“Wow,” she said, generically and unimpressively, after a pause that was probably way too long. Chayala, you’re botching this

"Chayala,I know you want to swoop in and make things perfect, but just this once, I need you to be patient and stay out of it”

“If that happened to me, I would have walked straight out,” muttered Dassi. Chayala was surprised at the edge in her voice

“Dassi.” It was a statement, and she thought her stomach had sunk to her toes, but it managed to sink even further

Shira whipped out two knit beanies. She tugged the black one over her light-brown hair and tossed a gray one onto Dassi’s lap. “Voila!” she said. “We’re married!”

Ari stalked back to Dassi. “Is that not the most outrageous thing you’ve ever seen? It took a lot of time and work to make this night special"

Dassi’s mother paused for a second too long, and in that moment, Dassi knew, and her stomach turned over

“You want it to be your responsibility that I don’t learn tonight?” Ari’s voice was harsh

It was only a fifth date, so who knew what inevitable skeletons still had time to worm their way out of the closets

Uncharacteristically, though, Ari said, “You ever dated someone and it felt different from the beginning?”