For Better or Cursed. Mary Leo

up, turned on her heels and quickly walked out of the rehabilitation room, carrying the chart but leaving Rudy sprawled across the mat, entirely unable to move.

      IT HAD BEEN a little over a week since Cate had seen Rudy’s picture in the paper, and so far she’d been unable to think of anything else. She blamed it on her new vow of celibacy. She was positive once she fell into the rhythm of this self-imposed, sex-depravation thing, all men would completely vanish from her thoughts, and she’d become as saintly as her aunt Flo, her mother’s fifty-eight-year-old, silver-haired sister.

      “I heard Joey’s left nut blew up to the size of a melon,” Aunt Flo said while she lay on her stomach on a table at Cate’s Wellness Center.

      Cate stopped the massage. “I’m not going to treat you if you keep this up.”

      Cate had been working on Aunt Flo’s neck and shoulder every other day for the past month, but she still wasn’t getting any better. Cate didn’t know if the kink was real, or if Aunt Flo just wanted the attention. Cate was hoping for a little of both. She didn’t want to believe that all her hard work wasn’t helping.

      “What?”

      “Can we talk about something other than my love life?”

      “Sure, doll. Anything you want.”

      Cate continued with the massage. “How about the weather? That’s a neutral subject.”

      “What’s to talk about? It’s winter. There’s not much conversation about ice and snow. And speaking of ice, at least you still got Henry O’Toole. He took care of Rocky pretty good. And come to think of it, you probably never would have met him if poor Rocky hadn’t croaked on your wedding day.”

      “Rocky passed on, Aunt Flo. He didn’t croak.”

      Cate speeded up her treatment. She wanted to get Aunt Flo out of there.

      “You’re right, but them undertakers sure do make good money, and he’s Irish. The curse won’t take him. And even if Henry is old enough to be your father, sometimes that’s what a girl needs…another father.”

      “Henry’s just a friend.”

      “They were all your friends, but you didn’t love any of ’em but Rudy, that’s your problem.”

      “My only problem is everybody telling me about Rudy Bellafini. He’s gone and out of my life, and that’s the way it is. Forever.”

      “So, we won’t talk about him. Who is he, anyway? Just some boy who hurt my beautiful niece, that’s all. Just the boy who stood her up at the altar, like that devil Pinky did to me thirty years ago. And now you and me both gotta carry the curse.”

      Cate refused to admit to anyone in her family that she actually believed in the curse. It just gave them more fuel.

      “Rudy and I never made it to the altar. We set a date, that’s all. He never even gave me a ring.”

      “I guess you’re right.” She paused for a moment, sighed and went on. “I mean, it don’t matter that your first fiancé was in a hospital for three weeks when he got run over by the flower truck on your wedding day. Or that your second fiancé, may he rest in peace, Rocky Dilantano, the prizefighter, collapsed right there in church while you was walking up the aisle on your dear father’s arm. It’s a good thing your sweet mother isn’t here to see all this, may she rest in peace, or she’d be worried sick, like me.”

      “Rocky had a bad heart, and stop worrying. I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”

      “You’re right. Nothing to do with our curse. But, still and all, it’s good to see that Rudy is getting what he deserves for jilting you.”

      Cate stopped and looked at her aunt. “I didn’t get jilted.”

      “What do you call it, then?”

      “Over,” Cate said while gently tugging on Aunt Flo’s arm.

      “Excuse me,” Gina Falco said as she leaned against the doorjamb of the private therapy room. Gina helped out at Cate’s Wellness Center three days a week while she worked on her degree in sports medicine. Gina took after their mom, tall, slim, dark blue eyes and silky red hair that touched her tiny waist. The only thing she and Cate had in common was their height, everything else was completely different. Cate’s eyes were amber, her hair short and brown with some blond highlights. She worked out a lot, so her figure was good, but she hated her big fat butt, and her too-small breasts, 34-B. And to top it all off, she had pulled out her first gray hair that very morning. Cate felt certain that soon she and Aunt Flo would look more like sisters rather than aunt and niece.

      Cate turned to face Gina as she walked over and whispered in Cate’s ear, “Rudy Bellafini just limped into the front office.”

      Cate pulled on Aunt Flo’s arm with such force that the poor woman let out a glass-shattering yell, “Eeyow!”

      “Aunt Flo, I’m sorry,” Cate said. “Are you all right?”

      “What’s the matter with you? Are you trying to kill me?” She scooted herself up and fluffed out her hairdo.

      Gina said, “It’s…it’s our new method for getting rid of those really stubborn kinks. We learned it at the APTA conference last summer. No pain, no gain.”

      Cate rolled her eyes at her sister, knowing that Aunt Flo loved anything that sounded even remotely hip.

      Aunt Flo rotated her shoulders, getting into a slow rhythm. Then she lifted her arms and said, “Well, why the heck didn’t you try it sooner, doll. You know I play bunco at the church hall this afternoon with the ladies of Saint Mary’s. They’re probably waiting for me right now.”

      “He totally wants to see you, Cate,” Gina interrupted.

      “Tell him I’m with a patient. Tell him to come back tomorrow or next month or next year,” Cate told her sister.

      “You’re not with a patient anymore. I feel grrreat! Just like Tony the Tiger. Who is it that wants to see you so bad and you don’t want to see?”

      “I thought you had a bunco game to get to.” There was no way Cate would tell Aunt Flo that Rudy Bellafini was in the building. It would be all over the neighborhood in the time it took for Cate to exhale, which she had forgotten to do.

      Gina broke in, “I put him in room three, Cate. The guy can barely walk. Maybe you should at least talk to him.”

      “It’s bad luck to turn a potential patient away, especially somebody who can’t walk. Anything could happen. Your sister herself could be struck down.”

      “All right, already! I’ll talk to him,” Cate said, trying desperately to hold on to her composure. She turned to her aunt. “The ladies of Saint Mary’s are waiting.”

      “Heck, they sure are. Oh, well, I’ll get the skinny from your father tonight at dinner. Now go. You don’t want to keep the poor man waiting,” she said as she shooed Cate away.

      As Cate walked down the narrow hallway to room three, her stomach felt a little queasy and her knees didn’t want to bend the way they were supposed to. Her palms were sticky, and suddenly her whole body broke out in a cold sweat.

      When she reached the dreaded door number three, she paused in front of it to regain her composure and fix her hair. And what about her makeup? It had to be a mess by now. And the sweater she threw on earlier, it had holes in the right sleeve.

      She rushed back to her office, thinking that she needed a complete makeover before she could see him. That she required a new do from Rose Marie at The Hairs End, or a new outfit from Gloria’s Dress Boutique, or maybe a couple sessions with Frank Nudo, the shrink at the end of the block, before she could say one word to Rudy Bellafini. Or Father Joe, he would know how to handle the situation. Or Henry…no, not Henry, he was only good with dead people.

      She wished she could talk