could get inside my home without leaving a trace."
"I haven’t seen that man since, but I know Acelia won’t stop. They must be afraid that whoever told me could share the information about the faulty trial with others."
"I still went for my run that day; Acelia wasn’t going to take that from me."
"She walks into the bedroom and pulls open a dresser drawer. Her hand hovers above her favorite soft cotton pajamas. Beside them rests a midnight-blue silky nightgown. It’s Matthew’s favorite."
"Matthew prefers her like this, with her hair pulled back and no makeup adorning her face."
"Marissa closes her eyes and tries to meditate, but her racing mind resists."
"She needs to do two other things tomorrow: First, call the florist to find out who sent those roses."
"She also needs to pick up a pregnancy test."
"I don’t belong to a gym. I’ve always preferred to exercise in solitude."
"But tonight all I want to do is flop on my couch with Thai food and a Netflix binge."
"Marissa finds herself humming as she leans toward the bathroom mirror to apply a creamy lipstick."
"She squeezes a wedge of lime into her Perrier, noticing a guy a few tables away reaching across the table to hold his date’s hand."
"Marissa knows how to expertly extract the tender, delicious heart of the vegetable; one of the signature dishes at her parents’ store, Conner’s, was a homemade artichoke dip."
"Just before their lips met, she closed her eyes."
"It was breathtakingly intimate and passionate, Marissa thinks now as she stares down on the scar on her hand. And she’d never regretted anything so much in her life."
"This is the secret she still keeps: the man in the wedding photograph is the person with whom Marissa betrayed her husband."
"I’ll bet anything she’s still holding a big secret or two."
"It’s not the kind of life I’d ever want, but I know it’s an enviable one for many women."
"It’s as if the crux of the Bishops’ problem—a seemingly straightforward infidelity—is growing tentacles that keep ensnaring new complications."
"Marissa’s revelation, one that should hit her hard, is that she is betraying not only her husband, but herself and me, by continuing to conceal the truth."
"Her secret is a rough, tight knot in her stomach."
"It wasn’t a man from the gym. That guy doesn’t exist," Marissa blurts."
"He’s always had a thing for you. You like the attention. Maybe you led him on, flirted behind Matthew’s back."
"Are you ready to tell me what’s really going on?" I ask her."
"What kind of wife doesn’t know the name of her husband’s assistant?"
"He’ll be thrilled! Matthew talks about you all the time!"
"I don’t know when things between us began to shift, but I want more than anything for us to feel connected."
"The first time I kissed you, it was like glimpsing the ocean for the first time. All these years later I still feel the same way."
"It’s common for perpetrators to visit the scene of the crime, to crave involvement as their misdeeds play out."
"Your husband was assaulted and lost consciousness."
"Sometimes we don’t realize how grateful we should be until we lose everything."
"What I can do is to implement a new policy: I’ll only meet new clients in public places."
"Derrick protected me well, I think. It was he who suggested installing the panic button on my work chair."
"Derrick would provide me with comfort. I’d repay him with pain."
"Both acts were supposedly anonymous. Yet both seemed designed to engender witnesses."
"All the while, I’m cataloging clues being revealed in body language, word choices, and vocal tones."
"I’m not walking into a trap, I remind myself."
"I didn’t tell anyone I was coming here—I didn’t even know it myself until a little while ago—so there’s no way Skip could have engineered this meeting."
"You can never truly know what is inside another person's heart or head."
"Grief is a shape-shifter. It defies logic, sneaking up on you when you least expect it and leaving you empty-handed and hollowed out when you go searching for it."
"We all do. Some of ours are just more visible than others."
"Grief isn’t linear. It isn’t logical. There’s no structure or civility to it; it grabs you when you least expect it and digs in its nails until you succumb."