I left the office. It was late. These days, it's always late. This crisis and that crisis. Things that have to be done right now. People that I should have talked to yesterday about things that just happened today. I was tired, it was dark...these days it was always dark when I left.
The air conditioner wasn't working when I turned the car on. Figures. One more thing that I didn't have time to deal with. The night was sultry and the interior of my car was like a steam bath. My silk blouse was stuck to me before I even pulled out of the parking lot. I unbuttoned two or three buttons and rolled all of the windows down. After all, it didn't really matter if my hair was a mess when I got home. I didn't know what I was going to do in the morning, however. I put the car in park and with some twisting and pulling, managed to get my nylons off. Then I pulled my skirt up to my hips. Ah! Relief! It was as much relief as I was going to get from the heat and humidity for now, anyway. At least now I could feel the air on me as much as possible.
I lived about 5 miles beyond the far side of the city, of course. It was at least a 25-minute drive home, even at this hour. Just thinking of it made me even more hot and tired. I cranked the CD player loud and hit the gas hard. I was almost home, driving down the long, dark, empty road about 2 miles from the house when I realized there were flashing red and blue lights in the rearview mirror. SHIT! Just what I needed! I looked down and realized I was going at least 20 mph faster than I was supposed to...SHIT SHIT SHIT! I slowed down, hitting the blinker, and pulled over. The police car pulled up behind me, its lights reflecting off the rearview mirror, almost blinding me. I watched his silhouette approach the car. Well, at least I was wearing a seat beltโ-a little less of a fine, anyway.
I pulled my wallet out of my purse and leaned over to get the registration and insurance card out of the glovebox. When I sat back up, he was standing by the car, so tall and broad, all I could see were his uniformed chest and the top of his pants, complete with all the nifty things that cops always haveโ-gun, walkie-talkie, that little club thingie hanging from a loop along his leg. He had a huge flashlight in his right hand and the light from it moved over me as he bent down to look inside the car.
Between the greenish glow from my dashboard and the reflected light from the flashlight, I could see that he was very good-looking in a clean-cut, man-in-a-uniform sort of way. From the look on his face, I realized I must have flashed him a lovely view of my bright red, lace panties. It was in the midst of that embarrassment that I realized that my blouse was unbuttoned almost to my navel and my hair was a wild mess around my face and shoulders. I must have looked like I just crawled out of bed. The CD-player was still blasting, too, so I quickly turned it down.
"License and registration and insurance card, ma'am."
His dark eyes were definitely taking in my half-dressed state, but his voice was all business. I handed them over without saying anything and watched while he turned the light to my cards.
"Do you realize your license expired a week ago?"
SHIT again! I MEANT to take care of that! I really did!
"Uhโฆ" I decided to brazen it outโฆ. "Is it? I thought that was next monthโฆ"
He just looked at me and I saw his eyes move down to my oh so visible bra. Then he went back to looking at the cards. After a couple more quiet moments, he looked up again.
"Please exit the vehicle, ma'am."