Summary: "Driving, with the top down, I’m reminded that I too can shift gears, face risk, handle inconvenience — and survive tragedy. My partner, eyes misting, says: 'You love that car. And your husband was an extraordinary man.'"

Summary: "I'm a vampire, basically — going to bed around 8 or 9 a.m. and waking around 4 or 5 p.m. First dates usually go OK because they’re in the evening, but complications quickly arise."

Summary: "We met on a train. A perfect, flirtatious, six hours. The beginning of our love story? Trusting in the power of the universe, we hadn’t exchanged mobile numbers. Sometimes, a romantic plan isn’t enough."

Summary: "He was everything a 10-year-old girl could ever hope for in a man. It was decided; I was in love. I started to wonder if the glow from my wedding dress would make him look washed-out. I began devising a plan in which he and I would end up '2gether 4ever,' as all my notebooks stated."

Summary: "In retrospect, maybe I should have known who I was the first time I went looking for a quiz called 'Am I gay?' But I didn’t."

Summary: "A few months later, I was in the psychologist’s reception room, paying for my fourth really good cry, when a woman carrying a child walked in. I didn’t recognize her at first, and then I remembered her face. 'Are you the wife of the guy my wife is having an affair with?' I asked tactlessly. 'Yeah,' she said. 'But we’re not together anymore.'"

Summary: "I don’t remember his last name. He was handsome, with a nice smile and startlingly blue eyes. The sex was good, I think. We didn’t know each other well. We never would."

Summary: "On this night, long after we had thrown in the towel on us, here we were again, crawling back into the ring. This time, though, it would be different. We just never imagined how different it would become, or how quickly."