5|Supernatural

Eden circled back to her apartment and unlocked the fourth-floor unit she shared with her friends. She took off her shoes and snuck inside quietly, careful not to bang the door in case she woke everyone up.

But when she turned around and found three pairs of eyes, shining with anticipation, her plan of making a quiet entrance went up in smoke.

"Hi guys," Eden grimaced, her face as red as the angry bird's T-shirt Sienna wore over her grey pyjama pants.

"It smells like a walk of shame in here," Lydia sniffed the air dramatically, and the other two broke into peals of laughter.

"Tsk tsk," Sienna clucked her tongue disapprovingly. "So much for saving yourself for marriage!"

"We've revoked your sainthood," Cassandra chimed in as she took the muffin box from her, scowling when she peeked inside. She hated any store-bought goodies because she knew she could do a way better job. But today her disappointment, as she loudly made it known, was not with the muffins.

"Really, with all the bazillions in his bank accounts, he sent you off with only ten muffins? What happened to diamonds being a girl's best friend? Who is this guy?" She threw her hands up dramatically, shoved the box in Sienna's hands and vanished beyond the entryway.

"You, Missy, have some explaining to do!" Lydia grabbed Eden's hand and dragged her to the living room where Cassandra sat on the grey L-shaped couch poring over a newly published cookbook by a has-been reality TV star, her knees tucked to her chin.

Sienna remained in the kitchen and made everyone coffee to have with the muffins. She was the Mom of the group and indulged everyone. Cassandra took on the Dad role and kept everyone in line. Lydia, the rebellious child, kept them all on their toes with all her mischief. And Eden's sainthood, which she had now lost overnight, had made her the wise sage. Everyone came to her with all their problems, never mind that she was the least experienced and the most naive of the four.

"You are not allowed to start without me!" Sienna yelled from the kitchen, her voice competing with the kettle whistling on the gas cooker.

"Tell us already," Lydia was practically jumping from her position on the paint-splash patterned rug.

"There's nothing to tell," Eden shrugged as she crashed into the teal wingback chair they affectionately called the throne. They picked it up for a steal at the flea market when they first moved in, and they've fought over it since. Not because it was so comfortable, but because of the sun sneaking through the lace-curtained windows behind it. Their flat was morbidly cold, so any bit of warmth was a luxury around here. After the night she had, Eden thought she deserved to sit on the throne the whole day.

"I'm here, the tale of the virgin saint ravished by a roguish prince can begin!" Sienna squealed as she rushed in with a tray of steaming yellow mugs and a matching plate, overflowing with muffins and two-days-old hot cross buns.

"There was no ravishing!" Eden said crossly and took her mug.

"Sure, says the stench of sex clinging all over you," Lydia nodded innocently.

Eden quickly sniffed herself, sending her friends into another round of giggles.

"Stop it, you guys!" She pouted and drank her coffee. Even with all the gallons of milk, it was still bitter. Sienna didn't make good coffee, and they all knew this, but they continually trusted her with this very sacred job.

"Just one question," Cassandra gasped for air, struggling to breathe and laugh all at once. "Are his pubes just as red?"

"Oh my god, you went there!" Sienna rolled on the couch, tears streaming down her face.

"No comment!" Eden clenched her teeth, her arms crossed over her chest, and she glared straight ahead. She would never tell her friends this, and she figured they knew the answer anyway, but yes, his hair was fiery down there too, but a much darker shade and oh how she had loved touching him.

A familiar ache tingled between her thighs as she remembered how full she'd felt when Liam was buried deep inside her. She bit her lower lip, stifling a whimper.

"Eden! Snap out of it, OMG, you are practically drooling." Lydia screamed, "What were you thinking about?"

"Nothing." She lied quickly, her cheeks as hot as the moistness at her centre. She didn't understand how she could be so wet just thinking about Liam.

"So? How was your first time?" Sienna asked, all the amusement gone from her eyes. "Was he as good as his past lays claim he is?"

Eden thought for a moment; she had no previous experience to compare with. But for her first time, other than the soreness and tenderness she felt every time she moved, she had no complaints. She wouldn't mind seconds and thirds and maybe tenths and hundreds. Liam knew how to please her, how to touch her and how to make her scream. Just her rotten luck he's taken.

"So, how was it?" Cassandra asked, and Eden blinked, stunned by the expectation in the six eyes glued to her.

"Well," she pushed up her glasses and bit her lower lip shyly. "It was supernatural."

"Oh my god!" Her friends screamed in unison, jumping and wiggling all over the place.

"Are you seeing him again?" Sienna asked, her eyes hopeful.

Eden shook her head and burst into tears.

"Oh dear, was it that good you have to cry?" Cassandra asked as they all reached for her and held her.

"He's getting married, you guys!" She bawled, snot and tears dripping down her face. "He's getting married, and I want him so bad! I want him to make me feel good again!"

"What do you mean he's getting married?" Lydia's eyes were wide with shock. "He has a three-month rule."

"He found someone who made him want to break his three-month rule," Eden wailed some more as she took a Kleenex box from Sienna and blew her nose. For someone so tiny, she always stunned everyone with the loud, unnatural sounds she made when she blows her nose.

"That can't be," Cassandra said. "There's no way Rock Castle's numero uno billionaire playboy will ever get married."

"He is," Eden insisted and went on to explain how she found out about his impending wedding.

"So that's why they were there? To celebrate his bachelor party?"

Eden nodded.

"And he still took you home with him?" Sienna fumed. "Unbelievable! What a dick!"

"Well, I asked him," Eden admitted. It would be so easy to let him take all the blame, but she couldn't bring herself to do that. She had to own her part.

"Why would you do that when you knew he was getting married?" Cassandra asked in a patient tone, stepping into her Dad role with ease.

"I wanted to be a little reckless!" Eden yelled, shocking everyone with her misplaced rage. "I was a good girl for twenty-four years, followed all the rules, saved myself for the right guy and what the hell do I have to show for it? A broken engagement one month before what was supposed to be the happiest day of my life."

"Eden, I'm so sorry," Cassandra said softly.

"If everyone played fair and stuck to the rules, I'd still be in Greece right now, enjoying my honeymoon with my new husband," Eden said. "I know it was wrong, and I shouldn't have, and now I'm as nasty as Olive for sleeping with someone else's man. But I got tired of playing fair, and I was hurting. And you know what, for at least seven hours I was happy in Liam's arms. God, I was so happy, and now all I feel is the same hollowness I've felt for the past six weeks."

"Oh, dear!" Sienna said. "You sound like you have it bad for this guy."

Her words blew Eden's mind, and she couldn't understand how Sienna had even come to that conclusion.

"No. Liam was my rebound guy. I'm still in love with Simon."

"Is that why you're still wearing that?" Lydia glared at the princess-cut diamond ring dazzling on her finger.

"You have to take it off," Cassandra repeated what she's been saying these past few weeks.

And like she's done of late, Eden refused to listen to their well-meaning advice. She knew keeping the ring was tacky as fuck, and she should have returned it. But it was the only tangible thing she had to remind her the past four years were real, that their love was real, and she meant something to Simon once upon a time.

If he'd let her keep Snow, the Maltese poodle they jointly adopted from the animal shelter they volunteered at, she would have given him his ring back.

"I'm going to bed," she said as she finished her coffee and placed the mug on the bamboo coffee table, a hand me down from Sienna's folks.

"Are you seeing your parents today, should we wake you up later?" Lydia called after her, and Eden shrugged them off. Her parents, in not so many words, had made it very clear the end of her engagement was solely her fault. She wasn't in the mood for another self-esteem-bashing, accusatory session disguised as a good-intentioned lunch.

In her room, she drew the curtains and buried herself under the heavy, brightly coloured duvet and the millions of scatter cushions on her queen-sized poster bed, and cried herself to sleep.

The last sane thought she had before dreams about Liam filled her troubled mind was if she'd ever get to feel thousand-thread count sheets again.