"Even that day in June—if you paid close attention, driving past—you might’ve seen desire in the way she pointed her toe and dug it into the dusty concrete while she listened to him, or you might’ve noticed the way he swayed as he talked, because he liked to riff on the subject at hand."
-- Narrator (Page 1)

Importance: This quotation appears in the first paragraph of the story as the narrator describes the two nurses taking one of their first smoke breaks together. The narrator briefly slips into a second-person address to communicate to the reader that an outside observer could have seen the nurses' attraction to one another in this very early stage of their friendship. Thus, the story introduces from the outset the concept of love as obvious and clear to all but those who are involved in it.

"During most of these breaks, the air-conditioner in the...
-- Narrator (Page 4)