You want this, right? You know you want this. So go on. Finish it. Finish what you started.

Did he even exist in her mind, as a living, breathing, thinking person? He spent so much time trying to figure out what she was thinking, but what kind of a consciousness did she imagine lived behind the mask of his face?

When they got married, she could include them in her wedding vows: You were always there for me, always. You were always there for me, always. You were always there for me, always.They were the most beautiful words he'd ever heard.

Why do you like me? Why can't you tell I'm not that into you?

I'm a nice guy, I swear to fucking God.

Frankly, the whole concept was a little too New Age—y for me.

Given how little contact Ted had now with actual Anna, it was like he was in a relationship with an imaginary friend.

Maybe I was wrong, Ted thought. Maybe I could be content with this.Unfortunately, he could not.

When I try to reconstruct the place that I was, at that point in my life, to figure out how I got there, to that punch, to that bed, to that girl—I can't. I can see where some bad decisions led to some other bad decisions, but I can't get all the way there; it's like I imagine a curve, where I'm dropping lower and lower down, and then I'm off the radar screen, invisible, and then, after some time goes by, the line is rising, visible again, and I don't know what happened in between.

He unrequitedly loved Anna; Anna unrequitedly loved Marco; Marco probably unrequitedly loved some rando none of them had ever met. The world was pitiless. Nobody had any power over anyone else.