The Old Guard - Nile & Booker
Nile can’t decide if Booker’s utter surprise at the very concept of a birthday present is entertaining or just sad. He unwraps the parcel gently. There was a cheaper copy on AbeBooks without a dust jacket, but she is not a monster.
“Maurice.” He slowly turns it over. “I met him. E. M. Forster.”
“No shit?”
He nods. “He was an unhappy man. I remember the way he looked at Nicky and Joe. With utter longing. As if what they had lay beyond all hope or reach.”