Ours (Reunited #3)

Chapter 1

Eden

She sat in the corner of the cozy coffee shop, watching the world go by.

More like watching it burn.

For a while, she was alone. Her phone occasionally lit up with a text from someone, but she didn’t bother to look. Eden was too set on sitting in a plush chair, legs crossed with her jacket covering her lap, and her to-go cup occasionally touching her lips as she sipped and sighed.

There were a hundred thoughts in her head.

Almost a whole week had gone by since the greatest coincidence of her life was unceremoniously revealed in one of her boyfriends’ medicine cabinets. After one of the hottest nights of my life. Right on the heels of the other hottest night of her life – with two men, anyway.

Of my life. In my life.

Those were two prevailing thoughts she courted over the past week.

While her time of the month had also swept through, reminding her of hormones, stress, and pain, Eden spent an inordinate amount of time wrapped in a blanket on her loveseat while watching old rom-coms and biting her bottom lip at the thought of my life.

She was only twenty-five. Quarter-life crisis time, some might say.

I’m supposed to know who I am and what I want now.

She was supposed to be bucking the system that said she was either this or that.

She was tasked with looking back on her teenage self, her college-aged self, and even her self of the previous year.

What direction did she go in? How did she meld her past with her future?

How should she even embrace who she was now?

That was what she meditated on when she saw one of her boyfriends come through the coffee shop door and spot her in the darkened corner.

“Hey.” Liam didn’t stop at the counter before claiming the couch next to her.

A small table with a mid-century lamp separated them.

They did not hug, nor did they kiss. While Eden hadn’t broken up with either Benson or Liam after the previous weekend, she had asked for some space to process everything they told her.

Liam was the first one she reached out to the night before.

She had also texted Benson, but hadn’t heard back from him. “How goes it?”

It was such a silly thing to ask her. Especially when she sat there, studying his charcoal gray turtleneck, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows as the day warmed up in the late afternoon.

Liam hadn’t been wearing a jacket when he walked in.

All he carried with him was a messenger bag, probably containing his work laptop, and his phone.

Meanwhile, he must have known that they all had been better.

“All right,” she muttered.

“Feeling better?”

She had almost forgotten that she had dumped all of her period woes on him a couple of nights ago.

And turned down his offer to come and massage my lower back.

Eden was not in the mood to be touched by anyone, least of all a guy who was used to getting a “little something” in return for his attention.

Nope. Not happening. Not until she was done searching the depths of her soul. Or something.

“Yeah.” She put her to-go cup on the table between them. “You?”

He shrugged. It was only then that Eden realized he had been wearing earbuds, which he now removed and placed in their charging case before slipping the whole thing into his messenger bag.

“Been a helluva week.”

“Yeah?”

Liam pulled his bag strap over his head. After the bag ended up on the floor, he explained, “You ever spend several nights hashing it out with your ex?”

She flinched. “That bad?”

“Oh, yeah. He’s that bad.”

Eden didn’t know whether to sigh or chuckle. Damnit, Ben. He was so emotional, wasn’t he? The man who was so practical and put-together when things were fine could fall apart in a snap. “He’s not responding to my texts.”

“Because he thinks you hate him.”

“You’re kidding.”

Liam rolled his eyes as he slumped toward her, hand in his hair and fingers rubbing his forehead.

“You have to understand, Ben’s been living that socially conservative life in public for so long that he…

well, he struggles with having all of him out there when it wasn’t his idea.

He also knows I’m right, as usual, because I kept begging him for us to tell you our history.

It was killing me inside that you didn’t know that Ben and I…

” Liam grunted. “I already told you all this. I won’t repeat it. ”

Indeed, they had a long phone conversation the night before, which led to Eden asking to see him when he was done with his meetings the next day. Now, here they were.

He got up to finally order something. Eden remained in her chair, digesting what he said and reflecting on their conversation the night before.

Benson is embarrassed. So embarrassed that he couldn’t bring himself to talk to Eden right now.

Whether it was the newness of their relationship or her being a younger woman, Eden had no idea, but it was driving her crazy.

Here I thought we separated last Saturday on well-enough terms. She made the two of them tell her everything, including what blew up their engagement, but Benson was still holding something back, and Liam was frustrated at everyone involved.

It had taken three days before Eden even reached out to one of them.

Turned out, during that time, Liam and Benson were hashing out their own issues behind her back.

Liam returned with his own cup. He collapsed into the couch with a heavy breath. “I always said that man would be the death of me.” He took a sip. “And every woman I’ve met.”

Eden threaded her fingers through her hair while her elbow dug into the arm of her chair.

In one weekend, both of her boyfriends had been outed to her as bisexual – never mind former lovers themselves.

Now that she looked at Liam? Yeah, I can see it.

The man was so comfortable around other men, let alone in a sexual capacity, that it seemed natural.

Except Eden had never thought the same thing about Benson, who had his unique kinks, but was always the guy in charge.

Well, she supposed it made sense now. She was simply still reeling from the big reveal.

“He’s had a rough breakup with everyone he’s been in a serious relationship with, it seems,” Eden said.

“You don’t know the half of it. The whole reason Sydney finally filed for divorce was because he came out to her.”

Eden bit her tongue.

“Yeah, I know. The woman who does all those social work charities, including raising money for young queer kids.” Liam snorted. “When it’s her own husband coming out to her, though? Nope. She’s outta there.”

“I won’t pretend to know what really happened,” Eden said, “but I can understand how he might interpret it that way.”

“His daughter is the only one who knows and supports him,” Liam said.

“She knows?”

“Of course. She knew we were together. So did Sydney. It was her big problem with me being around the kid.”

“Goodness.”

“Yup.”

“How long were you two together, exactly?”

Liam looked up toward the ceiling, as if counting the rafters would reveal the years he and Benson were together. “Two years? Engaged for about one. Felt a lot longer than that. One of those when you know, you know things.”

“I can’t imagine you being engaged at twenty-eight.”

“Me neither, but I was.”

“That story about the last girl you and he… shared,” she tacitly said, “about you getting engaged to her…”

“Half-truth, half-lie.”

“I figured.”

“Libby was very serious about us. Wanted one of us, if not both of us, to father her kids. But Ben was snipped, and I brought up that if I were gonna be the bio dad, then it was her and me that should get married, just to make sure all the legal ducks were in the right row. Besides, she was only a year older than me, so it didn’t look weird. ”

“But wouldn’t you two have been living with Ben?”

“Yes. We were looking for a place together when shit blew up.”

“Wow.”

“It was longer ago than when we were together for,” Liam mused.

“Honestly, it was for the best that Libby got cold feet and left. I wasn’t really ready for any of that yet, but she had a ten-year plan for marriage and kids.

Ah, when she left, and it was just Ben and me again…

we decided to go ahead with our engagement. But…”

Eden picked up her cup, urging him to continue.

Liam glanced around to make sure nobody was nearby before continuing.

“But Benson wanted it to just be him and me going forward.

He was tired of the women coming and going.

I think five ‘serious girls' after his divorce and getting with me had messed him up a bit. You know how he is. Mr. Settle-Down. He wanted to go all in on a same-sex relationship, fuck the haters, that kind of thing. I admired him for it, but there was just one really big problem.”

Eden could guess. “You both really love women, too.”

“Just a little.”

“Is that what you two fought over?”

They had been over this a week ago at Benson’s breakfast table, but now that emotions had calmed, she wanted to hear it again from Liam’s mouth.

He was the one holding it together the best, anyway.

“I told him that we didn’t work long-term without a woman.

And going to places like La Mariposa together, as a couple, wouldn’t be enough.

Quite frankly, I wanted a girlfriend. That was the whole deal we made when we decided to get together as more than threesome buddies.

Shit…” Liam leaned his head against the back of the couch, eyes closed.

“Listen to me. Something about that man still makes me kinda emotional.”

“It’s understandable. You guys were engaged. You must have loved each other. Right?”

Liam slowly opened one of his eyes.

“What?”

“Duh.”