Happy endings aren’t for cowards. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

I learned to be unfaithful from my parents. Not infidelity in the classic sense – but I was always prepared for the unhappy ending, which made me less willing to work toward a happy one. I was unfaithful to the idea of a well-adjusted future. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

Have you ever written your name, or see it printed somewhere, and thought it look unfamiliar? Like maybe you spelled it wrong or something? ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

I’m kind of happy with the way I turned out. I mean, things could be worse. I could be boring. Or unhappy. Or, like, I don’t know, Canadian or something. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

Every day the opportunity exists to change your life. But most days, the idea of having to change the big things in life just seems like too much work. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

That’s what people do – they move into their new life and disassemble the old life in some ungrateful way and leave it out by the curb. Like it never served any purpose at all. Like self-preservation is some frivolous little thing. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

You set yourself up for happiness or you set yourself up for sadness. Either way, it’s your doing. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

But I’m growing bored and dissatisfied and he feels it and he’s panicking. And I know this, but I can’t make him feel more secure. We both do this. We critique the relationship, but never out loud. And when we’re thinking of jumping ship on the other person, we are very quiet, because subconsciously we want them to know something’s up. We want them to be prepared, because we feel so guilty for considering that this – we – might not work. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

I feel like a refrigerator has fallen on me and I’m pinned underneath it hoping to escape but in the meantime my life is sprinting ahead of me, assuming I’ll catch up. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

I want love to transform me, and him, and turn us into a happy couple. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

One night … this all stopped seeming to amusing and temporary. And I couldn’t stop crying. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

I was afraid to go after what I wanted, so I hung on to Doug and hoped that some morning I’d wake up happy and personally satisfied. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

Might as well just fold right now. Get out before I get too far in. I just want you to know that it’s not lost on me. That I realize this game is a metaphor for my life. My friends are different, though. They all seem okay with losing. They even enjoy it – the risk taking. Secretly, they must not like it, though, right? I mean, how could anyone enjoy that – losing? It must make them feel like, I don’t know, great big losers. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

Nothing says “I’m a refined young lady” quite like eating popcorn directly out of a bag. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

And I’m sad that this is the kind of person I am. I am a person who will stay in a relationship for three years because I know that this relationship will never hurt me. I will park my love here because here I will never experience great joy, but more important, I will never be devastated. The dissolving of this won’t be painful at all. It will just be a formality. A formal ending to something that barely or never existed. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

It’s all about might. It might hurt. It might not work. It might be awful. I never think it might work. It might be good. It might be fun. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

Each day is a new table on which to roll the dice. Stop complaining and start rolling, people! ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

Risks are for idiots. Risks are for people who make their own elaborate Halloween costumes and then, get this, wear them in public! Risks are not cool. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

Has he been looking at me? I wouldn’t know, since I’ve been busy not looking at him. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

I think it’s really great that he’s calling. It means he knows he’s a bonehead. A declaration of weakness, which is really a declaration of strength. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

She photographs well. That’s the thing about beautiful people. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

And I wonder where the version of him in my age group is right now. And how I can meet him. Except, the one who’s my age should be nicer, and in general have a better personality. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

It’s funny how the prospect of love is so much more interesting when you don’t actually know the person you’re fabricating a fantasy life with. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

At least your heart knows what it wants. I mean, even if you are incapable of accepting happiness. At least some part of you is working toward it. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

The planets would have to align perfectly, and even then I’m not sure I could do it. It takes confidence to move away from the perceived center of the known universe. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

Meg is one of my oldest friends, and we are completely different. And every so often I think maybe there’s not much point in our being friends anymore. But then she’ll do something amazing. She’ll say something that proves she knows me, really knows me. And I’m so grateful for that. It feels so good to be known, and I wonder if she ever wonders what the point of being friends with me is. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

I don’t say that I’m here because I’m afraid that the worst thing that’s ever happened to me is going to end up being the best thing that shapes and defines the rest of my life. I don’t say this, because I really do fear it. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

I figure we all come into the world alone, and there are a handful of people who know us from our birth and throughout our entire life. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

We broke up just before summer, and when I passed him on campus over the next couple of years, we’d smile and wave. But I didn’t feel a thing for him, and there was no difficult period of forgetting him or getting over him. Which made me wonder if I had ever loved him, or anyone else. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

We’re learning that the self we show to the world can be very different from the self we show to ourselves. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

It makes me sad. And then it makes me laugh. Because sadness at any length is terrifying. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

I need a puzzle, or to think that he is one, so that I cannot latch on to him, know him, and ultimately be disappointed by what kind of guy he is. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

And then I dreamed about you, and I thought that was really great, you showing up in my dreams like that. Unexpected, you know. So thanks for doing that. For showing up. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis

He’s one of those guys, you know, who women go nuts for. It’s like his mother ignored him and now he has to make all women love him or something. ~ Girls’ Poker Night by Jill Davis