Page 62 of Begin Again, Part 1

Alone, at last, Eden was relieved she could finally put away her Stepford wives' smile. She never understood the commitment it took to smile when you were sad or fake happiness when all you wanted to do was cry...Until now.

As she unpacked her stationery box and arranged her impressive collection of flowers on the sorry-looking credenza behind her desk, she had a newfound appreciation for Lydia and her craft. Acting took commitment and effort. Two things she'd need in spades if she planned to keep moonlighting at Anderson Logistics.

For a little while, she poured all her energy into setting up her office. She rearranged the furniture and dusted and wiped everything until it was spotless before turning to the window to open the blinds. Her view wasn't bad, but it paled in comparison to Liam's.

She spent a few minutes gazing at the smokers on the rooftop of the building across—some law firm, Hayes & Jones, if she remembered correctly—only to be pulled away by her phone going off.

She rooted inside the bag and pulled it out, gritting her teeth when she saw the caller ID. Her mom got straight to the point and insisted she should come home for dinner. They had news to share, and it could no longer wait. If Eden didn't make a plan to come around soon, they'd have no choice but to make the trip to her little bungalow.

"Those threats don't work with me, Mom. Please stop calling me. I'll decide when you get to see my son!"

Feeling no guilt whatsoever, Eden hung up. She knew the urgent news they wanted to share was nothing but a ploy to see Aiden. She wouldn't fall for it.

She was still fuming when a notification popped up. She had a match on Hot Connexions. She narrowed her eyes, the longer she scanned through the info. Isaac Jones was cute, educated, and had a decent job as a lawyer. So why was he single?

Eden scrolled through his profile one more time, making sure she hadn't made things up about him. Satisfied her eyes weren't deceiving her, and despite her gut telling her he was too good to be true, she agreed to a coffee chat.

Isaac was online, and he responded almost immediately. Since he worked at the law firm across Anderson Logistics, the same place she was staring at moments before the call with her mom, he didn't mind popping in one of the afternoons. Eden needed a handyman urgently. The sooner they met and she friend-zoned him, the better. They settled for a coffee chat the following week after she'd confirmed her schedule.

She texted her friends in the group chat, and they went wild over Isaac's photo. They couldn't stop gushing about his hazel eyes and dimples. Lydia was super chuffed with her Hot Connexions idea. She'd outdone herself and reckoned if acting and brainwashing internet users didn't work out for her in the long run, she could always go into matchmaking. Cassandra and Sienna were happy Eden would finally get laid and end her two-year dry spell.

She was still chatting away when Clara came to pick her up for her first-ever training session.

"Nice digs," she said as she took in the cramped space, her eyes lighting up at the assortment of bouquets and gifts sitting on the credenza.

"Oh, please, you have far better real estate," Eden rolled her eyes as she followed her out of the office. "I guess your side of the floor is the Hills, and mine is the slums."

By the time they made their way down to the 18th floor, where Gibby had prepared a room for them, they were both laughing like old friends.

For the next four hours, Eden almost forgot her near-fatal encounter with Liam as she took notes on personal grooming and dressing for success. She no longer reported to the CEO, but as an executive assistant, she had to look her best at all times. A new wardrobe was way down her list of priorities, and wasn't something she planned to splurge on, but now that Gibby had brought it up, she had to do something soon.

Guess Lydia was right, Eden thought as she recalled their fight over her outdated clothes. It was hard to believe it was last night. She felt like she'd aged a lifetime since.

After her morning session with Gibby the following day, Eden returned to her office to find more flowers waiting for her on her desk, and a bunch of curious assistants crowded around her broom closet.

"Aren't you quite the smash hit? You haven't been here a full day but look at the bouquets you've collected!" Matthew's assistant, Lucy, drawled as she picked up the card from the peach Calla Lilies and read it aloud. "Looking forward to coffee with you. IJ."

Eden sensed Lucy didn't like her much, and she had no idea why considering they'd just met. When Matthew introduced them the previous afternoon, his assistant had brushed her off with a condescending nod and an insincere smile. Eden had thought she was being paranoid and had chalked down the cold reception to her being overly sensitive from her run-ins with Liam earlier. But now, she wasn't sure if her still-delicate emotional state had anything to do with the sly gleam in the other woman's brown eyes.

"Perks of being the new girl, I guess." She shrugged, "I'm sure it will die down soon. By next week all the fascination would have waned."

Lucy's scarlet lips stretched wider, but the deadpan expression on her face chilled Eden to her core. There was nothing friendly or reassuring about the smile at all.

"Well, enjoy it while it lasts."

"Who's IJ? Does he work here?" Clara asked, interrupting what was escalating into a minefield of resentment, one Eden wasn't equipped to navigate.

"No, he doesn't." She snatched the card from Lucy and almost had heart failure when her gaze collided with Liam's at the door.

"If you are done wasting company time, I suggest you all return to your desks and do your damn jobs," he said. "I can't be the only one keeping the lights on here!"

He didn't need to tell them twice. Eden's office was empty before she could even blink.

"Mr Anderson, how can I help you?" she asked, holding his gaze, refusing to be intimidated by him. She hadn't seen him the whole morning because she'd avoided every place she was likely to run into him. But now, the devil himself had sought her out. Dressed in what Eden was starting to believe was his work uniform—an impeccably tailored three-piece suit—he looked every bit the sexy, tempting Lucifer of a CEO that he was.

Today's suit was light grey, no tie though, and he'd left the top two buttons of his white shirt open, no doubt to thirst trap every woman in the building with a sneak peek of his neck and well-defined chest.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?" He scowled at her.

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