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Briggs wipes one hand over his face. “Maybe I am too much.”
“No,” Bliss says immediately.
“You all joke about it.”
“Because you are loud, invasive, hungry, and incapable of entering a room without making sure every person knows you arrived. None of those things gave Lyric permission to cheat on you.”
“You deserve somebody who loves all that shit,” I tell him.
His wet eyes move toward me. “You called me emotionally invasive an hour ago.”
“You are.”
“That sounds like too much.”
“It means you sat in my apartment drinking beer until I was ready to admit I needed you there. You called when I went quiet. You remembered every appointment, showed up without being asked, and carried enough food to survive a natural disaster because I might be hungry.”
Cade places one hand on his shoulder. “You moved to Milwaukee because Ryan needed family and refused to ask for it. You held him together without telling anyone what it cost you.”
“You love people at full volume,” Easton adds. “That’s only a problem for someone who wants all the benefits without being required to love you back.”
Briggs looks at the empty space beside me. “Charm left.”
The observation lands exactly where I’ve refused to look.
“Rider went after her,” I say.
“You should go.”
“No.”
Every face turns toward me.
I keep my attention on Briggs. “Charm and I weren’t together in November. I didn’t cheat on her, lie to her, or betray a promise. She gets to hurt. She gets to be furious that Lyric told her in front of everyone. She doesn’t get to turn me surviving without her into something I did against her.”
“She might need you,” Bliss says.
“So does he.”
Briggs’s face tightens.
“I spent our entire relationship abandoning my own pain the second Charm had an emotional reaction,” I continue. “I’m not leaving my best friend in the middle of this because she ran from a truth I never promised wouldn’t exist and honestly, she shouldn’t have either.”
Cade watches me carefully. “You’ll talk to her later.”
“Yeah.”
“You’ll explain Detroit.”
“When I’m ready, but I’m betting ready is the minute I go up there whether I like it or not.”
Nobody argues.
Temple approaches with a beer in one hand and a fresh s’more in the other. She offers the bottle to Briggs.
He accepts it. “Thank you.”
She looks at the s’more, then at him. “This is also available, but emotional distress doesn’t authorize theft.”
