The whiff of a horrific stench emanating from her surroundings outside hit her hard, bringing Cory head-on with her immediate dismal reality. She was dreaming no more. Here she was, back again in this grimy and dreaded place she loathed so much.
It had been two days since the theft of her car and she hadn’t heard anything. Now, Cory was here and ready to do battle. She needed her car back. It was amazing how public transportation could immediately snap you out of it.
Jay had been with her the first time she had come in to report the matter; today she was all alone. Cory pushed the door open and stepped inside the station’s waiting area. She walked up to the counter and began speaking to a male police officer on the whereabouts of her car.
It didn’t take long before she started screaming. Cory knew she could be over- dramatic at times but she totally lost it when the officer showed complete disinterest in helping her. Drama was a skill she most definitely got from her father. He had the literary background, being a high school teacher of literature and language for the past thirty-two years. So if drama helped her cause today, hats off to his literary genius and years of coaching.
Anger, disbelief, and frustration came hot and fast. As if she didn’t have enough to deal with these days!
• • •
As Adrian opened the side door to the waiting room of the station, two things caught his attention. The first thing he noticed was her legs. What seemed like miles and miles of a beautifully created, well-formed masterpiece. Then her voice. Well, it was more like a high-pitched scream actually. She leaned over the counter animatedly talking to Stewart. As Adrian’s eyes studied this wondrous sight some more, they met that tight, perfect ass and those wild curls. Adrian couldn’t believe his eyes. His New Year object of desire had returned.
The waiting area was probably the calmest he ever saw it. The place was usually a madhouse around this time of day. The other people waiting certainly didn’t look like her. There was one woman sitting with a bad weave and a gold tooth flashing in her mouth, maybe the reason she couldn’t keep it closed. Add in the ton of baby powder heavily caked to her neckline and huge capital G gold earrings dangling from her ears. Another young man was standing speaking to a female officer, his pants uncomfortably sagging under his butt. These were the regulars they had at this station.
He was leaving to go out for lunch in the city. His training exercise with some of the officers here was finished until afternoon. Adrian had been assigned to a special task force for a little over two years now, an elite military unit introduced by the government of the island. Their mandate: to respond to all extremely violent crimes, especially gang violence and firearm offenses.
Adrian was starving but her presence had stopped him dead in his tracks.
The conversation she was having with Stewart was heatedly escalating. She was holding her head between her hands and shaking it in total disbelief. It was about time he found out who this upset goddess was. It was obvious her boyfriend hadn’t tagged along this time.
He walked over in their direction, forgetting all about lunch for the moment. As Adrian approached, she paid him no mind. Stewart’s sour expression clearly signaled he wasn’t a happy camper and Adrian figured his butting in would just aggravate the man even more. Policemen and soldiers didn’t necessarily get along well here but that was a risk he was willing to take.
“Excuse me, ma’am, is everything okay over here?” Adrian asked her.
“No! Everything is not okay,” she screamed at the top of her lungs, without even looking his way. Then she stopped.
She looked at him, seemed to recognize him, and stood speechless for a moment. Then she began explaining to him, “I came to find out if my car was found yet, but nobody here seem to care enough to tell me anything.”
It was hard for Adrian to concentrate on what she was saying. She had the most exotic brown skin and her wild hair just tempted his fingers to smooth back the curls from her face. Undoubtedly, he would be slapped silly if he attempted that move. But that didn’t stop him from enjoying the view. Those high heels just topped it off for him. Adrian was definitely happy he had intervened here. Since their first encounter he had been totally captivated by this woman.
This time, he was taking in all of her from much closer. Her cleavage strained the fitted white blouse she was wearing under the tailored gray jacket, her breasts obviously screaming to be let out. Maybe it was the belt on her tiny waistline making them out to be so obvious to his hungry gaze and emphasizing to him their luscious ripeness.
“So can anybody in this place tell me something?” Cory started to cry.
It was her tears that finally brought Adrian’s mind back down to earth. That was when it hit him. The reason why he had decided to come back after twenty years of life in America. This woman made it all clear once again. He wanted to help people. Growing up, he wanted to be nothing else but a soldier, just like his father was. And to this day, Adrian could never imagine himself doing anything else but that. So he tried to do what he was trained for; to serve proudly.
“So your car was stolen the other night?” Adrian asked her.
“Yes.” He could see she was trying to pull herself together now, trying to calm down.
“What’s your name?”
“Cory. Cory Phillips.”
Adrian nodded. Pretty name. “Okay, Cory. Let me see if I can help.” He turned his attention for the first time to the officer standing behind the desk.
“So Stewart, what’s the status on this?” Adrian asked.
A pissed-off looking Stewart replied, “I was just telling her I don’t know and Franklin isn’t here right now.”
“Franklin is the investigating officer?” Adrian asked next.
“Yeah.”
“And he has all the required information, right?”
“Not that I see this is any of your business, Mendez. But yes, he should. I’m trying to tell her this but it’s like she doesn’t understand English.”
“What?” Cory blurted. “Well, maybe you should try telling me in Spanish because I can understand that!”
Stewart was raising his voice at Cory again. “Because like you’re hard of understanding something as simple as this, lady.”
“Me!” Cory screamed. “Well, if this is so simple, you all would’ve found my car already, wouldn’t you?”
Stewart glared at her. Cory glared right back at him.
“Stewart. Enough!” Adrian wanted to quell the disaster that was about to erupt here. It was apparent that this conversation wasn’t going anywhere. The woman looked like she was about to floor Stewart, explode from anger, or both. “I’ll handle this,” Adrian announced. “Ma’am, please come with me.”
“Mendez, yuh crazy? Yuh can’t do this. This is not your jurisdiction. Yuh cannot walk in here and do as yuh please. You’re here to conduct a training exercise,” Stewart’s voice also reached a high-pitched screech. “This is police work, so leave it to us.”
Although Stewart was right, Adrian casually ignored him. Soldiers were just there to assist but Adrian didn’t like the tone he was using with this woman at all.
“Stewart, I said I’ll handle this,” Adrian firmly restated without even raising his voice. He only shouted and cussed when was absolutely necessary. “Ma’am, please come with me.”