Attachments

by Rainbow Rowell

“You should quit that job.” “I should quit this job . . . ,” he said, “but if I keep it, I can move out of Mom’s house.” “How soon?” “As soon as I want. The money’s good.” “Don’t quit,” Eve said firmly. “Move out. Find a new job. Then quit.” He knew she would say that. In Eve’s mind, all of Lincoln’s problems would go away if he moved out of their mother’s house. “You’ll never have your own life as long as you live there,”

“I don’t have any money,” he’d said in the ninth grade. “Be thankful, Lincoln. Money is a cruel thing. It’s the thing that stands between you and the things you want and the people you love.”

“do you think we’ll get married some day?” “I hope so,” he’d whispered. He didn’t usually think about it like that, like “married.” He thought about how he never wanted to be without her. About how happy she made him and how he wanted to go on being that happy for the rest of his life.

Hmmm . . . I think I’d like to be a stay-at-home mom with no kids.

took him eight minutes, tops. I just stood there, holding his dinner (McDonald’s) and watched. And cried. I must have looked wildly pathetic because he said, “I have some French fries in there if you want them.” I thought that was such a weird thing to offer, but frankly, I’m exactly the sort of person to be comforted by French fries, so I ate them.

“If somebody that I cared about was crying alone in a parking lot this late at night, I would want somebody to call me.”

he was winding his fingers in my hair. He kissed my forehead, smiling. He looked at me, straight into me, and I felt like I was in love with the sun.

“Sometimes,” he said, “I love you so much that I can’t stand it. Sometimes, I just don’t have the energy for it, to have something this big coming out of me. And I can’t stop it or turn it down. Sometimes, I get tired just knowing that I’m going to see you.”

Oof

told him that I didn’t want magic, that I wanted someone who wouldn’t leave me if he could. Who wouldn’t feel like being committed to me was such a burden.

<Jennifer to Beth>> The idea that you’re hard to love is ludicrous.