Abdul had had enough. He pushed out his chest.
"Surely all of this isn't necessary for a routine traffic stop? Besides, we weren't speeding -".
The green eyed cop was suddenly standing in Abdul's face and while I appreciated his bravery there was a fearful part of me desperately hoping that things wouldn't turn ugly. My heart was beating so hard until I could hear it pounding in my ears.
"Are you challenging me?" green eyes demanded with a touch of anger masquerading as incredulity. He wasn't a small guy either although nowhere as tall as the Arab the cop's arms and shoulders were pumped with muscle and he had a bull's neck and the flushed cheeks of someone with either a short fuse or high blood pressure. Possibly both.
"Hey, hey, hey," this from the older, white officer, who calmly walked over to his comrade with his hands raised. "This doesn't have to turn into one of those moments."
We all knew what he meant by "one of those moments."
"This bozo is asking for trouble." green eyes said although to everyone's relief, he reluctantly backed down.
"Yeah but we all know that a-holes come a dime a dozen." the older officer said wearily and then simply took over. "Ma'am, do you know these people?"
"No, sir." I said, holding his stare even though I sensed Abdul's growing displeasure.
"We had a little disagreement in the car earlier," Abdul said. "But we're together."
"Is that true, ma'am? Are you and this...guy together?"
"No, sir."
"Are these men holding you against your will? Did they hurt you in any way?"
I cut my eyes at Abdul who was angrily glaring straight ahead with a clenched jaw.
"No to everything you've just said. I just didn't want to go with him." I said without malice.
"Well, why were you in his car?"
"I wanted to take a ride in his stretch limousine but I changed my mind at the last second. A girl is still allowed to do that."
I wasn't fooling the good officers of the law but the cops didn't have a reason to arrest anyone and so they issued Abdul a speeding ticket ( even though he hadn't been speeding) and made his group get back in their cars and drive away.
The other officers piled inside of their cars and peeled off all except for green eyes. He walked over to me. Spit shined service shoes crunching on the gritty shoulder.
His blue uniform was still crisp and fresh.
Traffic whizzed by. An errant breeze ruffled his short, blond hair.
"Do you need a ride?"
"I'll call a friend. Thanks for your help. Officer--?"
"Riley," he said, pursing his lips again and looking me up and down with his hard eyes. "What's your name?"
Since I hadn't shown him my identification, I knew that I could have given him any name but for some reason I told him the truth.
"My name is Katrina Foxx. Nice to meet you, officer Riley."
"That was smart what you did. I wish a lot of other women were as smart as you and then we wouldn't have so many bad things happening to women. Know what I mean?"
He opened his mouth to say something else but that was when a white Chrysler 300 pulled to the side of the road in a puff of dust and stench of exhaust. The driver's side window powered down and I was deeply surprised to see "Hazel" staring back at me with a worried frown between her pretty eyes.
On the spur of the moment I told Officer Riley, "That's my ride." and hurried to the passenger side of Hazel's car and got in. She drove off.
The officer was standing beside the road looking forlorn.
