“Fucking cunt!” He lunged at her, hands reaching for her neck, and Olivia’s training took over. Her right arm snapped out and then up, catching his arms and sweeping them to the side, and she got him right in the nose with her left. Just in time she remembered to pull her punch. Just a little.

She didn’t want to knock him out in the middle of a club and get into trouble herself, after all. The security guy would be there in a second to take care of Roland.

Roland stumbled back with a high-pitched squeal, his hands coming up to cover his nose just as the security guy reached them.

“She hit me!” Roland shrieked, pointing at Olivia with one hand, the other still covering his face.

“I saw,” the man said, his expression solemn. He gave Olivia a nod. “Would you like to press charges, ma’am? We have video.”

“No, thank you,” Olivia said, mostly just relieved the security guard obviously knew what was up and wasn’t going to make trouble for her. She just wanted to go. “We just want to go home.”

He nodded again as Roland sputtered, grasping the belligerent man’s arm. “Go ahead, ma’am, we’ll hold him here until he sobers up, which should give you plenty of time to leave without worrying about him.”

Feeling more tired than ever, Olivia nodded and turned away. Her friends had all grouped together a few steps behind her, worry and upset on their faces. Hilary was on her phone, probably texting Liam again, which made Olivia want to groan. Not that she expected her friends to not tell their respective significant others about running into Roland, but it was just another thing she was going to have to deal with later.

“Come on, let’s go,” she said, waving her hand at them. “Nothing to see here.”

Giving her a lopsided smile, Hilary looped her arm around Olivia’s waist as they exited the club.

“I definitely want to be you when I grow up,” Sharon said, nodding her head firmly as she and Kate linked arms. Ahead of them, Leigh, Lexie, and Ellie were all chattering away at each other, back to laughing and enjoying themselves, already pushing the run in with Roland out of their minds. Olivia could feel herself relaxing again.

Her friends were awesome.

“Shit.” Liam jumped up from his seat, running his hand through his hair. “The girls ran into Roland.”

Jake looked as confused as Luke, but everyone else jumped up from their seats suddenly on high alert, which made Luke anxious even though he didn’t know who Roland was or what was going on.

“Where are they?” Patrick demanded, even though he was already pulling out his own phone, as was Michael. He scowled, presumably because his own girlfriend hadn’t texted him, and immediately began pressing the screen.