I’m completely freaking out at the situation I have found myself in and in a total panic, I reach down to grab the large pieces of glass from the wine glass. My brain is not functioning properly, so I grab a jagged piece, and it jabs right into my hand. I attempt to ignore the pain in my chest, the glass in my hand, the anger in my mind, and the tears falling from my eyes.

“Holly, shit, let me help you.” Wes bends down next to me and I shove him away. In doing so I lose my balance and inadvertently place my hand right on the broken glass and even smaller shards crunch into my skin. If I wasn’t already experiencing a high-level of emotion, I’d probably be sobbing uncontrollably.

“Oh dammit, Holly, are you okay?” Wes tries to grab my hand and I pull it away from him and stand up. I carefully take steps around the glass and try to hurry into the house without making a scene. It was too late though. The other guy that was with Wes had apparently gone inside to say something and Tiff, Jimmy, and Stacy are rushing outside to see what happened.

“Holly, your hand!” Stacy shrieks and I look down at my hand that is covered full of blood and pieces of glass clearly sticking out of it. Tiff rushes inside to grab a towel and when she returns she tries to wrap it around my hand herself, but I just grab the towel from her and wrap it myself.

“I’m fine. I need to go. This was a mistake.” I rush through the house and out the front door, making large strides, attempting to get to my car. By now the pain from the glass is beginning to bypass my broken heart and I realize that this situation is really fucked up.

“Holly! Holly, please wait!” I hear Wes calling my name, but it just makes me move faster to avoid him. I dig into my purse with my left hand and grab my keys, attempting to unlock the door and get it. Before I can get in my car, Wes puts his hand over my shoulder and holds the door closed. His other hand wraps around my elbow gently as he attempts to turn me around.

“Please let me go,” I say through my tears.

“What happened back there, Holly? What are you even doing here?”

I turn around to face him, trying to put on a brave face. “Tiff invited me. I’m friends with her. Remember? I made her wedding cake.”

“What are you talking about? Why would I know how made Tiff’s wedding cake?”

I wave my left hand in front of me, trying to get him to step back. “I don’t know why you decided to pick me, Wes, I’d say I’m flattered, but I’m not. I’m so fucking embarrassed right now. Please just let me go home.”

“About your hand?” He asks. “There is nothing to be embarrassed about. We’re all just worried that you’re hurt.”

“Not my hand, I don’t care about my hand. I heard you talking to that guy, Wes. About Annabelle.”

He takes a step back and puts his hands up, “Listen, Holly, about that.”

He starts to talk, but I cut him off. “About what? You two were having troubles at home so you thought the best course of action was to get a side piece or something?”

His eyebrows furrow, “What the hell are you talking about, Holl? Annabelle is….”

I cut him off, not giving him the chance to respond. “You know I really fucking liked you, Wes. I was so excited about what could be between us. I had the BEST time the night you came over to my place. What was going on? Are you going to go all Friends on me and tell me that you were on a break?”

“Holly….” He tries once again, but I cut him off once more.

“No, I’m not done. Then you couldn’t even have the balls to tell me that you just needed to get your rocks off for a one-nighter. You send me a damn text message telling me that you don’t want to see me anymore? “

I step forward and point my finger at his chest. “Well jokes on you Wes, I don’t want to see you. I don’t want you anywhere near my damn bubble because you are nothing but a liar and a cheater and a coward. That is exactly what you are Wes. A damn coward!”

Wes just looks at me with a shocked face. I thought I was done, but before I knew it more words were falling out of my mouth. “Does Annabelle even know you go around sleeping with other women or is this some arrangement the two of you have?”

“Of course she doesn’t know,” He says with almost a laugh.

“Well, maybe she needs to know!”

“Holly.”

“WHAT?” I scream at him as I shove him back with my free hand.

He smirks at me and then takes my left hand and moves it down off my hist. “Annabelle is my daughter.”

I wish I could disappear right now. I’m pretty sure if this was a movie it would be one of those times where the world stops and the character keeps experiencing time. Except this isn’t a movie and Wes is looking at me like I’m a psycho and frankly I’m not shocked because I am acting a bit crazy right now. I look behind Wes and notice that about a dozen people are standing in the front yard staring at us, watching our altercation go down. Yep, I wish I could disappear.

Wes takes another step back and tucks his hands into his pockets.

“I’m….I’m sorry,” I say to him.

Tiff comes around the car and puts her arm around my shoulder. “Hey, Holly, let’s go clean that hand up, and then maybe Stacy can drive you to the hospital to get it checked out.”

I walk with Tiff but turn back around to see Wes standing there looking at me the entire time. He starts walking towards Tiff and me when Candy steps in front of him and puts her hands on his chest. I can’t hear everything, but I heard her mutter, “a fucking text message?” right before Tiff and I got in the house. I sit down on the toilet as she starts the water, gently blotting my hand with warm water. I cringe every time she touches it.

“Sorry, I know it hurts.”

“Yeah. It does.” I wipe the tears from my face with my free hand.

“I’m not sure if you’re talking about your hand or about Wes.”

“I’m not sure either.”

“Listen, I know that you probably think I’m only saying this because he’s my brother-in-law, but what you’re saying happened, that doesn’t sound like Wes at all.”

“That doesn’t matter anymore anyway,” I snap back at her.

“Why do you say that?” Tiff pries some more.

“I’m pretty sure after totally humiliating myself for the hundredth time in front of him that I’m going to have to join witness protection and start over somewhere in Kentucky.”

“I don’t think it is that bad. I once freaked out in front of Jimmy’s entire family. In fact, I locked myself in the bathroom much like we are now.”

“Really? What happened?”

Tiff continues to clean my hand, “Apparently, Jimmy was engaged a long time ago, like way before I landed in Valley View. Bobby let it slip at dinner one time. He thought I knew. I didn’t know. So I kind of freaked out and bawled my eyes out in the bathroom.”

“I would have been pretty hurt too.”

“Yeah, I definitely didn’t act in the most mature way though. But we talked about it and got through it. So maybe you and Wes could talk. I mean, if you’re interested still.”

I scoff at the idea, “I accused him of dating his daughter, that’s got to be in the unforgivable range of things.”

“You never know if you don’t talk to him.”

Tiff puts some gauze around my hand and by the time we leave the bathroom it looks like most of the people have left. In the living room are still the people that had been outside, which is super embarrassing.

Stacy stands up and approaches me, “Let me take you to the hospital in Waldorf so you can get that looked at.”

“Before you go, do you mind, Holly, because I feel like maybe we all got off on the wrong foot?” I nod at Tiff. “Holly, you know Jimmy, but these are Jimmy’s brothers. Wes is the oldest. He has an adorable two-year-old daughter named Annabelle. Then Bobby and Tyler are the younger Brown brothers.”

The guy named Bobby was the one that Wes was talking to earlier. He gives me a polite nod and Tyle, who is sitting by Candy waves in my direction. This whole thing is just becoming too much for me.

“I’m sorry that I ruined everybody’s night. Can we go, Stacy?”

Stacy takes my keys from the table on the front door and walks with me out to the car. We make the two-hour drive to Waldorf in mostly silence. I appreciate her being my friend enough to know that talking is the last thing I want to do. The wait at the hospital isn’t too bad. The doctor said nothing needed stitches, but they did a nice thorough cleaning. We’re on our way back home when my phone dings with a text from Wes.

Wes: This is all my fault. Please call me when you’re home so we can talk.

Unsure how to respond to it, I close my phone and tuck it back into my purse. I lay my head back onto the headrest and close my eyes, trying to process this entire situation. Also trying to figure out how the hell I’m going to work with my hand messed up.