The Ripple Effect

This was awkward, possibly the most awkward situation I had faced in years. Granted, my life had been doting to Rein’s every need for the past seven years; but it would have been awkward regardless!

Orion and I hardly spoke, the tension still thick in the air from his previous comments. I tried to brush them off—for Rein’s sake—but it still nagged at me. He spoke…as if I was missing something. But how could I have? Rein was my world, my life! I didn’t miss any of his milestones, and I was there for every tantrum.

“Could you help me with this?” was the quiet whisper to break the silence.

I glanced away from my diced carrots to see Orion peering sheepishly at me. It would have been endearing if not for the fact that this man had insulted me so blatantly—and on multiple occasions at that.

“How have you been feeding yourself and Jonathan?” I asked, biting my cheek to stop myself from allowing harshness to slip past my lips. Teasing. Let him think I’m teasing.

He grimaced. “Well, lucky for me, Jonathan enjoys pre-packaged popcorn and ham sandwiches.” His eyes slid past me and to the julienned vegetables simmering with the pot roast on the stovetop. “I suppose Rein eats like a king?”

I smiled for just one second before crossing the floor to stand beside the poor fool who was being too damn likeable.

“Men are so hopeless,” I told him, laughing as I took the potato from him. “The secret is you don’t peel them. A little parmesan and butter, and they won’t even care if there are still spuds on the damn things.”

“You are my hero,” he joked, grabbing a knife and taking it to another potato. He seemed to hesitate for a moment before turning his attention to me again. “You still haven’t told me your name.”

“Oh, it slipped my mind.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“Well, I’m usually just being called ‘Mama.’ I don’t have much time for anything other than working and being a mom, Orion; surely you understand that?” He glanced down to his potato again. “But it’s Sophie.”

“I do know that it’s hard balancing things,” he mumbled, gently sliding the knife against the starch on the cutting board, “but just being ‘Mom’ and ‘Could you fax this for me, Miss?’ all the time can’t be enjoyable. Don’t you ever feel like just being in the company of other people going through the same things you are?”

I shrugged. “Hadn’t really thought of it.”

“Sophie.” His voice all but commanded me to look at him; when I did, I found his intense gaze burning into my eyes and effectively locking me in place. “I must insist you think about it. Jonathan and Rein are going to be the best of friends, I can feel it; we’ll probably see a lot of each other. Why not make that a good thing instead of an unpleasant obligation? You deserve some conversation with someone your age, and I’d love to learn how to make things other than toasted bread that is occasionally burnt to a crisp. What do you say? A nice dinner tomorrow at your place. I’ll bring Jonathan over after school; it can be a surprise for Rein.”

“We haven’t even gotten through this dinner yet,” I mumbled, still struck by how his eyes captivated my entire body.

He smiled disarmingly. “I’d like to get to know you better, Sophie; and I know it’s going to take more than one night to do that. I think we’ll make it.”

I smiled to myself as his eyes returned to his task at hand: throwing his misshapen potato chunks onto the aluminum-lined pan.

“Throw them into the oven. Dinner should be ready in an hour.”

He did as I told him before turning to me, leaning against the counter with a charming smile on his face.

“I know how I want to kill some time. Follow me to the den?”

I could hear the laughter of two little boys echoing throughout the house, and it brought the goofiest of grins to my stupid face. Rein had never been the most outgoing boy; he was really coming out of his shell. I glanced down to my lap where my hands were clasped and relaxed. Orion sat beside me on the modest loveseat, both of us having passed up the two recliners in the other corner.

Orion leaned forward to grab a remote from the coffee table to turn on the television situated in the corner of the room.

“White noise,” he elabourated, turning the volume down slightly before turning to face me. “So, where should we start?”

In lieu of asking the obvious sore question about what he had meant earlier, I decided to act on something else that bothered me.

“Why do you live in the woods?” I blurted, unable to reshape the question into something a bit more elegant.

A smirk tugged at his lips, and I blushed fervently.

“Why not? It’s beautiful here. Hooking up the electricity was a pain, but it was more than worth it. There are quite a few people who live here, actually; you just have yet to meet them. Maybe we change that—another time, though; you’re all mine tonight,” he told me, throwing in a wink that made my hands clammy.

I looked away from him immediately, struck mute as words escaped me.

“If you could vacation anywhere in the world for one week, where would you?”

I decided to refocus my attention on his innocent question rather than the way he was making my heart jump like it belonged to a teenager around her year-long crush.

“I don’t know; we could never afford anything so lavish.”

“If money was no object.”

“But money is—”

“Let’s pretend it isn’t.”

“Orion—”

“Sophie.”

I sighed. Any place in the world? I had not stopped to think for even one second before the word slipped past my lips.

“Venice? Any reason?”

I smiled absently. “My father immigrated to America when he was in his mid-twenties, but he always talked about taking my mother and me there someday. Whenever he went on business trips, he always brought me back a souvenir: snow globes, necklaces, pendants… I think by now they have probably gone, but I never got to go. I’d like to go someday, show Rein the only part of his heritage of which I’m actually sure.”

He furrowed his brow, and my smile fell. Crap.

“What do you mean?”

“I never really knew his father’s race,” I muttered quickly. “So what about you? If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?”

He seemed to debate digging further. I released my breath when his lips started moving again.

“Here. I wouldn’t trade my life here for all the money in the world.”