1Thank you everyone for being so helpful and patient!! It means a lot. A conclusion has been reached: there's no real way of knowing. I leaned towards the majority of people's guesses, so I'm really hoping everyone's happy with it. If not, then I'm really sorry, but I couldn't continue without making the choice.

So here's the new chapter. I am really hoping you like it!!

"One down," I began, setting another finger sandwich on the tray. "Two hundred more to go." Delia shot me a look. "How will you manage?"

Her brows narrowed in confusion. "Aren't you helping me?"

I nodded slowly. "For now," I said. "But I have to meet Mark for those parts I ordered, remember?"

Her face paled. "What?!" Her voice was higher than a dog whistle. "You're leaving me?!"

"I have to!" I said, holding my hands up in case she attacked me. She looked frazzled enough to be thinking about it. "It's the only time he'll be...close." I didn't necessarily think an hour-long drive was considered "close", but oh well.

"How am I supposed to finish these, Wesley?!" she demanded.

I gave her a look, spreading more cream cheese than necessary on the bread. "You have other employees, you know," I reminded her gently.

She furrowed her brows, looking past me as she thought about something. Then, she grabbed her tattered old phone number book out from the drawer and leafed through the pages, grabbing the phone. She pulled out a little rectangle of a business card and studied it through squinted eyes.

As she dialed a number, Lucy apparently thought this was her cue to start wailing. I moved to console her, but Delia nudged me back to the counter. "Just finish the sandwiches!" she hissed. "Hi, Mrs. Queen? It's Delia from Wish Catering, you might remember me." There was a pause, but the name didn't seem to ring a bell to me. "No, no. Actually, I'm calling for Macy...Thank you."

Ah, so she was going to try to reel the unsuspecting Macy in. Poor girl.

Lucy continued sobbing, but she wouldn't say anything, just kept reaching her hands up in the air, as though whatever she wanted at the moment would materialize.

"Oh, Lucy, honey, please," Delia begged. "You only do this when I'm on the phone, why is that? Hmmm? Why-Macy, hi, it's Delia"

I spread more cream cheese onto the next sandwich, dutifully ignoring Lucy's relentless howling.

"Oh, Lucy, sweetie, please God I'm begging you, just let Mommy talk for five seconds." I snorted, and Delia picked up an old stuffed bunny off the counter and wiggled it in front of the tot. "Look, here's your bunny, see?"

Lucy grabbed the bunny and clutched it to her chest, eventually calming down.

"What a selling point," I whispered to Delia, and she shot me another glare.

"Macy, I am so sorry. Are you still there?"

She sighed, seemingly fed up with chaos, and began, "The reason I'm calling..." she paused dramatically. "Is that I'm kind of in a bind and I could use an extra pair of hands. I've got this big luncheon thing tomorrow-" She stole a quick glance at my slow progress before continuing. "And currently I'm about two hundred finger sandwiches behind. Can you help me out?"

I rolled my eyes. I'd finished at least eight sandwiches.

"I know it's short notice," she continued quickly. "But everyone else already had plans. So don't feel bad about saying no." She stopped, obviously feeling defeated. "It was just a shot in the dark, you know. I dug out your mom's business card and thought I'd at least try to woo you over here...And it's perfectly understandable too. I mean, I don't know why you'd want to spend a few hours up to your elbows in watercress and cream cheese." I paused in my sandwich-making, spotting the forgotten container of watercress next to the toaster...Oops. "Unless you just had nothing else to do."

Delia paused to listen, as I hurriedly began shoveling the watercress onto my "finished" sandwiches, hoping she wouldn't notice.

"Really? Wonderful." I looked up at her, and she was grinning like she'd been thrown a lifesaver. My eyebrows raised in my own accord, surprised that she'd agree to help. "Oh, God. You're saving my life! Here, let me give you the directions. Now, it's kind of a ways out, but I'll pay you from right now, so your driving time will be on the clock."

She hung up gleefully after giving her the essential information.

"What a nice girl," she sighed, waddling over to the counter to continue making sandwiches. I nodded absent-mindedly, feeling slightly guilty now about bailing. Maybe I should stay...

Delia interrupted my thoughts. "Didn't you used to run with her when you were little?" Her brows furrowed in thought. "I recognize the name..."

I cleared my throat. "Her dad coached Bert and me. I think I saw her a few times at the meets. A few years ago, when I was just getting started, her dad bought one of my sculptures for her." I paused before adding, "It might have been for her sister though."

"I didn't see her sister," Delia remarked, shooting an anxious glance at Lucy as she gurgled unhappily.

I paused, having realized something. "Come to think of it," I began slowly. "I didn't see her dad."

My aunt shrugged. "Maybe the two went somewhere together," she offered. "Or maybe they got divorced."

"Maybe," was all I said.

Delia suddenly smiled. "I remember when you two used to run together," she declared, her eyes glazing over in memory. "Bert would always get so jealous that you were faster," she said. "And you would always try to help him and tell him what a good runner he was." She laughed. "Ever the caring brother."

I smiled and rolled my eyes. "If I was a good brother, I wouldn't have let him buy that old ambulance."

Delia laughed and waved her hand. "Nonsense," she said. "He loves that thing."

I scowled. "He's not going to love it when it breaks down in the middle of nowhere. And I won't be when I have to go get him."

She smiled and shook her head. "Oh, Wes."

I was just about to grab my keys and leave when I heard a ridiculously familiar sound echoed from outside: the thunk of yet another victim falling prey to the Hole.

"Oh God," I groaned, and headed out the door to help. The summer air was dry, and I squinted anxiously at the poor car that was lopsided into the hole, hoping nobody was hurt. It might have been Macy, but I didn't figure she would get here so fast.

"Whatever you do," I said as I got closer, "don't try and reverse out of it. That only makes it worse..." I trailed off as I reached the driver's side of the car at last. Sure enough, it was Macy, but that's not what surprised me.

I'd seen her in the lamp light late at night, but now, I was actually looking at her in the sunlight, and I realized the night didn't do her justice at all.

She had that timid, in-your-dreams kind of beauty. The girl-next-door look that kept you up at night, thinking about how there's no way in hell a guy could ever get her. The kind of beauty that you don't truly notice at first, but when you do, you really notice...Like I was doing now.

"Hey," I breathed, trying to look more casual.

"Hi," she began sheepishly, obviously embarrassed with her predicament. "I'm, um-"

"Stuck." I knelt down to take a look at how badly she was stuck. The tire was pretty jammed in there, and I shook my head, denouncing Delia's unfathomable love for this stupid hole.

I looked back up and swallowed, finding myself face-to-face with the girl I'd spent a nice amount of time gawking at. Her grey eyes were startlingly deep, a pool of secrets locked away in an attempt to conceal them from the world. It worked, for I had no idea what the emotions beneath them could be.

I cleared my throat. "Yup," I began. "You're in there, all right."

"I was warned, too." She sighed, obviously reluctant to have shared this piece of information. "I just saw that sculpture, and I got distracted."

I had to stand up; it wasn't easy to listen to her when I was gaping at her face. "The sculpture?" I replied, trying to make sense of her words. I looked at it, the sentence finally falling together, and back to her. "Oh, right." It was a bigger replica of the sculpture her dad had purchased, so it must have been for her. "Because you know it."

Her brow furrowed in obvious confusion. "What?"

I looked at her. Even if her sister had gotten it, she would have recognized it, right? Unless she just didn't remember it...Ouch.

I shook my head. "Nothing," I replied lamely. "I just thought maybe, um, you'd seen it before, or something," I stumbled. " There are a few around town." I made a note to kick myself later.

She looked back at the sculpture, and I wanted to think that there was subtle admiration in her eyes. I couldn't understand why her opinion of it mattered to me. "No, I haven't," she finally answered, her head cocking slightly to the side as she continued to look at it. "It's amazing, though."

I smiled genuinely in response and opened my mouth to reply, but Delia chose the moment to come outside.

"Macy? Is that you?" she yelled. "Oh, God, I forgot to tell you about the hole. Hold on, we'll get you out." I rolled my eyes. By we, she meant me. "I'm such an idiot. Just let me call Wes."

"I'm on it," I called back to her. I turned back to this Macy. "Hold tight. I'll be back in a second."

I went through the process of getting her out. It was like second-nature to me, fishing people out of the Hole, considering how much I had to do it. The last step was usually listening to the people argue at me, as if I had any say in filling the hole up.

I got out of my truck, and untied the rope. "You're fine now," I said, loud enough for her to be able to hear me. "Just keep to the left. Way left."

She stuck her head out the window as I began tying the rope in on itself. "Thank you," she said, sincerely grateful. There was one I hadn't heard before. "Really."

"No problem," I responded, a little taken aback. "I do it all the time," I continued. "Just pulled out the FedEx guy yesterday." I sighed and shook my head, tossing the rope into the truck bed and recalled the purple color of the man's face. "He was not happy."

Macy smiled slightly, glancing down at the carnivorous hole. "It's a big hole."

"It's a monster. We need to fill it, but we never will." I shot a glare at Delia, who was sitting contentedly on the porch steps, but she only smiled and got up to head towards us.

"Why not?" Macy asked, and I could tell how simple the solution was to her, as if she didn't have an insane aunt hellbent on scattering difficulties throughout life.

I wondered if I had time to say this aloud before Delia could hear me..."It's a family thing," I responded instead, knowing I couldn't get away with it. I sighed. "Some people believe everything happens for a reason. Even massive holes."

She looked at me, a slight smile on her lips. "But you don't."

"Nope." I pulled my eyes off of her face in favor of studying the hole. Would I have been happier if Macy hadn't fallen into the Hole, and we'd never had this little encounter? I sighed under my breath, trying to sweep this little infatuation under the carpet before it could get me into trouble. It would definitely not be a good idea to stick around, then.

I looked back to her. "Anyway," I said. "I'll see you around."

"Thanks again."

I nodded absent-mindedly. "No problem. Just remember: left."

""Way left," she responded, and I smiled, nodding again. I jingled the keys in my hand and tapped on her bumper as I passed to climb back into the truck. I was going to get out of here before I changed my mind.