"Do you remember how I used to tell you that you hated Roger more than you loved me? " Ross said before dropping on the couch.

"Sure. To me it doesn't seem like that long ago, you know." Holly answered despondently, sitting next to him.

"Well, that's what got the best of us in the end."

Holly gave him a desperate look, not unlike the one she had given him all those years ago in Acapulco when he had told her it was over. Ross had to remind himself that all this was news to her.

"Come on, Holly, don't you remember Acapulco at all?" he asked.

White roses. That's all it conjured her, but she couldn't fathom why. She shook her head.

"Let me tell you about it then. But whatever I say to you, please remember that what happened all those years ago can't hurt you anymore because it is all in the past. You have moved on."

Holly lightly stroked his hand and tried to smile. "Thank you for trying to spare me. You're as gentle as I remember."

Ross cleared his throat, embarrassed, and recounted to her how she had agreed to seduce Roger during a convention in Acapulco so that Alexandra Spaulding could get a divorce and drive him out of town and out of their lives. How the plan had backfired and how he had found out about it.

"That you would go to such lengths to get rid of him, that you would keep such a secret from me, I just couldn't accept it. So I broke off our engagement."

Holly hid her face in her hands. "We were engaged?"

Ross replied in a sad tone: "I was crazy about you, Holly."

Holly fell back on the couch, feeling too numb to cry. Ross got up, went to the mini-bar and came back with two small vodka bottles. He handed one to her.

"We still managed to stay friends, you should know that," he said as he sat back down.

Holly took a long sip before answering with a hint of sarcasm: "Better than nothing I suppose. How did I ever get back with Roger, Ross? I am still waiting for you to tell me this is all a big bad joke."

"You're going to have to ask him to fill in the blanks, but from what I gather, it all started back in Acapulco."

"You mean we've been together since then?"

"Oh, no, but that's when you two came to terms with the fact that he had raped you all those years ago. There just came a time when you two became tired of hating each other."

"So we became best buddies and all was good with the world?"

"Not quite," Ross laughed, genuinely amused about some epic fights he had witnessed between Holly and Roger. "You had many relapses. For example, you would date someone and it would not sit well with Roger; then he would be the one to meet somebody and it would be your turn to be jealous, although you would never admit it. I can tell you that into more detail later, but for now, let's just say that for years you two couldn't stay out of each other's way. It was obvious to all of us that sooner or later, something was going to happen between you two."

"How could I let him touch me again? I must have been out of my mind."

"It's true that you must have been much shaken when you two…made love again."

Holly opened her eyes wide. "How would you know?"

"He had just saved your life, and Ed's. He prevented him from falling off a cliff. Very ironic, I know," he added when he saw disbelief on Holly's face.

Not wanting to get into the detail of Maureen Bauer's death and the fact that Holly had taken care of Ed's daughter for a couple of months, Ross chose his words carefully before telling her about the events that has happened at the cliff house three years ago.

"And when you wouldn't marry him, he told everyone that you two had slept together. We were all at the country club and he made a show of it. Classic Roger," Ross concluded.

Holly ran a hand trough her head, aware that she was becoming slightly tipsy. No one could face this kind of evening sober anyway, she thought to herself. She took another long gulp.

"Looks to me like Roger and I drifted apart, not that like we found our way towards one another," she deadpanned.

"Right, and maybe you never would have went back to him if he hadn't been shot."

Holly stood upright, blinking. "Go on."

"He was wanted by the police at that time – he can tell you about it later – and so he broke into your house and hid for days until you found him."

"And then I took care of him," Holly stated.

"Yes - wait, how do you know?"

"I think I remember. I thought it was just a dream. He was lying on a couch…the couch was white with blue stripes –"

"Yes! That was your house! Do you remember anything else?"

Holly sighed. "Maybe. When you mentioned Acapulco, I saw white flowers. Do you know why that is?"

Ross smiled. "You had white roses at your wedding, and you got married in Acapulco. I guess you guys wanted to tie the knot in a meaningful place. And you don't know this, but you're a newlywed; those creeps kidnapped you on your honeymoon."

Newlywed! Holly's mind started racing. Maybe it wasn't too late to get an annulment. If not, then it would have to be a divorce. She would not, could not be Holly Thorpe again, whatever Ross or anyone said about it. She looked at her ex-fiancé and a fresh wave of despair washed over her. If she couldn't be with him, what was the point of anything anyway? She suddenly felt tired and longed to sleep. There was one more thing she had to find out, however, even though she dreaded the answer.

"What about you Ross? Who did you get married to?"

Johnny never liked Roger, but he couldn't help feeling sorry for him that night. Everything about him screamed of helplessness: the way he sat at the bar, his shoulders slumped and his hands idly playing with his glass of whisky, the way his eyes stared in the distance, unable to focus on anything.

"Holly is strong. She will get over this, I am sure," he volunteered after they had been sitting in silence for a while.

"I hope so. I just hope she'll allow me to be around when it happens. Everything about this is just so…frustrating!" Roger replied, suddenly banging his fist on the bar. "I just wish there was something I could do."

They both turned when Ross entered the bar, white as a sheet. Roger ran up to him. "What happened?"

Ross wiped the sweat off his brow. "I tried to go easy on her, but she wouldn't let it rest!"

"What do you mean? What did you tell her?" Roger asked, resisting the urge to shake his son-in-law.

"All I wanted to do what to give her an account of how you two had ended up together again. I started with Acapulco, then the cliff house, the time that you were shot, and I ended with your wedding. I tried to focus on the positive stuff, I really did, but she just had to know."

"Had to know what? Speak, for Christ's sake!" Johnny said, getting impatient himself.

Ross sat down, hardly able to meet their eyes. "She wanted to know who I was married to. She wouldn't let me leave until I told her. Now I feel like a jerk all over again."

"I am sure she'll get over it, whoever your wife is." Johnny said.

Ross finally looked up. "I am married to Blake."

Johnny almost dropped his drink. "God! She must be devastated!"

"That's the understatement of the year. She slapped me with all that she got and threw me out, just like the first time she found out about Blake and me."

"That's it, I am going to see her," Roger said, heading for the stairs.

"She doesn't want to see you, Roger. She said she was done with assholes for the night, and that she wanted to see Johnny. Nobody else."