Page 32 of Begin Again, Part 2

"You can't be serious!" Eden scoffed in disbelief when she saw he still wanted her to sit in the open area. "You made me give up my office for this?"

"You'll sit there until the project team is done renovating Gibby's old office," Liam called over his shoulder as he pranced off.

Fuming, Eden sat down and turned on her laptop. There was no point in unpacking her box if she'd move again. But she lined up the flowers on her desk just to tick Liam off.

While waiting for Clara to send her Liam's schedule for the week, she jumped into the group chat and checked in with her friends. They wanted a blow-by-blow account, and when she skimped on the details, they insisted on meeting her for lunch.

With a backlog of Matthew's reports waiting for her, Eden reluctantly agreed to the date, but chose Rise as the venue. Her office phone rang while she was justifying why they should drive to Anderson Logistics to meet her. It was Liam, and even though she'd just seen him minutes ago, her heart did cartwheels at the sound of his voice. She blushed, remembering all the filthy things he said to her last night. She never thought she was that girl, the one who got off on dirty talk. But their encounter was an eye-opener in more ways than one—

"Ms McBride?" Liam prodded. He was waiting for something, and of course, she had no clue what.

"Yes, Mr Anderson?" she said, praying whatever he said while she fantasised about him wasn't anything crucial.

"Come to my office. I need you."

Heat pooled in her core at his words, and she had to stifle a moan at the notion he wanted to take her right here. No, she shook her head, fighting off the wave of desire threatening to drown her as she dashed to his office. There was no way he wanted to do that here.

The door was open, but she knocked anyway.

"I need you to help me with this," Liam said, waving a black tie at her.

Eden gawked at him as shock, anger, and disappointment stirred in her heart at the realisation that he didn't call her in for the sexy romp she'd imagined. No, he'd summoned her because he wanted help with his stupid tie.

"Why can't you do it yourself?" she asked. Dressing him was not part of her job. Or was it?

"I can, but I don't like how the knot comes out," Liam explained tersely. "Gibby used to do it for me."

"I don't know how to do it."

"You have five minutes to learn," he said, staring at her lips.

"Maybe Clara can help you?" Eden suggested.

"I can't bother her with this. She has a far more important job today. We're presenting to the board. She has to prep for that," Liam said softly, but his words stung her as much as Lucy's slap.

"Got it, Mr Anderson!" She bit the inside of her cheek to suppress her blind disappointment, her voice quivering with emotion. He didn't need her for anything other than menial tasks, like tying a tie. But for her insane salary, it was a job she planned to do well and with a smile.

"I'll be back," she said as she left the room.

She spent four minutes on YouTube learning the art of tying a tie. She was still practising when Julian and Matthew stopped by her desk.

"Why are you doing that? Liam can—" Julian began, but Matthew jabbed him in the ribs with his elbow, cutting him off.

"Do you need help?" He offered.

"No thanks. If I have to do this every day, I have to learn." Eden shook her head and focused on the tutorial again.

The brothers hovered for a bit, asking her random questions, and she answered them patiently, barely looking up from the screen.

"So your friend runs a bakery?" asked Matthew, touching the petals of one of the bouquets.

"No, a cooking studio," she replied. "But she has a contract with a few bakeries nationwide."

"That's the blonde, right?"

Eden nodded, puzzled by his line of questioning. It was the first time he showed interest in her friends.

"Does she have a boyfriend?" Julian got to the heart of the interrogation.

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