Annie Crown

Night Shift

Stella 💫

I wish I felt more put-together, more prepared to be held and touched. But Vincent doesn’t seem to mind that I’m not perfect, and maybe that’s all that matters.

The girl who looks back at me in the mirror over the row of sinks is a stranger—eyes wide, lips pink and puffy. A strangled laugh bubbles up in my throat. I have to be dreaming. I did not just make out with Vincent Knight. In the library. During my shift. After some (apparently very erotic) live reading of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Because that’s what nonfictional men do: disappoint you.

I’m begging. Feminism is dead. I killed her, and I don’t care.

The narrator’s lover brings her flowers, and she cherishes them—really, she does—but the gifts she prefers to give and receive are far less ephemeral.

The worst thing about romance novels is that they always end.

But he keeps his hands to himself. He’s a perfect gentleman. It makes me fucking feral.

Vincent growls but supplies the next line: “Except for love’s sake only. Please don’t quote Elizabeth Barrett Browning right now. You know what that does to me.”

Night Shift quotes

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