Chapter 2 Ex Encounters

• They kicked off their evening with a round of shooters and some gossip and followed it up with cocktails and more scandalous stories. Lydia was sleeping with one of the lighting guys from her filming crew, and she had no issue describing all his throbbing, turgid parts for anyone who would listen.
• Halfway through her first cocktail, Eden's mood improved some, and she started to think maybe coming out here wasn't such a bad idea.
• The DJ switched to a fast-paced tune. Lydia and Cassandra screamed something about it being their favourite jam. Shrieking their heads off, they ran to the dance floor. Eden watched them jump and bob to the music, a tipsy smile on her face.
• "OMG!"  Sienna said, her eyes filled with horror. "This is not happening!"
• Eden's heart shattered all over again when her gaze clashed with Simon's across the room. Olive, their former friend, dressed in a skintight metallic dress, hung on his arm like a man purse.
• "I didn't know they'll be here," Sienna said.
• Eden nodded. "I'm okay." 
• But she wasn't. 
• Her heart was still so bloody and raw over her broken engagement. It wasn't so much the breakup she was struggling with, though. It was the cowardly way Simon chose to end their year-long engagement over a text message. He didn't just leave her with a broken heart, but also the admin of cancelling the wedding and fighting for refunds.
• She watched them now make their way through the room, carefree and in love like they never left her broken and bruised. 
• In the first two weeks post their breakup, she was in numb disbelief and too busy trying to explain to her parents and everyone around her why her intuition was so off the mark about Simon. The worst, though, was calling all hundred guests to let them know it was okay to use their wedding invitations as toilet paper because there wasn't going to be a wedding.
• She spent the four weeks after, floating between disbelief, crushing sadness, and rage. She went through all the stages of grief in those weeks.
• Now, as she watched the two people she'd trusted with her life, laugh and have fun, Eden realised she was still somewhere between anger and acceptance.
• "Should we go somewhere else?" Sienna asked.
• Eden shook her head. She did nothing wrong except trust the two of them with her heart. If anyone should leave, it was Simon and his cheating heart.
• "Come on, let's show him you don't need him!" Sienna consoled her as they downed the shots lined up on the smooth, marble top. "You've moped long enough for him!" 
• She was right. Six weeks was way too long to sit and cry for a man who had no intention of coming back, Eden thought as she guzzled kamikaze shots, one after the other, in quick succession. 
• Her heart, hellishly numb now, was thankful. But, her liver screamed at her to stop as the vodka hit her hard.
• Sienna tried to warn her to pace herself, but Eden was way past the point of being reasonable. She wanted to get shitfaced.
• "I'm going to dance," she hiccuped her way from the bar to the dance floor, determined to pick a random stranger to dance with. She wasn't fussy. Anyone would do.