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She set her glass down on the wide ed in her jaw

"I have to go back I cannot stay here" Before when she said this she sounded angry and desperate Now she sounded regretful "Iwith me?"

ItAnything She needed his help People needing hi to like it

"Of course I a to the Outer Island

She nodded, never taking her eyes off the view

"Thank you"

That night at fivethat conversation and trying to hold on to that feeling as he loitered on the Ponte dell’Accade copies of Il Gazzettino and the International Herald Tribune, just to cover all the bases, and a really great, a his very best impression of somebody asn’t about to ju, ly frigid Fro to ireen water of the Grand Canal looked about as enticing as glacial runoff It also looked a lot farther away than it had looked from the banks It also looked clean, which Quentin kneasn’t

But soon It didn’t see lost the button in a sofa and on because it was less e to be really wretched, dude," Josh said "You are not going to be a happy puppy in there"

"No kidding" He’d hoped Josh would offer to do it hiet used to it," Poppy said, hugging herself

"Why are you here, again?" Quentin said

"Interests of science Plus I want to see if you’ll actually go through with it"

It was a personal tic of Poppy’s that she never seemed to lie when other people would It was either tactless or ad on how you looked at it

Quentin took soainst the splintery wooden railing, which still retained so heat of the sun Remember what’s at stake Julia wouldn’t hesitate She’d be over the railing like a damn Olyoing tonight, but slipped out after she went to bed She would have insisted on going in

"They hardly ever eat people," Poppy said "I mean like twice a century That we know of"

Quentin didn’t respond to this

"How deep do you think it is?" Josh said He dragged on a cigarette Of the three of them he looked the most nervous

"Twenty feet maybe," Quentin said "I read it on the Internet"

"Jesus Well, whatever you do don’t dive"

"If I break my neck and end up paralyzed just let me drown"

"Two minutes," Poppy said An ehts off except for one in the cozy pilot’s cabin That water must be ninety percent E coli, and the rest was probably diesel fuel This was not a body of water intended for swiht have been a stylized dragon, or just a fancy s, into the wood right at the apex of the bridge

"Are you going to take off your clothes?" Josh asked

"You don’t kno long I’ve been waiting for you to ask me that"

"Seriously, are you?"

"No"

Poppy said it at the saroup fell silent Solass broke Beer bottle versus wall Quentin wondered if he was actually going to do this Maybe he could just drop a note in Message in a bottle Call me

"Hey, remember when that little person called your cell?" he said "Did you get his number? Maybe we could just--"

"It was blocked"

"Time!" Poppy said

"Damn it!"

Just don’t think about it He backed up to thewith the steak in it up in one hand, ran at the railing, and vaulted over it sidewise He surprised himself by how spryly he did it Must be the adrenaline Even so he al down