I’m standing in the middle of Jimmy and Tiff Brown’s living room at their housewarming party and Stacy just dropped the bomb of a lifetime on me. I’m not sure what I am more shocked at right now. The fact that Wes is Wes Brown, brother of Jimmy Brown, his sister-in-law a person who I consider a friend. Or the realization that I slept with a man without knowing his last name. All I can do is stare out onto the patio where he is laughing with other friends and people from the city, completely oblivious to my current panic attack.

“Stacy! Holly! There you are.” Candy’s cheerful voice pulls me out of my state of shock and I try to recover some sense of myself. Based on the look on Stacy’s face, I must look like I’ve seen a ghost or something.

“Hi Candy! Hey, not to be total poopers, but I forgot something in Holly’s car, we’ll be right back.” Stacy grabs my arm and yanks me outside and we start making our way down the driveway. But being the stubborn person I am, I plant my feet to the ground and stop her forward momentum.

“What are you doing?” I put my hands on my hips and stare at her.

“I’m taking you back to your car.” Stacy tries to grab my arm again, but I pull it away.

“Why?”

“Why? Are you serious, Holly? You are as white as a North Dakota morning in December. Come on, let’s just go and we can come back to see Tiff another day.”

“I’m fine,” I insist, lying through my teeth.

“You’re fine? You don’t look fine,” Stacy calls my bluff.

“I guess I’m just surprised. You never said that Wes was Wes Brown.”

“Yeah, I kind of figured you all had that conversation before. Especially since he had to have known you made Tiff’s wedding cake. Right?”

“I don’t know, Stacy, we never exchanged our last names. I don’t know if he knew who I was. I never went to the wedding. I just dropped off the cake. I only ever met Jimmy, Tiff, and Betsy.”

“Okay, I’m sorry, let’s just get out of here.” She goes to grab my hand again, but once again I take a step back.

“No. We’re staying.”

“We’re staying?”

“Yes!” I say insistently. “Tiff is my friend and I told her that I was going to be here tonight so we are staying.”

“What about Wes?” She side-eyes me.

“Wes can kiss my ass.”

Stacy gives a wide smile and then throws her hands up in the air, “Oh, well then okay. Keep up that fiery attitude if you happen to run into him.”

“Don’t worry, I intend to.”

I take a few moments to compose myself and I loop my arm in Stacy’s and we walk back into the house like we own the place. My insides might feel like a swarm of bees, but my outside is calm and cool. I think. I hope. Fake it until we make it. When we get back inside we find Candy and Tiff hanging out in the kitchen.

“There you two are! I thought I saw you come in but then I couldn’t find you again.”

“Hey Tiff, sorry we just ran out to the car for a second.”

“I forgot my cell phone.” Stacy holds up her phone. “You know us millennials, can’t go anywhere without our phones.”

“You don’t have to tell Tiff that, they made it so this entire house can be run off their phones.” Candy teases her friend.

“Well like I said this morning, it turned out gorgeous and you are so lucky.” I let Tiff know and she smiles.

“So Holly, how are things with you and….”

“Candy! No.” Stacy covers Candy’s mouth with her hand, but Candy swipes it off and starts laughing.

“What the hell was that about?” She yells at Stacy.

“We’re just not talking about him,” Stacy tells her.

Tiff looks around confused. “Not talking about HIM? Holly, are you seeing somebody?” For a moment, Tiff looks at me excitedly.

“No, I’m not.” I say, attempting to forget that the man that I WANTED to see is just on the opposite side of this house and is related to the woman with who we are celebrating with. “Hey, do you have anything to drink?”

“Uh, yeah, there is wine in here and beer in the coolers outside. Why are you avoiding my question?” Tiff stares over at me.

“Not avoiding, I answered,” I say completely unconvincingly. I glance outside to the coolers and see that Wes is still standing in front of them with a guy who looks like Jimmy from behind a few others that I don’t recognize. I turn back around to the girls. “Wine. Do you have any wine inside?”

“I didn’t know you liked wine,” Stacy comments, but I just glare at her, attempting to speak telepathically to her.

“I’m working on growing and maturing and all that fun stuff.”

Tiff shakes her head, a little confused by our antics, but spins around and heads to the other side of the kitchen where she begins to pour some glasses of wine. Candy moves to the side of the island next to me and leans in closer.

“So is Wes the one who we shall not speak of? Is that why you all of a sudden like wine because he’s standing in front of the beer?”

“Things were just, quick, with him.” I try to avoid glancing outside, but I do it anyway and then quickly look back at Candy.

“Oh? He doesn’t seem like the quick kind of guy to me. I thought he’d have some stamina.”

“Oh geez, not like that, Candy.” I whisper-yell at her. “We just didn’t mesh well I guess and it is over and there is no walking down that road again. So we’re just pretending like it’s all good and I’m not bringing it up with Tiff.”

She nods her head, seeming to understand. “That’s kind of a shame because I’d walk down that road if his type of plumbing interested me.”

“What about the plumbing?” Tiff comes back with the glass of wine, interrupting the conversation I was having with Candy.

“Nothing.” Candy and I answer at the same time.

I take the wine glass from Tiff and turn around to head into the living room to get away from Candy and Stacy. Lord help me they are driving me up a wall. I hear Wes’s deep voice behind me and I see that they have moved back inside. Jimmy wanted to show him downstairs to the man cave. I take advantage and move outside and check out the backyard.

I didn’t get a chance to see the backyard this morning. This is the kind of yard that most people only dream of. They must have paid a fortune to get the grass this perfect. It is going to look gorgeous during the spring and summertime, I can see many parties here. Around one side of the house, they have some lawn chairs set up for seating. I take advantage of the seating and the fresh air, needing to just be by myself so a moment.

I sip away at my wine, not enjoying it as much as I thought I would, but by the time I get to the bottom of the glass, I can feel that there is alcohol content to it and I can feel that warmth spread throughout my body. With everybody inside, I decide to get up and grab a beer from the coolers, but as I round the corner I hear the door open again and Wes and one of the other guys from earlier step back outside again.

I duck back behind the house where I was earlier, I can’t see him, but I can hear their conversation loud and clear. I should just walk around the side of the house or be mature and walk by him and say hi, but I don’t. I stand there and listen to their conversation.

“I can’t believe Tiff let him build his man cave area.” The other guy says to Wes.

“She did make him build it in the basement, so there is that.”

“I guess you’re right. So how’s Annabelle? I was surprised to not see her tonight.”

Annabelle? Who the hell is Annabelle, I think to myself.

“She’s doing good. She’s had a few outbursts at the last couple of parties and get-togethers I’ve tried to take her too so I thought leaving her at home was the best option.”

“Outbursts?” The guy asks the same question that I do.

“Yeah, I love that girl with all my heart, but I swear there are times we just go at each other’s throats all day long. She can just get an attitude and I wanted to enjoy the night without her. I’m sure that makes me sound miserable.”

My heart pounds in my chest, my stomach churns with disgust, and I feel like I’m going to pass out. I gasp a little louder than intended so I reach up with my hand to try and cover my mouth. In my state of shock and awe, I didn’t even think about the wine glass that I was holding in my hand. As I went to cover my mouth, the glass slipped out of my hand and crashed onto the ground, smashing into a million pieces.

I hear both guys rush around the corner to check on the noise and they see me standing there, frozen in place. My eyes go directly to meet Wes’s and before my brain can even register what’s going on, the traitorous tears in my eyes drop down my cheek.

“Holly, what are you doing out here?” Wes exclaims.

“I, um, I, nothing...just...shit….I have to go.”