Rachel’s Reviews > Althea & Oliver > Status Update

"What will you say that I was to you?" he asks her.

Her forehead creases with the effort of finding the right word, and when she's got it, she nods to herself, like it was so obvious. "I'll say," she finally says, "that you were my favourite."

"Your favourite what?"
"That's it," she says. "Just my favourite."

'But it's Althea's image that swims onto the stage on his eyelids, of her driving her car down the highway, one elbow resting on the open window, the other hand masterfully piloting the wheel. He remembers when that was enough for her, and he wishes he could have given her another ten years of days like that, when all it took to make her happy was him in the shotgun seat and twelve hours when they had nowhere to be.'