The Rebound Curse

I aimlessly walked around the quiet park, one hand holding a chocolate ice cream cone, and the other, holding Dominick’s hand whose other hand was also holding a cone. He brought the hand to his mouth and licked at the sweet, cold treat.

Lilly and her husband were out of town for a business trip, leaving Dominick to spend a night with me. Today was one of those rare days of mine where none of my clients needed me because they were busy. Technically, I was supposed to be going over the flower arrangements with Noah, but his assistant called to cancel since he was in a meeting. That was just fine for me.

“Aunt Ellie?” He asked, looking up at me with big, innocent eyes of his father’s. They were bright emerald and shined a little in the sun.

Our hands swung between us.

“Yes, honey?”

“What’s sex?” I choked a little at the surprising question and stopped walking. Dominick nonchalantly licked at his ice cream and tugged on my hand once he realized I had paused.

“Is it something you can eat?” He asked, wide eyes staring expectantly.

“Um, uh. I think your parents might answer that question better than I can,” I stammered.

“But Mama said that you’d answer it the bestest,” he continued. I narrowed my eyes slightly. Trust Lilly to do something like this.

“Ask your dad. He’d know it,” I said. Dominick looked thoughtful for a minute.

“Okay,” and just like that, he was satisfied.

A couple of minutes later, we had a found a playground with a few kids playing in it. Dominick begged me to go play with them. After fixing his hair, cleaning his sticky hands and chin, and making sure his shoes were tied, he ran off laughing happily at his new found friends.

I sat on the nearest bench and watched Dominick as he chases a little girl about his age across the playground. I envied him. If only life were that easy. Eat, play, sleep…

A breeze brushed by and I shivered a little. The temperature was dropping so fast already. I tugged on my cardigan.

Dominick fell down and I was about to get up so see if he was alright, but before I could even get up, he was up and running again, giggling.

I ate the rest of my ice cream. My eyes surveyed the area around me. There were a couple of people here. Not too many, though. Everybody was minding their own business.

Then my eyes landed on a mop of curly brown hair that had a familiar face and dark eyes. It was the second time I’ve ever seen him smile. Like really smile. I even think he was laughing.

The cause of it was pretty obvious. There was a little girl sitting on his shoulders. She was squealing as he spun around.

I had to blink three times to get the image right.

Noah’s eyes crinkled as he grinned and then they flickered to me and stayed there. His smile stopped instantly. The little girl on his shoulders looked down with a confused look.

He showed absolutely no expression as he stared at me intently. I tried to look away but found that I couldn’t.

“Excuse me. Is this seat taken?” A deep voice interrupted, and then finally, my eyes broke away from his.

I turned my attention towards the owner of the voice. He had a small smile on. He had pale, gray eyes with a thin frame, rectangular glasses on. He had a thin nose and mouth that was pink from the cold. His hair was brown and short. He was tall and thin as he stood in front of me.

“Um, no. Go ahead,” I motioned for him to sit. He held a book with one hand, and the other, a briefcase.

I scooted all the way to the end of the bench. In the corner of my eyes, I could see that Noah was moving around again, I could even hear the little girl’s laughter. But somehow, I could feel his eyes on me.

“Is that your husband?” the stranger next to me asked.

“What?” and I saw that he was staring at Noah. I immediately turned pink that he said that, and that I was caught staring, “Uh, no. He’s not.”

“Hm,” he nodded, “Are any of these yours?” he waved to the playground.

“Yes – I mean, no. I’m just babysitting for my friend. I don’t have any kids. I’m not married either.” I wasn’t sure why I even added the last part.

I could tell that he was trying to make conversation. His mouth opened and closed repeatedly. I bit my lip to keep myself from smiling.

“What about you?” I decided to save him from the trouble.

He looked relieved. “I don’t have any kids and I’m not married. I’m usually here to read. It’s quite peaceful.”

I began to watch Dominick again. “It is,” I agreed.

There was a small silence. “I’m Jon.”

I gave him a polite smile, “Elliot. It’s nice to meet you.”

I didn’t pay Jon that much attention, I could still feel Noah’s occasional gaze.

Jon must’ve felt embarrassed because when he saw that I wasn’t listening, he quieted down. I felt bad. I was about to say something, when I heard Dominick’s cry.

I was immediately up on my feet and running towards him, all thoughts of Jon gone. When I had gotten there, I saw that Noah was bent next to him, murmuring things to make him feel better. The little girl that was with Noah sat next to Dominick. She was staring at his small cut.

“What happened?” I was on my knees checking Dominick for any more injuries.

“He fell down while you were flirting with that guy,” Noah said quietly, only to let me hear.

“I was not flirting with him!” I protested.

“Owie! Auntie Ellie! I’m going to have to cut my leg off, aren’t I?” he sniffed.

“Of course not, honey.” I assured him.

I got out a wipe and cleaned his tiny wound. “There, all better.”

“Mama said that if you blow on it, the pain will go away,” Dominick informed me.

I grinned and blew on the cut. “Better?”

“Yup!” I helped him get on his feet. When he was up, he looked up at Noah.

“This is Dominick,” I introduced. Dominick cheekily smiled up.

“And this is my Auntie Ellie. Who are you?” Dominick continued, not having the least clue that I knew exactly who this was.

Noah had an amused smile as he stared at Dominick. “My name is Noah, and this here is Hayley.”

“You wanna play with me, Hayley?” Dominick asked a little shyly. Noah nudged Hayley in encouragement.

“Thanks for coming to check if he’s alright,” I said, once they were gone.

“You’re welcome,” he replied, “He looks so much like Lilly.”

“Huh? Oh. Yes, he does.”

A question ran through my mind: was that little girl his daughter? They looked so much alike, but yet different. She almost looked like…

“Is that Ni- your niece?” I asked, deciding to not mention the name of his brother.

“Yes. Nick and his wife are in town for a couple of weeks.” Noah said stiffly.

I wrung my hands nervously. Talking about Nick was always a touchy subject now.

A little part of me was happy to hear that Nick was in town. What I wouldn’t do to see him again after so many years and catch up with him. To ask him how he’s doing, when he got married, how’s life. I wanted it to be just like old times again between us.

“He’s coming in a couple of minutes.” It was as if he was reading my mind.

“Oh. He is?” I didn’t want to sound too enthusiastic.

We stood silently, watching the kids play.

“Look Noah. What happened five years ago is now the p-”

“Hey Noah!” A deep voice boomed. What I saw made me stop breathing.

It was Nick. He looked the same, just more rugged. He practically ran, like the childish man he is, and tackled Noah to the ground.

There were several grunts as they wrestled each other. I felt something stuck in my throat. It was just like old times.

“Stupid idiots, aren’t they?” a much more feminine voice said.

I turned towards the woman, “Oh,” I laughed nervously at the stranger, “Yes.”

“I’m Selene, Nick’s wife.” My eyes widened.

“It’s so nice to meet you!” I exclaimed. Selene had her hair in a pony tail. She had noticeably very light blue eyes. It really stuck out. She was a short, slim woman who almost looked no older than twenty, but if looked closely, you could see dark circles under her eyes to tell that she really is older than she looked.

“It’s nice to meet you too…um…”

“Elliot,” I finished.

Her own eyes went bigger. “Are you…the Elliot?”

“…The Elliot?”

“Noah’s ex-girlfriend from high school?” My face went a little red.

“Erm, I guess.”

“I’ve heard so much about you!”

“Good things, I hope?” I asked meekly.

“Just only. Nick used to talk about you all the time.”

My eyes immediately went to Nick, who was cheering since he was on top of Noah. “That’s nice of him.”

“Look at me, Selene! Woman!” he yelled.

Selene rolled her eyes. “I’m looking.”

“Aren’t you proud of your man? I’m still pretty dang strong.” Same old Nick.

He sauntered over to his wife and swung his arms around her, kissing her forehead. He completely engulfed her. Noah was left getting up by himself, coughing and even sputtering some dead grass from his mouth. He dusted his black coat and shook his head to get the grass out.

“Who’s this?”

I blushed a little more.

“Come on. You remember this person,” Selene said.

He squinted his eyes as he stared me down and observed me. It seemed he didn’t care that I fidgeted under his eyes. This was Nick, alright. Way to make someone uncomfortable.

“You look familiar…but I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”

“You can’t even remember our old friend, Elliot?” It was Noah who said this. His gaze was cool on me.

“Elliot,” he muttered, “Elliot…Elliot? Elliot!”

He took me by complete surprise as he lifted me up in a hug. Selene was laughing in the background and even Noah’s lip twitched a little.

When he placed me back on the ground, my head was whirling and my feet were unstable. But that didn’t matter, he took me by the shoulders and shook me gently, a hysterical look on his face.

“Why the heck didn’t you call?! Write?! Or even email!” His eyes were scolding me but his lips were showing so much white.

He didn’t wait for my answer except to squeeze the livings out of me in another hug.

“Nick,” I gasped, “Can’t – breathe – help…”

He let me go instantly, “Whoops.”

“Who’s this?” asked a small voice below me.

Dominick stood next to my leg, his large curious eyes filled with fear as he looked at the tall stranger.

“Was he hurting you?” he squeaked. I realized that he must’ve saw that I couldn’t breathe earlier.

I laughed a little, “No, honey.”

Nick pointed at the little boy, looked at me, then looked back at Dominick. “Since when did you have a kid?”

“Oh no, he’s not mine – he’s,” but I was interrupted.

“Noah? I don’t see you for one month and you now have a kid?” Noah just looked puzzled.

“Nick,” I said sternly, rolling my eyes, “This is Dominick. He’s Lilly’s son.”

“Oh!” he smacked his forehead, “Of course. You look so much like your mom, little man.”

Dominick, who’s gotten over the fact that Nick isn’t scary, smiled then frowned. “I look like a girl?”

“A very pretty girl,” Nick joked, tapping the confused boy’s nose.

He looked up at me, “B-but but Auntie Ellie, I don’t want to look like a pretty girl!”

“Don’t listen to that man, kiddo. He meant that you have your mom’s nose and stuff. Kay?” His frown didn’t leave his face completely.

“I guess,” he mumbled.

“Where’s Lilly?” Nick asked, glanced around.

“Her husband and her are out of town,” I answered.

“You know what? You and Nick, and probably Noah too, have so much to catch up. Why don’t we all have dinner together?” Selene offered.

“Yeah, what do you say, Elle?”

I glanced at Noah, but he wasn’t looking at me, instead, his eyes looked faraway. He looked like he was remembering something.

“Sure. We’ll go.”