"She'd been a perfect student through grade school, high school, and most of art school. She'd been a perfect catch for Gus, her first love. Sam, her second. Alex, her third, and Russ — her last. She'd been a perfect bitch through most of the '90s: she'd drank a lot, been paralyzed from the waist down on an L.A. freeway at 2 a.m., had crawled to and held a stranger she'd been riding (and sleeping) with as he died ..."