Page 429 of Face Off
“Against his will.”
“That language feels unnecessarily hostile.”
“You have half your belongings inside his guest room.”
“He needed grounding.”
The humor beneath the words quiets me.
Briggs closes the door and leans one broad shoulder against it. “Ryan wouldn’t have asked me to come to Milwaukee. He doesn’t ask people to rearrange their lives for him. He decides needing someone is a personal failure, then acts shocked when we ignore him and show up anyway.”
“You came because of him.”
“I came because Milwaukee offered me a contract.”
“Briggs.”
“The contract mattered.” His mouth shifts as he considers a joke and lets it go. “Knowing he would be here alone mattered too.”
My throat tightens.
“He needed me,” Briggs says. “I knew it even when he couldn’t say it.”
“I’m glad you knew.”
His gaze drops toward the beer in his hand. “I owe you an apology.”
“For what?”
“After Thanksgiving. I was cold as fuck to you.”
“You were angry.”
“I was, but you didn’t know why. Ryan needed me, and you needed to understand my anger instead of having me punish you with it.”
“You loved him.”
“I still do. Don’t say it too loudly because he becomes skittish around affection.”
“I understand.”
Briggs studies the label on his bottle. “Ryan and I share the abandonment-issue thing. Different stories, same shitty souvenir. When people leave, we both assume the worst thing we believe about ourselves finally became obvious to them.”
“Is that what Lyric made you believe?”
His jaw tightens. “She knew where the weak spots were.”
“Fuck Lyric.”
His eyebrows rise.
“No, seriously. Fuck Lyric. She learned your wounds because you trusted her and then used them to make you bleed when she wanted control. That doesn’t make anything she said true. It makes her cruel enough to weaponize something you gave her in love.”
Briggs watches me without speaking.
“You are enough when you’re funny and loud and stealing food,” I tell him. “You’re also enough when you’re quiet, pissed off, inconvenient, or carrying shit you don’t know how to explain. Anyone who convinces you that you must earn their decision to stay doesn’t deserve the privilege of standing beside you.”
“That sounded suspiciously insightful.”
