"Eden!" Sofia called out, quickly catching up with her.

She waved Sofia off while keeping pace towards the hallway that read "Bathrooms."

"It's okay, hun," She told her quietly. "I just need a few minutes to myself."

She felt Sofia squeeze her still clammy hand before retreating to give her space.

Barron was still frantically trying to follow after her.

"Let me go, man," she heard him grit out. She wasn't sure who was holding him back but she didn't care. She just needed to get away from here and she needed to do it now.

Her heart was hammering and tears burned at her eyes. A tightness had settled heavily in her throat as painful memories of Barron and Lissa swirled around in her head as she tried desperately to hold the tears at bay.

She could see a few curious glances thrown their way at the commotion but Eden ignored them as she strode quickly towards the privacy of the bathroom.

Fuck Barron and fuck that skank, Lissa.

"Eden!" Barron's shout echoed down the hallway behind her.

Her face burned as a few customers came out of the bathroom, whispering to each other as they eyed the scene.

She felt hands grasp her shoulders before Barron stopped her in her tracks. She refused to look at him as she violently tried to shrug his hands off.

"Fuck off, Barron." she spat out, trying to keep her voice down as yet another person strolled past them.

"No," he ground out, determination setting his handsome features hard. "I'm not gonna let you think that I fucked Lissa-"

"This time, you mean," she cruelly jibed, again trying to dislodge his hands from her shoulders.

Barron blew his breath out in frustration before pulling at his hair.

"Tonight. Nothing fucking happened between her and I tonight. Nothing's happened for years."

She flinched at the reminder of his infidelity. With a pained cry, she shoved at his chest; uncaring who saw. Of course she knew that Barron and Lissa had slept together, but the verbalized admission still anguished her.

"Just fuck off and leave me alone!"

"Baby, please just calm down and listen." Barron pleaded.

The sound of that endearment, one she hadn't heard been uttered from his lips for years, jolted her out of her head and set a long forgotten blaze of fury alight.

She shoved at him one last time, uncaring that a few people were now openly gawking at them.

"Fine, you wanna do this? Then let's fucking do it!" she vehemently hissed.

"Eden-"

She ignored him and stormed further down the hallway towards the closed double doors that read 'Staff Only."

She shoved the doors open in anger, not bothering to hold them for Barron. She hoped they smacked him in the face.

"Eden, wait-" Barron tried again.

She made a beeline towards a brown closed door that read "Office."

"Hold up, it's locked." He rushed ahead of her, fumbling with the keys in his pocket.

She stood there, arms crossed and body held tight in barely controlled rage.

He held the door open for her and she surged forward into the small space.

Her eyes took in the environment, expecting to find Lissa's dirty panties lying around or to smell the scent of sex in the air.

She ignored how cozy the space was with his desk at the corner, papers strewn across; and a computer with a screen saver of himself and Bailey showing.

She ignored the tantalizing spicy scent of the aftershave he used which lingered in the room, and she ignored the picture of Barron with his parents at what looked like the opening of their restaurant.

But what she couldn't ignore? The overpowering, sickly sweet scent of a woman's perfume.

Using that as fuel to the burning fire raging inside of her, she turned furious eyes at Barron who was watching her warily.

"Eden, please listen to me-"

"No! You want to have this out?" she raved at him as she spread her arms wide, "Let's fucking have it out!"

"Not like this-"

"No!" she interrupted. "This is what you've been begging me for, isn't it?" She sneered.

"You've been bugging me and bugging me to have a conversation with you despite me asking you to leave me alone."

She laughed humorlessly and shook her head in disbelief.

"I admit, I almost fell for your little speech. I was actually starting to consider listening to you. But after what happened tonight with you and Lissa-"

"Nothing fucking happened between me and Lissa!" He moved forward, reaching out to her before snatching his hand back at the dark expression on her face.

"When?" she folded her arms, arching her brow at him in scorn. "Tonight or ever?"

His mouth moved wordlessly, a look of panic on his face as he tried to conjure up a response to that statement.

"Go on," she leaned back and sat on his desk. "The floor is yours."

"Eden, baby-"

"Apologize. Go on," she goaded him. "It's what you've been dying to do, right? So go on, tell me how sorry you are for cheating."

"Let's not do it like-"

"Tell me your little story about why you did it."

Barron stood there, hands clenched in fists at his side and a look of devastation written on his features.

"Let me guess," she tapped her chin in mock thought before pointing at him.

"You were young."

His eyes jerked up to meet hers, his demeanor defeated.

"You were horny." She offered.

Tears started to stream down her face as she forced herself to open up a long healed scab.

She walked slowly towards him, watching as his eyes bore into hers in despair and guilt.

"You thought you wouldn't get caught."

"You succumbed to peer pressure."

She inched forward another step as she spat out years of hurt and pain, wishing she could stop and curl up into a ball to forget; but instead she pushed through it.

"You didn't think we would last past highschool."

She shoved at his chest as he remained quiet, only the wetness of his eyes betraying how much her rant was affecting him.

"Come on, Barron! This is some good stuff I'm giving you. Pick one!" She screamed in his face.

He bowed his head and Eden saw wet drops fall from his face before he dashed them aside.

Defeated, she took a step back, pausing before saying the one thing that she knew would hurt her the most if confirmed.

"You didn't love me anymore."

He lifted his head immediately, eyes flashing in response to that. He surged the rest of the way forward until he grasped her shoulders.

"I was stupid. I was an asshole. I was dumb. I was naive." He finished as he tightened his hold on her shoulders.

She swallowed as her eyes drank in his tortured expression, knowing that her own mirrored his.

"All the fucking above, baby. But the one excuse I can't use is the last one you said. I never stopped loving you. Not once. Not ever." He ground out.

With a distressed cry she shoved at his chest again.

"Then why?" she asked in anguish. "Why did you cheat on me? If you loved me so much!"

She shook her head as she wiped furiously at her face. "What did I do?"

She broke down again, hands covering her face as she sobbed in dismay. Years of stored up anger, hurt and pain poured out of her as she cried, trying but failing to hold back the heartbroken sobs.

"Baby," Barron's voice cracked as he cupped her cheeks in his hands and lifted her face to his.

His eyes were red rimmed and shimmered in emotion. "Nothing. You did nothing."

He lowered his head and touched his forehead to hers as she hiccuped.

"I wish I had a good reason. But I don't."

Her stomach tightened at his response, their breaths mingling together as she tried to get a grip on her emotions.

"All I can say is that I was young and a fucking idiot. I let people get into my head about our relationship and I made a stupid fucking mistake in the process."

He lifted his head and brushed the wetness from her face. "Losing you was the worst thing to ever happen to me."

Her breath huffed out in disbelief and she took a step back from him, hugging her body in protection.

"You should try being cheated on by someone you thought was the love of your life. It didn't feel too great, either."

Barron wiped at his face and nodded in silent grim acknowledgment. "You're right, baby."

Her tummy flipped flopped at the endearment he started to use again, but for the life of her she couldn't tell him to stop.

"The thought of you ever doing that," pain crossed his features. "That would be the worst thing to ever happen to me."

They regarded each other quietly, both exhausted after their emotional breakdown. Slowly, he tentatively reached down and took her hands in his. She could feel the electricity of his touch pulse through her.

"Words can't tell you how sorry I am, Eden. I am so, so sorry for hurting you. For breaking us."

She lowered her eyes, the emotion in his face becoming too much for her to take in and instead concentrated on the wooden floor in front of them.

"I have to go," she croaked out. "Sofia and Ryan will be wondering where I am." She had felt her phone go off several times in her pocket.

He tightened his grip on her. "Don't go, please," he begged. "We still have a lot to talk about."

She shook her head as she loosened her hands free from his.

"I can't-" her voice broke again. "I can't anymore tonight. It's too much."

Without warning, Barron wrapped his arms around her stiff body. She tensed further before relaxing into his embrace, stray tears seeping from her tightly closed eyes.

His body was familiar yet different. It was harder, stronger and taller than she remembered.

But what hadn't changed was the same high she felt whenever their bodies collided. Would she always feel this pull towards him?

She felt his lips press against the side of her head. "Promise me that we can finish this talk." He asked her huskily.

She swallowed hard before shaking her head. He already apologized several times, he gave his reasons for straying.

"What's there left to say?"

"Everything, baby." He whispered against her head. "Everything."

"Eden?" Her Mom's quizzical voice called out when she heard the front door close.

"Yeah, Mom." she croaked out, her voice still raw from crying.

Casting the book she had been reading aside, her Mom stood.

"I thought you were out with Sof and -" she gasped as she took note of her daughter's slightly swollen, red eyes.

"What happened?" She firmly grasped her daughter's face in her hands, searching her body for any injuries.

"I'm okay." But then completely negated that sentiment when her face crumpled.

Immediately Eden was enveloped in the warm, comforting embrace of her Mom as she sniffled into her t-shirt.

"Tell me," she urged.

A few more hiccups and a sniffle before she wiped her nose across her forearm and stepped back.

"Barron," she started to say, but couldn't continue.

Her Mom's pretty features turned dark in anger. "What did that jerk do? I swear to God I will go down there and kick his ass!"

Despite the emotional turmoil she felt, her mouth kicked up in humor at her Mom's threat.

Eden watched as she paced away from her, snatching up her phone and unlocking it.

"I'm calling Kelly. I don't care how old he is, he needs a good ass whooping and if his Momma ain't gonna-"

"Mom!" she sputtered out, laughing. Her antics gave Eden a welcome reprieve from her heartache.

"Calm down, Mama bear." She stopped her before she dialed Kelly's number and gave the poor woman an earful. "We actually had a long overdue talk." She shrugged as her Mom gaped at her. "About everything."

Understanding crossed her Mom's features as she nodded.

"I'll get the wine." Was all she said before disappearing into the kitchen and opening the fridge.

Eden padded over to their three seater couch, her movements sluggish as she sank down. She sighed before pulling her hair out of her ponytail and ran her fingers through it, hoping that it would ease the tension in her body.

She was absolutely drained.

Eden murmured her thanks as her Mom passed her a wine glass before she settled with her own full glass in the recliner she had just vacated.

"How do you feel?" she quietly asked.

Eden shrugged as she took a sip of her white wine.

"Sad. Relieved that we had it out. Tired. Angry." She leaned her head on the backrest of the couch and closed her eyes. "You name it, I feel it."

They were quiet for a few moments before Eden spoke again.

"I also feel -" she stopped, unsure how to express it cohesively.

"What, honey?" her Mom sat there, quietly observing and letting her get it all out.

"When I asked him why he cheated, his reasons were that he was young and dumb. That he was tempted, insecure about how young we were, peer pressure." She flipped her hand around. "The works."

"Yeah," her Mom slowly encouraged.

She ran a finger around the rim of her glass, watching a stray liquid condensation run down the mouth until it disappeared into the wine.

"It's just like, is that it? He's been pushing me since I've been back for this moment, to explain himself; and all he can give me is that he succumbed to temptation just like millions of other men in his position? I just felt." She paused as she searched for the word.

"Disappointed." her Mom simply said.

"Yes!" she pointed her wine at her Mom, liquid sloshing in the glass.

"Not only because he cheated but because....we had something amazing, or so I thought. If he was going to cheat, I was hoping he would confess that he was actually... I dunno, drugged, blackmailed, forced into it." She threw her hand up in frustration.

"You had him on a pedestal." Her Mom finished. "And then you found out he's human like everyone else. It must've brought you down to earth hard."

"That's an understatement." She mumbled into her wine glass.

Her Mom sighed before standing and walking to where Eden was sitting. She sat down next to her daughter and patted her knee.

"Honey, life is not a romance novel. Sometimes people really do just betray each other for stupid and selfish reasons. Sometimes there's just not a perfect explanation. Barron is human, honey. Humans have weaknesses and temptations and unfortunately, he chose to succumb to those."

She nodded, tears springing into her eyes once more at the thought of their young, innocent love and all they had lost.

"But honey," her Mom continued, "it's the lesson you learn from it that's important. Do I think Barron learned a harsh lesson? Yes. He saw the consequences to his actions - losing you the big one, but he also lost his friends, the respect of his parents. The respect of me."

She frowned at her Mom. "How do you feel about him now? Has he changed?"

Her Mom sighed heavily before staring at their blank TV. "I admit, I'm still cool on him after what he did to you all those years ago. I had him on a pedestal too, I suppose."

She waved her hand. "Oh, he's tried to make amends, to be honest he's turned into kind of a kiss ass around me," she quipped and they both giggled.

"But as for him changing - no."

Eden turned to her Mom, her brow raised in question at that statement.

"No, I don't think he's changed much. He's still the same Barron - smart, kind and yes, loyal. He got off the rails once, derailed in a big way; but he fixed himself and got back on track."

Eden nodded as she swirled her glass around, the liquid mesmerizing her for a moment.

"Are you thinking of...?" her Mom prompted.

"No." She paused before shaking her head. "I don't know." She amended.

"So much has happened. I'm still so hurt and angry by everything, although it's drained a little bit after our talk tonight."

She shrugged. "Too much has happened between us. We both have separate lives and have grown in different directions now for so long."

She took a bigger gulp of her wine. "I just don't know him anymore. And I don't even know if I could trust him not to derail again. Not that I'm entertaining the idea of being with him like that," she shook her head.

"How's the attraction?" Her Mom asked.

She blushed as she remembered the feel of his arms around her. Trust her Mom to ask the tough questions.

"It's still there." She softly confessed. "But I'm not sure what to do with it. Or even what it is." She shook her head. "Is it left over attraction that will fade now that we've had a talk? Is it new attraction that could blossom into more? Is it just me reliving old memories and being sentimental?"

Her Mom nodded slowly in understanding. "Are you looking to find out?"

She shrugged. "He wants to talk more. Emotions ran high tonight so I left. I couldn't commit to further talks with him."

She was silent for a long time while her Mom sat patiently beside her.

"Committing to further talks means that I think there's something to salvage. Something that we can work out."

"And is there?"

She took a deep breath before slowly letting it out. "I don't know." She replied honestly. "I just really don't know."