Page 2 of Begin Again, Part 1

She craned her neck, scanning the room for free seats. As stunning as her Jimmy Choo heels were, her feet were killing her. She had to sit down pronto.

"You must have heard of him. He's like royalty around here," Sienna prattled on. "He's a motorsport driver. Throws the craziest parties. And never dates anyone longer than three months."

"How charming!" Eden said. She'd be lying if she said she'd heard of him. She never paid attention to Rock Castle's social scene.

Her eyes lit up at the empty seats at the bar. It wasn't prime real estate since all the already inebriated idiots gravitated there. But beggars couldn't be choosers. She had to rest her feet.

"Let's go!" She clutched Sienna's hand, and they waded through a swarm of sweaty bodies bobbing to the music, Cassandra and Lydia sticking close to them.

"First round is on me!" Sienna yelled over the pounding music as she tried to catch the bartender's attention.

They kicked off their evening with a round of shooters and gossip and followed it up with cocktails and more scandalous stories. Lydia was banging one of the lighting guys from her filming crew. She had no issue describing his throbbing, turgid parts to anyone who'd listen.

Halfway through her first cocktail, Eden's mood improved. She didn't regret coming to Crush as much.

The DJ switched to one of her favourite EDM tunes. Lydia and Cassandra ran off to the dance floor, shrieking their heads off. Eden watched them shake their hips to the music, a tipsy smile on her face.

"This is not happening!" Sienna looked as white as a sheet of paper as she mumbled in her hands. Eden's heart shattered anew when her gaze clashed with Simon's across the room. Dressed in a skintight metallic dress, Olive hung on his arm like a man purse.

"I didn't think they'd be here."

"I'm okay," said Eden. But she wasn't. She was still so raw over her broken engagement. It wasn't so much the breakup she was struggling with. It was how Simon chose to end their four-year relationship — via a text message. He didn't leave her with just a broken heart, but also the admin of cancelling the wedding and fighting for refunds.

Eden watched them walk around the room, carefree and in love, as if they hadn't left her broken and bruised. The first two weeks after their breakup were brutal. She'd drifted between numb disbelief and heartache, explaining to everyone why her intuition was terribly off the mark about Simon. The worst, though, was calling all hundred guests and telling them the wedding was off. She spent the four weeks after that floating between crushing sadness and rage. She went through all the stages of grief in those weeks. But now, confronted with her heartbreak again, Eden realised she was still nowhere close to acceptance.

"Let's go somewhere else," Sienna suggested.

"No!" Eden refused. She did nothing wrong. If anyone should leave, it was her ex and his cheating heart.

"Fine, if you don't want to leave, let's show the bastard you don't need him!" Sienna hyped her up while they downed the shots lined up on the smooth bar top.

Her friends were right. Six weeks was way too long to sit and cry for a man who had no intention of coming back. So, Eden guzzled her kamikaze shots, one after the other. Her heart, hellishly numb now, was thankful. But her liver begged her to stop when the vodka hit her hard. Sienna warned her to pace herself, but she was past being sensible. She wanted to get shitfaced.

"I'm going to dance!" She hiccupped her way to the dance floor, determined to pick a random stranger to dance with. She wasn't fussy. Anyone would do.

Chapter

Two

MAKE ME FORGET

Liam was the lucky random stranger, and Eden didn't care that a Barbie look-alike was trying to call dibs on him.

"He's with me!" She slurred, propping herself between them.

Dressed in the shortest latex dress Eden had ever seen, Barbie looked ready to murder her, her collagen-pumped lips twitching with distaste as she sized her up.

Liam chuckled, his cheeks and ears turning as red as his hair. "Yeah, I'm with her."

"Your loss!" Barbie flicked her platinum-blonde hair extensions over her shoulder, throwing Eden one last glacial stare.

"Thanks," Liam said as they watched her vanish in the herd of vacant-eyed zombies swaying to the music. "You saved my life."

"Don't mention it." She hiccupped. "And thanks for getting us in."

"I guess being shameless helps sometimes?" Liam said with a hint of a smile in his voice, and she liked him a little then.

A slow jam came on. Out of the corner of her eye, Eden saw Simon and Olive make their way to the dance floor. She panicked and threw herself in Liam's arms. "Pretend you're my boyfriend, okay? Pretend you're in love with me."

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