<p><b>''<i>I Meant It Once</i> explores longing, belonging and the big emotions that can make us feel small with unusual elegance and depth'' Coco Mellors, author of <i>Cleopatra and Frankenstein</i></b><br><br><b>''Gorgeously written and staggeringly honest . . . It will bewitch you'' Tess Gunty, author of <i>The Rabbit Hutch</i></b><br><b><br>''<i>I Meant it Once</i> signals the arrival of a major talent and voice'' Brandon Taylor, author of Booker Prize Finalist<i> Real Life</i></b><br><br>With this sharp and witty debut collection, author Kate Doyle captures precisely that time of life when so many young women are caught in between, pre-occupied by nostalgia for past relationships - with friends, roommates, siblings - while trying to move forward into an uncertain future. In "That Is Shocking," a college student relates a darkly funny story of romantic humiliation, one that skirts the parallel story of a friend she betrayed. In others, young women long for friends who have moved aw