Payton

“Stunning, really, that Mario wouldn’t take no for an answer from a female, but when a man rocks up he gets not one, not two but – let me just count them quick – five sorrys.”
― Portia MacIntosh, Going Overboard

“The pain would never go away, but he would go on. They would go on. He’d been dreaming of his future; he thought he had it plotted out, but now such things felt naive and immature. Yes, he could plan, he must plan, but he had to take into account that fate—or God, or the universe—had its own plans; it was indifferent to his plan. For that reason, and for the first time in his life, he saw that a secret self was so unnecessary. Whatever he chose to do, he’d do it to the best of his ability. It was silly to worry about pleasing or displeasing others with his choices; life was hard enough without such meaningless concerns.”
― Abraham Verghese, Abscond

“I didn’t feel like I was on the right track, at all, but it turns out that sometimes the wrong route takes you to the right place. That villa was supposed to be for us girls, the boys weren’t even supposed to be there, but in the end it turned out that it took a mistake, for everything to go wrong, to put me in the right place, at the right time, to get everything I wanted, and everything I needed. I’ll never sweat my mistakes ever again. Sometimes, they’re the key to true happiness.”
― Portia MacIntosh, Too Hot to Handle

“I don’t want to be harsh, Jessa. But I want to be honest,’ he says and I know I’m not going to like this. ‘I do want to get married. Just… not to you.”
― Portia MacIntosh, Going Overboard