Page 44 of Alarm Fatigue

Mark nods and smiles at this. “I feel the same way about my Aunt Esther. I did not make it easy for her sometimes, but she was always there for me after my mom died. She did everything she could to provide for me. We never had much, but I never went hungry. If there was something I really wanted, she found a way.”

“In what ways did you not make it easy?”

“I just had a hard time opening up to her. My grief came out as sulking most of the time.” He saw my eyebrows go up at that. “I know, not hard to believe. And of course, being a teenager, it never occurred to me that she had lost her sister-in-law and friend, not to mention her brother before that. I grew to appreciate her and take her feelings into account, but it took some time.”

“And so how many sisters did your dad have?”

“There were nine children, in total. Esther still lives in New Jersey. I am her only child, so to speak. All of her friends are there, so I cannot get her to move here. There are seven others. They all grew up in a village in Iraq of all places. My dad, the baby, was born in Israel after they all left Iraq in 1952. Dad was born in ‘58. He was apparently a surprise.” He smiles at the thought.

“My aunties live in Italy, Israel and some are in California. The village they lived in when my dad was born was poor, and all but two of them moved away eventually. Most of them are nurses or doctors. They have two to three daughters each, except for the eldest, Sara. She is very religious and has nine daughters, most of whom I have never met. They are pretty much all older than we are. But this is why I have so many cousins.”

“Do any of your cousins live in this area?”

“One did for a while. She was in a fellowship at the NIH, but it was temporary and she moved back to California eventually.”

“Which ones are you closest with?”

“Besides Esther, that would be Rebeka’s daughters, one of whom you kind of met. Tova, I think you remember. Those are my Italian cousins. I was able to see them while I was in Greece actually, which was nice. Besides Tova, there are Nina and Ora. Esther always liked visiting Italy and so I became closest to them by proximity. By the way, they were the ones that set me up with you on that app.”

“Fated it seems.”

“Beshert.”

“Kismet.”

“Something.”

“Apparently.” I smile at him smiling at me. Wasn’t I worried about something before? I cannot remember. I am hopeless for him and right now, I am okay with that.

“If we ever get this dessert, do you want to take it and get out of here?”

“Yes. It has been quite a night.”

“Better than our first date.”

I scoff at that. “That was not a date. And even if it was, that bar is too low not to bias the study in your favor.” The molten brownie finally arrives and we ask for a take-out container. For some reason this is the one thing the waiter is able to bring us in a somewhat timely fashion. We walk back through the bike path to the other part of town and I am relieved to see a number of other couples on the trail as well. Something occurs to me that I was curious about. “Did you just casually mention earlier that you are now davening with tefillin?”

“I did drop that bit of information earlier. As I said, I made the day if not the month of the Chabad Rabbi in Rhodes.”

I kind of have a thing about men and tefillin. Something about it holds a strange type of alluring mystique to me. I decide to keep this information to myself for now and attempt to cover my obvious blushing by stopping to kiss him. Just abruptly stopping and kissing Mark on the sidewalk...not obvious at all, Rachel, subtle, as usual. Mark smiles at me.

“So. Tefillin. Mm. Interesting.”

“I do not know of what you are speaking.”

“Okay, Rachel, if that is how you want to play it.”

We make our way back towards the coffee shop and his car in the lot next door.

“You okay to drive? Because I am a bit drunk myself.”

“I have had hours to sober from my one beer, so yes. I am happy to drive you home.”

“My home.”

He chuckles at this, “Yes, Rachel, your home.”

“Okay, let’s go.”

---