"Why?"

He grinned before grabbing his cell phone from the counter. Holding it up, I pulled the ice pack away from my face and winced. "So I have something to look at when I have a bad day and need to laugh."

"Fine," I sighed and gave him a small smile as the shutter in his phone chimed.

He pressed a few buttons on the screen before sliding his phone back onto the counter with a wink. "At least school isn't in session, huh?"

I groaned thinking of how awkward it would be if I did in fact have to teach on Monday with what I imagined would be a hell of a bruise and partial black eye. What would I tell my students? My best friend hit me in the face by accident, kids. Then they would ask, why? I'd have to make up some ridiculous lie, and that's one thing I tried to teach my students— lying isn't acceptable at all. I didn't lie to them, and I expected them not to lie to me. "I guess it could be worse if I was teaching," I smirked then winced at the pain with the movement of my facial muscles.

Ryan nodded, distractedly running a hand through the curling hair at the nape of his neck. "This probably isn't the right time to ask, but I was planning on calling you sometime this week. One of my friends is getting married in two weeks and my original date can't go. Would you mind going with me?" His forehead wrinkled as he asked. "I can always ask Zoey if you can't…"

"Of course I will, Ry. How could I ever tell you no?" There were countless things that he had done for me over the course of my friendship with his sister; we might not be "best friends forever," as Zoey always said, but he was my friend too.

"I wasn't sure if you were dating that guy at Josh's party," he explained, smiling sheepishly

Tristan. Of course. I had spent most of the night talking to him, so I couldn't really blame Ryan for being under that assumption. If motor-mouth Zoey had talked to her brother over the last few weeks, I was sure she'd probably spilled the beans on how often I was doing things with him. "Nah, we're just friends," I told him, noticing that the pain in my stomach wasn't as horrible as it had been the last time I'd referred to us as friends.

"That's great, Kat. Thanks. I'll call you next week and tell you what time I'll pick you up," he said.

Nicole started grumbling, dragging herself away from the couch she'd been sitting on. "Is she going to live?"

"Yes ma'am," he drawled.

"Thank god, I thought I was going to have to find another bridesmaid."

Chapter 34

The next day, Nikki and I went looking for bridesmaid dresses to try narrow our choices down to two different styles that we liked in a plum color. I kept my eye on her to make sure she was doing fine, and fortunately, she seemed really happy looking at different things for her wedding throughout the day. We laughed on and off about the reality that she was going to tie the knot with someone she had an insane crush on for years and the serious bruise on my face. My cheekbone was purple and the outer half of my eye was red. The more we talked about the wedding, the more insane it seemed that life worked out in this way for her. Nikki's story was something out an adult fairy tale; she was marrying her charming porn star prince, who was giving it all up for her. It was perfect.

Tristan had texted me in the evening, telling me he was getting on his flight to come back home. I didn't hear from him again that day.

The day after, he texted me around one, asking if I wanted to come over, but I'd already made plans with Josh to go look at suits in the evening. He sent me a sad face in response, and then texted me goodnight around eleven.

On Tuesday, Tristan called me on his lunch break to invite me over because Yoda missed me. In all honesty, I missed the big lug, too.