Page 378 of Power Play

Bliss wiped at her cheeks.

“I can care whether she eats,” I said. “I can want her safe. I can hope she gets whatever help she needs and builds a life where nobody controls her. None of that means I can be part of it.”

“She isn’t eating,” Bliss said quietly.

My entire body reacted. Briggs noticed first. His expression changed, but he didn’t move toward me.

“How long?”

Bliss hesitated.

“How long, B?”

“She barely touched anything yesterday. Aura got her to eat some toast this morning.”

Anger cut through the worry. “Then stay on her.”

“We are.”

“You want to know what I saw while I was with her?” I leaned forward, pressing the cold bag more firmly against my ribs. “She was already too fucking thin, and it got worse after that shopping trip with Crystal months ago. She started skipping meals, pushing food around her plate, and finding reasons she wasn’t hungry. She checks her body every time she passes a mirror, and she gets this look like she wants to tear herself out of her own skin.”

Bliss’s expression tightened, but I kept going because I couldn’t be the person watching Charm anymore. Someone needed to understand what I’d seen.

“She gets shaky and panicked when she thinks she ate too much. She acts like being hungry means she accomplished something, then hates herself for being weak if she eats. That isn’t stress over one bad weekend. That is an eating disorder, and I don’t know whether she understands how sick she is.”

Bliss nodded slowly. “Aura and I have been talking about it.”

“Then stop talking and get in her ass. Don’t let her turn this breakup into another excuse to disappear. Make sure she eats, and make sure she gets real help from someone who knows what the fuck they’re doing.”

“We will.”

The contradiction inside me burned through every word. I didn’t want to hear Charm, see her, or feel her mouth beneath mine again, yet I needed to know someone would make sure she survived me leaving. That wasn’t reconciliation. It was the remains of love refusing to understand that it no longer had a job.

Bliss moved from the couch and crouched in front of my chair without touching me. “I’m not choosing her over you.”

I nodded, ready for the conversation to end.

“And the guys aren’t choosing you over her.”

“They are today.”

“Today,” she agreed. “Because today you need them more.”

My throat tightened.

“But she is still my best friend,” Bliss said. “I’m going to stand beside her while she faces what she did and what she needs to heal from. I need to know you won’t keep finding new ways to cut her because you’re angry that she still loves you.”

I looked down at her. “I can stay away.”

“That’s enough.”

“I’m not apologizing today.”

“I know.”

“I’m not talking to her at the game.”

Bliss nodded.