“You got my family overview in the car. What about you, is yours still in Binghamton?”
Eden slapped a hand over her mouth as she sputtered around a mouthful of noodles. “Wow, okay, starting right in. Um. I think so, yeah.”
My body stilled at the implication that she didn’t know. “Oh.”
“We’re not in contact. My brother called once, a few years ago, but it didn’t go well. I haven’t heard from any of them since.”
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.
“Don’t be.” She shrugged and twirled her fork in the noodles. “Addie and Rob are my family, and their parents. They’ve more than made up for any shortcomings of my own.”
My heart ached at the prospect of Eden being cut off from the kind of love and support I received from my family, but her grip on the fork had tightened and her frame had gone tense.
Time to change the subject.
“Right. Okay. Martial arts?” I asked.
“Yup. I do Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.”
I let out a low whistle. “How long have you been doing that?”
“I started a couple weeks after I got here, so not quite six months. Right before we left the city, I let Addie talk me into hosting a girls’ weekend in Rochester. It was basically a big sleepover at our tiny apartment, but one of her friends gotmugged before she came home. She was fine and the police recovered her purse, but it freaked us all out.”
“Oh, shit.”
“Yeah,” she said, making a face. “I know Spruce Hill’s not a big city, but bad things happen everywhere. I decided I should know how to defend myself.”
“So you’re a badass and could kick my ass.” I grinned at the thought.
“I could,” she agreed solemnly, “but I probably won’t. At least not if you keep feeding me.”
“I’ll try to stay on your good side. Since I’m happy to feed you to maintain my spot in your good graces, favorite food?”
“Well, this is ranking pretty high right now. I’m also a sucker for nachos. You?”
“Perfect, next time we’ll get nachos, because I love Mexican food. There’s a great little place over in Oakville. You moved here six months ago? Where did you live before?”
“Adelaide and I went to college together in Rochester and ended up staying there after we graduated, though she always wanted to move home. When her friend Monique opened the crisis center here, she recruited Addie to come work with her and I decided to come along, too, since I was having a hard time finding a good retail space in the city.”
“Are you guys still roommates?”
“No,” she said, grinning. “Addie is living above her parents’ garage at the moment, and I love her, but we definitely each need our own space. I got an apartment off Canal Street. It’s notgreat, but it’ll do for now. I didn’t want to blow my savings on rent when I need to put that money into the store.”
“So how did you get into the lingerie business?” I asked, tilting my head at her.
“Lingerie business?” she repeated, laughing. “Jumping from family to favorite food to my career. I’m going to get whiplash.”
I shrugged. “I want to know about everything that makes you who you are.”
“Okay, then. It’s not just about selling sexy underwear. It’s about empowerment, making sure people can feel beautiful no matter what their size or shape. The lingerie is the face of it, but we’ll be offering more than that. Addie runs support groups for survivors of sexual assault. Monique offers sexual education classes and, ah, other things.”
“Other things?” I asked, wondering why her cheeks grew pink when she said it.
“Parties.”
I stared at her, turning that over in my head. “Parties. Like, birthday parties?”
“Sex toy parties,” Eden mumbled. She stabbed her fork into her noodles, avoiding my gaze. “They’re pretty popular, and I’ll get a cut of the sales.”
