Begin Again novel Chapter 129

Eden stared at her phone, unable to believe the last five minutes.

"What the hell?" She fumed as she dumped it on the table and picked up her glass of water.

"Is everything okay?" Cassandra asked.

They were at Heat, an Asian fusion eatery in downtown Rock Castle, celebrating Sienna's 26th birthday.

To say Liam's call was unexpected was an understatement.

"Three weeks without a word from him, and when he finally calls, he has the nerve to make demands on me!" Eden fumed and seethed and fussed as she replayed her phone conversation to her friends.

They all listened and sipped their saké and nibbled on their sushi.

"Can you believe him?" She asked for the millionth time as she picked up her chopsticks, twirled them in her fingers and dumped them on the table again.

"What did he want?" Sienna asked.

"To go with him to see his—" She stopped herself before she could let the cat out of the bag. Her friends still didn't know about Liam and Linda.

"Go with him where?" Lydia asked, her eyes shining with curiosity.

"To an offsite meeting," she finished off flatly, glad she didn't entirely lie to them.

"Well, that's your job, isn't it? What's the issue?" Cassandra added, confusion flickering in her eyes.

Eden shook her head. It's complicated; they wouldn't understand why she's so pissed off.

Heck, she didn't even understand it herself. She had no business missing Liam. But the last few weeks, when he was out of town, doing only Lord knew what were a nightmare for her.

She knew he wouldn't call or text, especially after the way they'd left things off and not when there were still so many question marks and too many loose ends hanging over their messy relationship. But her stupid heart had held out hope and watched her phone like a hawk.

To keep herself busy and stop obsessing over the calls and texts that never came, she had resorted to taking up sketching again. By the end of the second week of not hearing from Liam, her sketchpad was almost full with his and Aiden's faces.

The nights, though, were the absolute worst. That's when she missed and needed him the most. More so when she remembered how he had almost fucked her in his office.

"Why don't you want to go with him?" Lydia prodded, breaking through her thoughts.

Thankfully she was saved from answering when the waitstaff hurdled around them to serenade Sienna with their rendition of the birthday song.

"Oh, you guys," Sienna gushed. "You didn't have to do this. You know how I feel about all the attention."

They all rolled their eyes at her. She thrived on all the attention and was big on birthdays and any days that demanded gifts like Valentines Day and Christmas. One year she even tried to con all of them into getting her gifts for Easter.

As usual, Lydia took dozens of photos and videos for her vlog.

The party broke up shortly after Sienna blew out the twenty-six candles on her decadent male stripper cake. It was Lydia's idea, of course, arguing if their bestie couldn't have a real dick on her birthday because she was single again, she may as well have a gluten-free one instead.

Eden's evening went from fabulous to disaster when Cassandra turned into her street, and they saw a line of dark luxury cars outside her house.

"Oh, My God!" Eden cried, her eyes dark with horror.

"Is it the president?" Lydia was practically jumping in her seat as they pulled into the driveway.

"Are you drunk?" Cassandra glared at her.

"It's Liam, you fool!" Sienna whacked Lydia gently on the head with a rolled-up magazine.

"Oh God, this is not happening!" Eden shrieked again, refusing to leave the car. Not without a plan, at least.