Not all of these rang true for me, but each tells its own "how we met" story of a couple, whether gay, straight, young, or old, and, like the best stories, each has tidbits that most of us can recognize. I'm amazed that he wrote one of these in high school and several in college! In fact, knowing that David Levithan is such a prolific writer, I wondered how he chooses which stories stay short, and which become longer books. If he finds a wonderful way to describe a crush that passes in a single paragraph of a short story, does he later find that it would work perfectly in a new novel and wish it hadn't been used already? I suppose that the mark of a good writer is that you can always find infinitely new and creative ways to describe love. 
 My favorite story by far was "The number of people who meet on airplanes." I know, it's unrealistic, but sometimes, you just need a good dose of old-fashioned unrealistic wonder and romance. I doubly liked the "how we met" angle and the theme of the lost magic of flying. 
 Favorite quotes: 
 From the author bio: "David's senior yearbook entry started with a quote from Philip Roth: 'And as he spoke, I was thinking, 'the kind of stories that people turn life into, the kind of lives people turn stories into.' He is still intrigued that his seventeen-year-old self chose those words." 
 "I knew I was getting perilously close to opening up my History of Stupid Things Done in the Name of Crushes, but the insidious thing about the History was that I always felt each new blank page had the potential to transform it into a different book. One successful gesture, one successful relationship would suddenly turn it into a History of Stupid Things Done in the Name of Crushes That Were All Redeemed in the End." 
 "Betrayal. Lust. Secrecy. Devotion. I think we do these things to feel more alive. When the truth is that alive is alive -- you can feel it in anything, if you give it a chance." 
 "...I told her that I thought single was a stupid term. It made it sound like you were unattached to anyone, unconnected to anything. I preferred the term singular. As in individual." 
 "We were trapped in the limbo between where we were and where we wanted to be. The limbo of our age." 
 "Even in junior high -- what did I know? I had an early inkling 
 that the boyfriend/girlfriend stuff wasn't love, just a way to fill 
 the space next to you. Love was long run and nothing 
 would ever be long run in junior high." 
 "I think one of the highest compliments you can give a person is that when you are talking to her, you are not thinking about the fact that you are talking to her. That is, your thoughts and words all exist on a single, engaged level. You are being yourself because you aren't bothering to think about who you should be. It is like when you talk in a dream." 
 "'You're not going to believe this, but flying used to be quite romantic. To fly -- people couldn't believe it. You only get that in little kids now. But back at the start, there was this sense of the future about flying. You were buying a ticket to this experience, this wonderful thing. Sure, people were nervous then. But that made it even more exciting. There was this expectation that something thrilling would happen, that being off the ground could take you out of your world for a few hours. I felt that way the first times I flew. I was already married to Margie then, but every liftoff -- for fifty years -- we would hold hands when we took to the air. Not out of fear. Out of wonder." 
 "I mean, I met hundreds, if not thousands, of people each day. Sometimes it would kick the stuffing out of me. But most of the time I could come home to Mrs. Schwartz with a story or two to tell. You can't ask for much more than that -- a good woman and a story to tell." 
 "Love weaves itself from hundreds of threads. Happenstances. I just happened to be one of them." 
 "...everyone was pulling up to the front door [of the prom] in their gowns and their stretches, like it was the movie premiere of their new life..." 
 "He was beautiful in the way that a breeze is beautiful -- the kind of beauty you feel gratitude for." 
 "...maybe he knew more about life than I did, even if I'd had more experience. Because knowing about life is really about knowing how it should be, not just how it is." 
 "I was elated to have found someone 
 who could be both interested and interesting." 
 "It doesn't have to be on Valentine's Day. It doesn't have to be by the time you turn eighteen or thirty-three or fifty-nine. It doesn't have to conform to whatever is usual. It doesn't have to be kismet at once, or rhapsody by the third date. 
 It just has to be."