Any other vexations to report?" he asks. "I love the word 'vexations.'" "It's the 'x.' Nice to jump off a 'v' and bite into an 'x' like that." "Just the usual ones," she says. "How was the weekend?" "Vexing. Not really, I just wanted to say it. You?

By Nightfall: A Novel (ed. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010) - ISBN: 9781429978095