Sublime

Her words sweet boy bounce around in my head. Jasper has always been a sweet boy. But god, he grew up to be a damn good man.

like J. D. Salinger or the Unabomber.

She felt pleasure in orderly things—a perfectly efficient section of code,

Overlooked by her parents, and ignored by her brother Theo, who had spent most of his short life at boarding schools or in London, Helen had turned to her inner world of books and imagination. Her suitors had been Romeo, Heathcliff, Mr. Darcy, Edward Rochester, Sir Lancelot, Sydney Carton, and an assortment of golden-haired fairy tale princes.

Highfalutin.”

vertiginously

raconteur?