“Are you threatening me now?” Bernie pushed a button on his phone then put it to his ear. “Yes, I want to report a woman harassing me downtown. She’s been court ordered to stay away from me—”
“Let me go!” I yelled, yanking hard on my arm. He didn’t have as tight a grip on my arm as I thought, because when I yanked up, my arm flew out of his grasp and hit him on the chin…with my ice cream cone.
“What the—she just physically assaulted me,” Bernie yelled into the phone. “I need help now!”
“I didn’t!”
“Let me at him!” Mimi yelled.
“Honey, are you all right?” Dad asked. “You didn’t hurt your arm, did you?”
I was vaguely aware of people standing around, watching the unfortunate scene unfold. A few seconds later I heard sirens fill the air. Just my luck, we weren’t that far from the police station.
Please don’t let it be Chase.
A cop car rolled up onto the scene, and Chase and another police officer stepped out of the vehicle and slowly made their way toward us. I tried to read his face, but he had that cop face going on…everything was flat.
“I can explain!” I cried.
“She assaulted me!” Bernie yelled. “Arrest her. Look at my chin. Shoved the ice cream right in my face.”
I looked pleadingly at Chase. “I didn’t. I swear. He had hold of my arm, and I was just trying to get away. I was trying to leave.”
“He had his hands on my daughter!” Dad cried.
“He started it!” Mimi added.
“His aura is black as night,” Mom said sadly.
Both police officers held up their hands.
“Alexa,” Chase said quietly, “what’s going on?”
“Don’taskher,” Bernie said incredulously, “arresther!”
“You!” Chase pointed to Bernie. “Keep your mouth shut or I’m going to arrest you.”
“We were walking out with our ice cream,” I said, “and he came up to us. IswearI tried to move. But he caught my arm, and you know I can’t move very fast with my ankle. He then t—tol—told me…” Tears pooled in my eyes, and I couldn’t seem to make myself talk anymore.
“It’s okay,” Chase soothed. “We’ll fix this.”
“If you don’t arrest her for violating the court order,” Bernie’s voice carried loud enough so others around us could hear, “then I’m reporting you for not doing your job, Chase Cryer! You work for the city, and this woman has committed a crime!”
A tic had developed in Chase’s jaw. In the week I’d spent with him, I’d never seen him well and truly angry…until now. And I felt horrible. Because even though that anger wasn’t directed at me, it was still there because of me and my actions.
“It’s okay,” I whispered. “You can d—do your jo—job and arrest me.” I couldn’t make my teeth stop chattering. And I knew it wasn’t because I was scared. Well, okay, I guess I was scared. Scared that Chase wouldn’t want me after this. Scared he’d finally see how wrong he was…a criminal and a cop can’t seriously date.
“You better not arrest her for this,” Mimi hissed. “She didnothingwrong! It was Bernie who grabbed her and wouldn’t let her move away from him.”
“Whaddya want to do, Cryer?” I look up at the other police officer standing next to Chase. He gave me a brief smile. “My vote? We just get back in our cars and pretend nothing happened.”
Chase and I both laughed shakily. It was like we knew the next ten seconds would either make or break us.
“I have her violating the terms of her plea agreement on my phone,” Bernie said. “Terms I never agreed to and as far as I am concerned were absolutely too low for the crime she committed.”
“I told you to simmer down,” Chase said to Bernie. “You need to take a step backward and stay against your car.”
“And everyone here witnessed her assaulting me.” Bernie took a step back and rested a hand against his convertible Beemer.
