Free Attachments by Rainbow Rowell Page A

Book: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell Read Free Book Online

Tags: Humor, Chick lit, Romance, Contemporary, Adult

impure thoughts …
    <> Ahem. Well. There we were. In the Student Union. He always sat in the corner. And I always sat one row across from him, three seats down. I took to leaving my 9:30 class early so I could primp and be in my spot looking casual by the time he sauntered in.
    He never looked at me—or anyone else, to my relief—and he never took off his headphones. I used to fantasize about what song he might be listening to …and whether it would be the first dance at our wedding …and whether we’d go with traditional wedding photography or black and white …Probably black and white, magazine style. There’d be lots of slightly out-of-focus, candid shots of us embracing with a romantic, faraway look in our eyes.
    Of course, Headphone Boy already had a faraway look in his eyes, which my friend Lynn attributed to “breakfast with Mary Jane.”
    <> And then …
    <> I know what you’re thinking now. You can’t believe I would knowingly get involved with a drug user.
    <> I knowingly got involved with a guy who plays the tuba. Finish the story.
    <> Well, at first, I was sure that he would feel the cosmic forces pulling us together. I wanted him so badly, I could feel my heart reaching for him with every beat. It was destiny. “He was a magnet and I was steel.”
    This started in September. Sometime in October, one of his friends walked by and called him “Chris.” (A name, at last. “Say it loud and there’s music playing. Say it soft and it’s almost like praying.”) One Tuesday night in November, I saw him at the library. I spent the next four Tuesday nights there, hoping it was a pattern. It wasn’t. Sometimes I’d allow myself to follow him to his 11:30 class in Andrews Hall, and then I’d have to run across campus to make it to my class in the Temple Building.
    By the end of the semester, I was long past the point of starting a natural, casual conversation with him. I stopped trying to make eye contact. I even started dating a Sig Ep I met in my sociology class.
    But I couldn’t give up my 10:30 date with Headphone Boy. I figured, after Christmas break, our schedules would change, and that would be that. I’d wait until then to move on.
    <> I love this, you actually have me believing that all hope is lost. Tricky.
    <> All my hope was lost.
    And then …the week before finals, I showed up at the Union at my usual time and found Chris sitting in my seat. His headphones were around his neck, and he watched me walk toward him. At least, I thought he was watching me. He had never looked at me before, never , and the idea made my skin burn. Before I could solve the problem of where to sit, he was talking to me.
    <> Did he say, “Stop stalking me, you psychopath”?
    <> Nope. He said, “Hey.”
    And I said, “Hi.”
    And he said, “Look…” His eyes were green. He kind of squinted when he talked. “I’ve got a 10:30 class next semester, so …we should probably make other arrangements.”
    I was struck numb.
    I said, “Are you mocking me?”
    “No,” he said, “I’m asking you out.”
    “Then, I’m saying yes.”
    “Good … ,” he said, “we could have dinner. You could still sit across from me. It would be just like a Tuesday morning. But with breadsticks.”
    “ Now you’re mocking me.”
    “Yes.” He was still smiling. “Now I am.”
    And that was that. We went out that weekend. And the next weekend. And the next. It was wildly romantic.
    <> Wow, what a cucumber. (Cool, I mean.) Did he know all along that you were watching him?
    <> Yeah, I think so. That’s just Chris. He never hurries. He never shows his cards. He always hangs up first.
    <> What does that mean, he always hangs up first?
    <> Like when we first started talking on the phone, he