Begin Again novel Chapter 147

The girls were already seated in a corner booth, nibbling on their quesadillas and sipping their warm drinks, when Eden stepped into Rise in the food court some five minutes later.

"Gah! I need something strong today!" She blew out an exasperated sigh and hid her face in her hands as soon as she sat down.

"That bad, huh?" Cassandra asked, patting her back gently.

"Here," Sienna murmured and slid the chai latte they'd ordered for her across the table. "Have something light instead. You'll thank me later when you wake up with no hangover tomorrow morning."

"Thanks," Eden mumbled and stared broodily at her cup. "I must have been insane. Honestly, I think I've lost my mind. Why didn't you guys stop me when I applied for a job here?"

"Well," Lydia smiled wickedly and shrugged. "We did, but you wanted Liam's dick so bad it was obvious anything we said wasn't gonna fly!"

"Lydia!" Eden looked around the room cautiously, making sure no one had heard her comment. "He's my boss, and half the people in here report to him. Watch what you say!"

"And he's your baby daddy!" Lydia shot back as she hunched over the table and frowned at her. "Anyway, why was he crawling my blog again today?"

Eden sighed again before filling them in on the board meeting earlier as she reached for Sienna's untouched chocolate croissant and wolfed it down in a few quick bites. 

If she was so hungry, she figured Liam must be famished as well since he hardly snacked on anything during the meeting. So she texted Clara and asked her to sort out Liam's lunch while she absently pitched the brand ambassador idea to Lydia once again and attacked Cassandra's half-eaten bran muffin.

"Are you pregnant?" Lydia demanded, completely ignoring everything she'd said to her. "Why are you eating so much?"

"Yeah," Cassandra joined in as she sipped her tea and paged through a food and wine magazine. "You used to eat like a hippo before you found out you were pregnant with Aiden."

"Shut up," Eden grumbled in between mouthfuls. "If you had to work for the Dragon, you'd be hungry too."

"That's his nickname?" Sienna giggled. "I can see him breathing fire on your house and burning it down, I mean after the way he stomped to your front door yesterday." 

The image Sienna painted with her words was so vivid, Eden couldn't help but shudder a little. Ever since Liam rocked up at her place unannounced and spent the night, she felt like she was living on the edge, and it was only a matter of time before her secret about Aiden came to light.

"So, last night." Cassandra brought up the elephant in the room. They had to address it at some point. "What exactly happened after your dinner? You were supposed to check-in, but you went radio silent on us."

Reluctantly, Eden filled them in on their meeting with Randolph, their subsequent fight over Liam's kiss with Laura and his Houdini stunt three weeks ago.

"That bitch!" Lydia seethed over Laura, shaking her fists in front of her. "She's lucky I wasn't there. I would have gone apeshit on her."

"I'm more interested in how the fight with Liam ended?" Sienna went in for the kill. "Did it end with a romp in his Egyptian cotton sheets?"

Eden didn't have to say anything for her friends to figure out how her night ended. The way she blushed said it all. Still, they tried to get her to spill all the details, but she held firm and remained evasive. 

"Gosh, you won't tell us, will you?" Sienna complained after they'd tried every trick in the book to get her to share more details.

Eden shook her head and changed the subject quickly by appealing to Lydia's vanity. "Liam's not letting this shit go. He's looked at ten other influencers, but his heart is set on you because you don't have too many skeletons in your closet, and you don't court controversy too much."

Like Eden knew she would, her friend beamed at the compliment. She prided herself on being famous for all the right reasons. 

"Go on," Lydia smiled, tapping her ombre nails on the table in time with the beat blasting from the overhead speakers. "Tell me more."

Eden made a face but continued wooing her friend anyway. "Lyd, this is an opportunity of a lifetime. I mean, we're talking six figures and a bazillion other perks, and imagine having a sponsor as huge as Anderson Logistics. Just meet with our marketing team, listen to the pitch and take it from there." 

"Sure," Lydia agreed at last. "But you have to be there, and I want to deal with you only."