jude and willems apartment, New York NY

“But finally, I actually did learn how to make some things: I learned how to roast a chicken and poach an egg and broil halibut. I learned how to make carrot cake, and a bread with lots of different nuts that I had liked to buy at the bakery he used to work at in Cambridge: his version was uncanny, and for weeks I made loaf after loaf. “Excellent, Harold, ” he said one day, after tasting a slice. “See? “

"Did I ever tell you about the time we jumped off the roof to the fire escape outside our bedroom? ". "It's a good story, " he said. He even grinned at me. "I'll tell you. "
"Please, " I said.
And then he did.

"We're all dying. He just knew his death would come sooner than he had planned. But that doesn't mean that they weren't happy years, that it wasn't a happy life. "

"But mostly, I missed watching you two together; I missed watching you watch him, and him watch you; I missed how thoughtful you were with each other, missed how thoughtlessly, sincerely affectionate you were with him; missed watching you listen to each other, the way you both did so intently. "