Rebranding the Rebound Relationship

Sometimes flings and flirtations are the best cure for heartbreak.

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Outside the realm of basketball, the rebound gets a bad rap. Although its definition — something that bounces back —sounds promising, when used to describe relationships it’s a label placed on couplings that are presumed to be overly hasty and destined to fail.

Statistically, it might be entirely accurate to say that most relationships that immediately follow a breakup don’t stand the test of time. In fact, I’d venture to guess that the majority of rebound relationships flame out quickly. But what gets lost in the numbers is how much good a rebound can do for our self-esteem and our ability to truly move on from a situation that was no longer (or maybe ever) right for us.

There have been multiple times in my life when a brief rebound fling — or even a rebound flirtation — was the only cure for my broken heart. Not therapy, not the passage of time, not endless hours of phone calls to friends. Sure, those things certainly helped, but it was the rebound that did the trick and pushed me over the finish line.

Again, in my case this didn’t necessarily mean a brand new formal relationship. One rebound was a brief vacation romance that primarily consisted of making out in dimly-lit bars and the back of…