"Is it cheating if I dance with someone?" she asked once we were seated at a table as far away from the speakers as possible.

"No way!" I had to yell back at her. For the record, under normal circumstances I would probably tell her yes because I'd seen Nikki dance. She gave strippers a run for their money, but taking into consideration how miserable she was and what exactly her future husband was doing, she definitely had some leeway on the things that could be considered appropriate. Honestly, I was glad that she hadn't called up some guy to have vengeful sex, but I guessed that her self-control was a sign as to how serious she really was about Calum. It made me tear up a little, but I would never tell her that. Also, she was going to dance with gay guys, which was probably safer than dancing with a woman, at least at this club.

"Ladies!" Josh whooped out later on as he sauntered over to our table. He frowned at us as he got closer. "Why do both of you look like hell?"

Nicole didn't miss a beat and rolled her eyes. "Why do you look like you've gained weight?"

"Rude!" he exclaimed, patting his soft but flat stomach through the thin material of his lavender button-up shirt. "Who wants to get jiggy with me?"

I groaned at his words before he grabbed my hand and dragged me toward the dance floor with Nikki trailing behind me. Somehow, we ended up in a sandwich with Josh as the sandwich meat. It was hot and at some point, I got pushed into the middle of the two, ricocheting off their gyrating bodies. It also didn't help that the cheap bastards who owned the club kept the temperature up high so we were sweating our asses off after only a couple of songs. I felt like I was there with them in spirit but my mind felt a million meters away, like I was a balloon tethered to a fence by a mile-long string.

At some point later on, Josh kept turning around to talk to a big guy standing behind him. His expression went from pleasant to annoyed, and then pissed off.

"What's wrong?" I leaned into his ear to ask.

"This queen won't take no for an answer," he explained, pointing at the guy who was still standing behind him looking like a complete creep.

As I was leaning in again to talk into his ear, Josh's eyes went wide like saucers, and he spun around faster than I thought physically possible to shove the man back. I was an idiot — let's get this straight — so I didn't move an inch as I watched the big guy shove Josh back toward me. A split second later, my blonde friend threw up his hand and reared his arm back to throw a fist in his stalker's direction.

The unfortunate part?

My head was in the same spot his elbow needed to be.

Chapter 33

"Quit touching my face!" I spat out, swatting Josh's trembling hand away.

"I'm so sorry, Booger!" the poor guy cried out while reaching for my face with his fingertips again.

I wasn't mad at him, but I was mad at the fact that I got elbowed right smack under my eye. My cheekbone was throbbing and tender, so the touching wasn't helping any. The one thing I was glad about: even though he got me in the face, Josh didn't stop. He went ahead and punched the guy right in the jaw before turning around to make sure I was okay. Thank God. I would've been pissed to not only be collateral damage, but to also be collateral damage in something that wasn't worth it. The-Day-that-Josh-Wheeler-Punched-A-Guy-While-Also-Elbowing-Kat-In-The-Face would go down in the record books as monumental.

"Do you want to go to the hospital?" Nicole asked from my other side, bending at the knee to get a closer look at my damaged face.

Going to the hospital was the last thing I wanted to do. Besides being an unnecessary expense, how dumb would I look going into the emergency room with a black eye I got from my gay best friend at a gay bar? Yeah, no.