Chapter 15
Eden
In a perfect world, Eden would have gotten all the answers she required when her boyfriends dropped by her place, one of them half drunk and the other pretending that everything was normal.
Instead, they gave her a lot of platitudes. “It’s fine. We’re fine. We’re over it. Sorry, Eden. We didn’t mean to make what was supposed to be fun so awkward for all of us. Please forgive us for how that went down. It’s probably for the best we all go home tonight. Call you tomorrow.”
They both shared similar sentiments, although Benson swayed so much where he stood that Eden neither believed he knew what he was saying, nor understood how he was getting home in one piece. Liam promised he’d see Benson home safely. He then had to explain that he knew where Benson lived already.
Something was going on there. Eden just had to figure it out – or squirrel it out of them.
To say she was pissed was an understatement.
She said as much to Benson when he called her, hungover, the next afternoon.
“You guys, but especially you, left me feeling so humiliated.” She didn’t have to worry about crying, because that was so far from her mind when dressing down a man old enough to be her father.
“I was standing there with my boobs out, thinking I was gonna get slammed and a half, and you just… walked out? Tossed money at me? Fuck you, Ben.”
He apologized over and over, but Eden told him it would take a few days to think about what she wanted.
In the meantime, Liam contacted her. Every time he had the opportunity to explain his history with Benson, he skirted answers like a ballroom dancer dodging stepping in the same place twice.
Eden only agreed to go out with him that night if he promised to explain something.
What she got was Mexican takeout at Liam’s place and a watered-down rendition of how they had met in the city several years ago and then ended up at La Mariposa a few weeks later.
They became past friends when they realized they had some “synergy.”
Honestly, Liam was more interested in detailing how he became one of Drew’s babysitters than any real details about why he and Benson were friends, despite being ten years apart and having such different personalities.
When Eden called him out on this, Liam blushed and said, “Some really personal stuff that I don’t want to get into without Ben saying it’s okay. It’s awkward.”
Eden didn’t care. And the only reason she stayed the night with Liam was because she was still so sexually frustrated from the night before.
To his credit, Liam didn’t ask for further details about what she and Benson had been up to. Because Eden was embarrassed about that, too. On Sunday Morning, she pointedly asked Liam if he was bothered by her potentially sleeping with a different man on Friday night.
“It’s not like we’re exclusive,” he said over coffee and day-old pastries. “It’s not like I went there to be an angel.”
“You were gonna sleep with another woman if you found someone.”
“Something like that. I honestly didn’t know what to expect.”
Eden had to sit with that for a moment. “Maybe we should define the parameters more. Dating two men is enough as it is. I don’t know what I was thinking, letting Ben talk me into that…”
“It’s Ben. He’ll talk anyone he can into that.”
“You’re speaking from experience?”
“Of course I am.”
Eden stopped drinking her half-warm coffee. “You and he used to threesome with women, didn’t you?” She cleared her throat. “That’s what you don’t want to talk to me about. That you guys are very familiar with each other, already.”
Liam chuckled. “Can only imagine how you figured that out.”
She wasn’t in the mood for his sarcasm. “How serious was it?”
When he must have realized that she wasn’t backing down until she got some explanation, Liam said, “Serious enough that we had four long-term girlfriends together.”
“Four?”
“Technically, you’re almost the fifth. Assuming we make it past like… three months?”
“That’s not long-term, Liam.”
“Says who?”
“Most women!”
Why was he laughing? Was he that uncomfortable? “Okay. We had four girlfriends that I would consider long-term. Meaning they lasted a lot longer than one-night stands, and there was talk of it being a very permanent thing.”
“I can’t believe it. What are the odds?”
“Don’t worry, love. I’ve been asking myself the same thing.”
He promised her that they would all have a chat together once they got through to Benson that it was paramount.
But Liam warned her that he often eschewed serious talks that involved other men because, “he’s gotta be the biggest butch in the room.
” It was the only thing to make Eden laugh all morning.
After she left his place and he departed to attend a work brunch, Eden spent the rest of her day alone.
She needed a moment to herself, to simply think.
The woman was so blindsided by both of her boyfriends – who were already a big enough coincidence as it was – knowing each other.
Let alone being threesome buddies for years.
And Eden? She had almost been in the middle of their very experienced sandwich.
That thought should have turned her on. And it did, a little.
But her need to know more, let alone the truth, won out over her horny brain.
She sent texts to both Liam and Benson that she didn’t want to go out with either of them until they had laid all the cards out on the table and could come to some agreement as the three of them.
Liam readily agreed. Benson took a few hours to reply, but claimed it was because he was with his daughter that day and giving her his undivided attention.
But when he did, it was to simply say, “I’m sorry, angel. We’ll figure something out.”
Eden had half a mind to throw her phone at the wall. And they say we women are cryptic? She’d like to meet anyone who said that to try anything with Benson Smith and Liam Ashe!
The two men I can’t stop thinking about. And all the possibilities they presented to a woman like Eden.
That was it. First? She was taking a hard look at her money and figuring out her future as a single woman. Only then would she entertain the two dinguses giving her the runaround.
They do give me a good runaround…
No! She had to focus. It was about Eden’s future, not whatever the hell those boys offered. Monetarily. Emotionally. Sexually.
She quivered at the thought.