"It's like in the great stories... The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end, because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why."
It's difficult getting used to new things. Simone's always had a hard time with change, especially when it involved trying to fit a new person into the patterns she's learned.
The pattern: Her black lace shift is sexy. Richard always made her leave it on.
Florian tears the lace in his eagerness to get at her bare skin, and Simone finds she doesn't exactly mind.
The pattern: Chess is foreplay. Axel loved it when she beat him.
Florian wipes all the pieces off the board as he sprawls back on it, pulling her on top of him. "Checkmate," he smirks.