Attachments

by Rainbow Rowell

“There’s never been a moment,” he barely said, “when I didn’t recognize you.”

“I’d know you in the dark,” he said. “From a thousand miles away. There’s nothing you could become that I haven’t already fallen in love with.”

“I don’t want you to go,” Sam said. She was upset. “I don’t want it to end like this.” “You don’t get to choose,” Lincoln said. “It’s just happening.”

He couldn’t stop thinking about Beth’s message. Beth. She liked him. She didn’t know him, but she liked him.

I’M STILL HER cute guy, Lincoln thought, as he drove home. He went to the gym early the next day and ran until his knees started to buckle. I’m still hers.

“Why do you think I can remember that,” she asked, “when you can’t? Why does nature do that to us? How does that serve evolution? Those were the most important years of my life, and you can’t even remember them. You can’t understand why it’s so hard for me to hand you off to someone else. You want me to act casual.”

“She’s acting like she owns the place,” Eve complained. Lincoln smiled. He was already eating an artichoke. So was Eve. “Isn’t it enough to know that she doesn’t?”