All of You Read Free

girl if she was all right.
    She turned her bright eyes shining with tears
up to me. “I FELL ON MY BOTTOM!” she howled and burst into sobs.
She raised her arms in a ‘pick-me-up’ motion, but I was unsure if I
should comfort the child. I didn’t know who this little girl was or
to whom she belonged, but she needed comforting. I scooped her up
and propped her on my hip. She immediately wrapped her arms around
me and buried her head into the crook of my neck and continued
sobbing.
    “Your coat,” I heard Lincoln say as he
offered me a small stack of napkins. I took the napkins but used
them to dry the tears on the little girl’s face.
    “Hey, you’re all right, aren’t ya?” I said to
the little girl who had stopped crying and was currently rubbing
her eye with her fist. She nodded slowly. “My name’s Jillian.
What’s yours?”
    The little girl told me it was Bianca.
    “Well, Bianca, which one of these pretty
ladies is your mommy?”
    Bianca pointed at a lady who I could see had
just spotted us through the crowd and was quickly making her way
over.
    “Oh, my goodness. What happened?” Bianca’s
mother asked as she took Bianca out of my arms.
    “I fell on my bottom, Mommy,” Bianca told her
mother.
    “She got knocked over by one of the older
boys. But I think she’s okay,” I said with a smile. The little girl
smiled shyly back at me and I reached up to caress the girl’s head.
The mother thanked me and then disappeared with Bianca back into
the crowd. I was left smiling after them.
    “Jillian?” I heard my name from behind me and
remembered Lincoln had been standing with me. Embarrassment flooded
through me. I turned to look at him and saw the hurt in his eyes.
“Jillian suits you better,” he said while looking away from me. He
cleared his throat with a small cough. “I brought you some
sparkling water and napkins if you want to try to get the chocolate
out of your coat. Otherwise I can pay to have it dry-cleaned. Or
buy you a new one. I should probably just buy you a new one. Would
three hundred be enough? Or we could go shopping together…but then
you’d have to give me your number, and you clearly don’t want to do
that. “
    “Lincoln,” I said, interrupting his rambling.
“It was an accident. Accidents happen. Don’t worry about it.” I
took the napkins and started to attempt to clean myself up to
appease him but realized most of it had soaked in, probably ruining
the coat. But there was no way I was telling Lincoln that.
    “Please let me replace it,” he pleaded.
    “No, it’s fine. Really,” I protested
again.
    Lincoln exhaled sharply. “Look. You clearly
don’t want to spend time with me, which is your decision, but you
will at least let me pay for your coat.”
    The anger in his voice surprised me. Why
would he be angry? I was the one with a chocolate blob down the
front of my coat.
    “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I gave you a fake name,
okay? It’s not that I don’t want to spend time with you. I just…
can’t. Trust me. It’s better this way.” I wanted to explain to him
that it wasn’t him. It was my issues. But even I knew that sounded
lame without a detailed explanation, and I wasn’t about to open up
that much.
    “Patrick’s?” Lincoln asked without changing
his expression.
    “What?” I asked, confused. I almost turned
around to look for a man named Patrick. But then I saw the corner
of Lincoln’s mouth curving upward in a smile.
    “Patrick’s,” Lincoln repeated. “It’s a bar
not too far from here. I’m supposed to meet some friends there
after the parade. Would you like to go with me?”
    I shook my head in confusion. “Lincoln, I
can’t go to a bar with you. Didn’t you hear what I said?” How was
he not getting this?
    “Why not? You said, and I quote, ‘It’s not
that I don’t want to spend time with you’. Which means you DO want
to spend time with me. Despite whatever reasons you may think you
have to not go with me, I am asking you to