Status Updates From Until It Was Love (Copper V...

I don't think Fletcher only cares about rugby. I think he puts all of his energy into rugby because he's always believed it wouldn't hurt him. Except it has. It's hurting him the same way soccer hurt me. A sport can't help but hurt you, when it's inevitable that one day your body won't be able to do it anymore.

It's annoying to me that you're not the judgmental @$$hole I thought you were six years ago.

I'm a massive judgmental @$$hole.

Judgmental @$$holes are rarely self-aware enough to call themselves judgmental @$$holes.

Always knew I was one in a billion.

Sleeping with him again would be a bad idea. Once is once. Period. Twice is an implication that there will be a third time, and a fourth ... I'm leaving.

"hummingbird" nickname: My grandpa said I always flitted like a hummingbird.

The only thing Monopoly is good for is as a psychological test of your enemies.

~~~~~

Trying to make up for a lifetime of not being what he needed?

You can't be a parent and not f#ck it up.

I'd prefer to be a parent who can fix it.

I'm 28, but I was born into soul of 75-year-old woman. I've read basically every human behavior book ever written, plus I've lived through few things.

Wars & famine, hm?

Death, divorce, injury, illness, broken dreams, broken hearts. Maybe I haven't lived through it as many times as other people, but that doesn't mean I can't understand what makes people tick & how to put them on a path to achieving their goals.

How'd you get a name like "Goldie" with black hair?

My legal name is Jessica. Apparently, it was my eyes. And then I fell in love with the story, "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".

When we moved to Australia, I played hockey.

Aw, you must have been the cutest.

And terrible.

Weren't you, like, 5?

That's no excuse for being terrible.

You're ridiculous. And that's adorable.

You said "studly sex god" wrong.

Everyone needs a backup career they don't use.

He studies me. Doesn't ask a thing - just watches. That's Fletcher's quiet superpower: watching, observing, connecting dots.

Why February 3rd?

Why not February 3rd?

It has no particular significance?

That’s why it’s a good day.

I see red. No, red's too good of a color. Too tame. Whatever I see, it's the hellscape version of blood red. A burnt burgundy that I borrowed from the devil himself.

Goldie refers to her precocious niece as a "threenager"

We haven't just crossed this line - we've trampled it into the ground, lit it on fire, and roasted moldy marshmallows over it!

Hallie demanded he take a selfie of all of us, which he informed us is called an "ussie" in the UK.

There are no good or bad words, merely words that are sometimes more or less appropriate, depending on the situation.

You're a good man.

Do yourself a favor and don't believe that.

I used to stare at my 'stache anytime I got too full of myself. Now there's nothing between me being hot and me knowing I'm hot.

~~~~~

I still don't think either of them honestly wishes the best for me. How hard is it to want someone who was once important in your life to be happy, even if you don't want to be the one to make them happy anymore?

Fletcher: I'm part of the minuscule part of the population that experiences a two- to three-day delay from allergen exposure to rash.

Half the guys have other jobs to supplement their income in the off-season because rugby doesn't pay much here. In the U.S., it's a "do it for the love" sport, not a "this is how you get rich enough to drive a sports car" sport. Yet.

A few more days for my bloody old man body to recover from a cheat night, before I have to be ready every d@mn day. And now all that's left of my mustache is the "ash" part, and I had enough chips that my body will think we had our cheat night, and I didn't get my f#cking flan.

Fletcher: I've been on this earth for thirty-four trips around the sun, two divorces, at least three drinks in my face for voicing my opinion, and enough lectures from my father about how to treat a woman...

not surprised to find her frowning over chicken breasts. When you cook for a pro athlete, you frown over chicken breasts a lot.

Everything in our part of Copper Valley was once warehouses or factories, but eventually they closed down as the city changed from a manufacturing hub to the environmental engineering heart of the East Coast.

That was remarkably straightforward.

I don't like bushes enough to beat around them.

So ironic, considering your face.

What the f#ck's wrong with my face?

I had to assure at least three parents that there wasn't retro adult entertainment being filmed here later, after they spotted you and the thing growing under your nose.