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"Wait! I didn’t do anything!" I pleaded with the cop sitting on my back. He had obviously spent more time at the donut shop than at the gym.

"That’s what they all say, lady, now hold still."

He jerked me roughly to my feet and spun me around so I was facing him, or rather towering over him. He scowled up at me and then barked at the girl who had been behind the counter.

"I’ll need your surveillance tape for evidence. Now."

As she scrambled to get the tape, Spike came over to the officer and I.

"You know, we’re all trying to make a living," she growled at me. "People like you make me sick!"

"Like me? I didn’t do anything!" I turned to the officer who still had a death grip on my arm. "Can’t you just look at that dung heap tape? I’m not even armed!"

"Watch your mouth. We’ll look at it downtown." He jerked his head in Spike’s direction. "And you two need to come down as well, I’ll need statements from the both of you." He pushed me towards the door, calling out to another officer as we made our way to the front of the store. "I want this place searched for a weapon as well."

My heart sank. This was not looking very good. I had been accused of all sorts of things in my shitty life, but never had I been in such a position as to go to jail. I looked around the shop at all the police officers swarming around and finally to the counter where Ellison’s book still lay untouched. At least she hadn’t been here to see this fiasco happen.

As Shorty led me out to the squad car and ‘helped’ me in, I wondered how the hell I would ever get out of this mess without at least a ticket for my mouth. I lowered my head and awaited my fate.

After the booking process was over, I was led unceremoniously to a holding cell. Unfortunately, I was not alone there, and as the bars slammed shut behind me I hoped I would make it out of there alive.

Two women lay huddled in a corner of the gray cell, and neither looked as though they had seen a tub in at least seven months. In the center of the room a cement bench was crowded with a variety of what looked to be prostitutes- at least that was the impression I got from the makeup puttied to their faces. Tammy Faye Baker didn’t have anything on them.

Upon seeing me, a bleached blonde sauntered over and gave me a careful assessment with her eyes. When she tried the same thing with her hands, I backed slowly away. Who knew what she’d been touching recently, and I could only imagine that it was something completely unsavory. She leered as she continued to advance on me, calling over her shoulder to one of her buddies on the bench.

"Hey Rennie! Look what we got here." She raised her eyebrows in obvious appreciation of what she was seeing.

A brunette came over and stood beside the blonde, blowing a bubble with a wad of pink gum and smacking her lips. "Not bad," she said after checking me out as well.

Suddenly my mind swirled with all the bad things I had ever heard about what happens to people in jail and I nearly passed out in fright. I had backed up until I could feel the bars poking me between the shoulder blades. My fingers wrapped around them and gripped them so tight that my fingernails were poking holes into my palms. Blondie took another step forward, reached up, and traced my jaw line with a blood red fingernail. I freaked.

"Paint licking turd dropper!" I shrieked in terror and pressed myself into the bars as far as I could, not taking any comfort in the fact that my words had caused the two hookers to back away. I was about to let loose with more profanity when I was stopped by an angry voice behind me.

"What the hell is going on in here?"

I turned around to see a guard glaring back at me. He had his baton out and was tapping it against the palm of his hand.

"Get me outta here!" I pleaded.

"Unless your name is Nelda Connor, you’re not going anywhere."

"There is a god!" I exclaimed. "I’m Connor."

Laughter behind me caused me to turn around and shoot the street women a dirty look. I was extremely sensitive about my name and to have it blurted out like that in front of complete strangers more than chapped my hide. However, the urge to get out of that gods be damned cell kept my tongue in check and I turned back to the guard and looked at him expectantly.

He opened the door to the ‘cage’ and motioned for me to come out. "Lucky for you, some hottie out front felt sorry enough to bail your ass outta here."

"What?" I muttered in confusion as I stepped out of the holding cell and waited for him to lock it behind me. He didn’t answer so I followed him, wondering who in a bloated tick’s ass could possibly have done something like that. Worse yet, who knew I was even there?

As we rounded the corner and headed for the sergeant’s desk, I got my answer. Ellison stood waving at me from behind the front counter. My stomach and my heart both lurched at the same time. Somewhere in the middle, the two organs met in a head-on collision and I was sure that I was going to throw up right there. I raised a weak hand to my mouth to try and hold it in.

I was so embarrassed for her to see me in this mess that I had to look away. It was bad enough that I had been in jail, but the one person in the world that I didn’t want to see me like this had just walked in on one of the worst experiences in my life. The incident on the roof paled in comparison to how I felt about being incarcerated, especially since she had now seen the ugly truth.

Once the nausea subsided, I stole a glance at her. She was so beautiful standing there wrapped up in her parka that it took my breath away- whether from the fact that she was actually there or that she knew I had been locked up, I couldn’t tell. Either way, all I knew was that it was very hard to breathe.

And then I wondered how she knew I was there to begin with. I considered that maybe after spending time with me the previous night, she had begun stalking me again. When I remembered that she hadn’t actually been following me to begin with, I was just plain confused.

"Connor, are you alright?" she called across the counter.

"What are you doing here?" I asked a bit roughly.

An officer interrupted by stepping in between us. "Ms. Connor, you’re free to go. After reviewing the video tape from the store and interviewing the two workers, we found that aside from having a foul mouth, you didn’t do anything wrong."

I glared at him while he held my belongings out to me, suddenly feeling murderous. "You mean you bean picking idiots finally figured out that I wasn’t trying to rob the place?"

"Ma’am, I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but it was an honest mistake."

I snatched the bag that contained my wallet and keys away from the shit-kicking intestinal maggot and continued to glare at him. "Honest mistake my ass," I growled and watched his passive stare turn angry before he stomped away.

"Connor, let’s go," Ellison pleaded in a soft voice. "Please?"

I gritted my teeth and allowed her to lead me out of the station, glaring at each officer we passed. When we reached the swinging doors and left the confines of the place I equated with hell, I took a deep breath of fresh air

Ellison stopped on the top of the cement steps with me. As I let out the breath I had been holding she turned to me, concern evident in her verdant eyes. She was absolutely stunning.

"Are you all right?"

That was definitely the burning question. I sighed, assessing the situation in my head. Physically I was fine. Mentally, I was a bit traumatized by the prostitutes but I knew I would get over it. Emotionally, that was another story.

"I’ll live," I answered and started down the steps at a fast pace. A part of me wanted to start running as fast as I could, to get as far away from her as I could. I didn’t understand why the Fates had seen it in their frozen Eskimo pee hearts to let Ellison find out what had happened that day. In fact, I wasn’t sure why they had seen to it that Elmer and I had become friends to begin with. Ever since our friendship started and Ellison had come into the picture, my life had taken a spiraling descent down the toilet. And speaking of the devil, I could hear her short legs scurrying to catch up with my long strides.

"Connor wait!" she yelled, causing the heads of several passers-by to turn and see what the ruckus was.

I continued to bull my way through the crowded sidewalk even though a nagging little voice in my head told me that I should at least acknowledge her. After all, she had come to the police station to get me out. But I was so close to losing my composure and I couldn’t let her see that. Especially not when I was beginning to feel so much for her that I knew would never be returned.

"Goddamned pig-headed, stubborn woman!" I heard her scream at the top of her lungs behind me. "You better stop right now!"

And stop I did, I was so frightened by the waves of her ire radiating into the back of my head. I stopped so abruptly that she crashed into me and sent me sprawling to my back on the sidewalk.

As I lay there stunned, Ellison stood over me with a hand on her hip and an outstretched finger to accentuate the point she was about to make. And from what her reddened face and gritted teeth told me, I was not going to like it one bit.

"I can’t fucking believe you! You sure know how to show a lot of gratitude when someone does something nice for you! What is it with you?"

She shifted her weight back and forth on her feet and I looked at the people staring at us in disdain as they passed by.

"That was NOT a rhetorical question Connor. I want an answer. Now."

I gulped. Ellison hadn’t even sounded this mad when I talked to her on the phone at Elmer’s the time she thought I was some whacko that had done something to him. With each second that went by that I couldn’t answer, I got increasingly nervous. Finally I erupted.

"What is it with me? How about you?" I jumped to my feet and stood right in front of her. "How in sewer rats gnawing on a dead skunk’s ass did you even know I was there? Are you psychic or something? How is it that you always show up when something happens to me?"

I stood there panting. I couldn’t believe the way things were going after I thought that we were finally on decent terms again. A little voice in the back of my head whispered that I was the reason. I was positive that it was right. But we were already into this and I was too stubborn to back down and tell her the real reason I was freaked out.

Ellison’s eyes narrowed and when she spoke her voice was bitter. "Oh, I see. You’re still having delusions of grandeur that I’m stalking you. Well let me tell you something, Miss Paranoid Schizophrenic of the year, you are not that interesting. No one with that much ego is!

"I’ll tell you why I was there to help bail your sorry carcass out of jail. I happened to be driving by the store you were hauled out of. I couldn’t imagine you being the criminal type and I figured you must have had an attack and gotten yourself into trouble. So excuse me for trying to help. Excuse me for thinking you were a big enough person to get past your hang-ups and let someone in. Excuse me for caring!"

She spun on her heel and stormed off, leaving me stunned and unable to move. I felt as if she had just slapped me. As I watched her stomp down the sidewalk, it dawned on me that I had been incredibly foolish. I should have listened to that Jiminy Cricket voice in my head. I should have told her that the reason I was acting like such an ass was because I was so embarrassed about what my Tourette’s had gotten me into this time. I should have told her that the feelings I had for her were why I always ended up acting like a jackass in front of her.

"I do care!" I yelled to her retreating figure. But it was too late. She rounded a corner and was gone.

I stood still on that sidewalk for a long time, ignoring the strange looks of the people cutting a wide path around me. Slowly I came to the realization that the streets were all but empty and it was getting very cold. I turned around and headed for my apartment.

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