It's long, 2229 words. I might turn it into a romance novel. WEEE.

I listed the
prompts at the end.

Twist of Fate by JLDenman

4/6/07

She waved and swerved. Darn animals. It wasn’t easy traveling alone at night. She
hated it. Nothing good ever came of trolling around over the bars closed. Drunks
and jerks- that is what that after hours time should be called. It’s stupid. She
wanted to leave 6 hours ago, but no, Marshall had insisted on staying later. What
an ass!

She couldn’t figure out why she even bothered with Marshall. He was not her type,
not in the least. He drank like a fish. He wasn’t the smartest guy on the block.
He certainly wasn’t ambitious and God fearing. What was she doing with Marshall?
She gunned the engine. Marshall- well she wouldn’t have to worry any more about
that loser. She’d had it out with him at Dinny’s.

"Come- ‘ere, baby. Let me plant one on ya." He was all fingers and hands and
groping. He smelled like the 10 beers he’d guzzled down. His eyes, glassy and red,
looked about to explode from his head. It was in that instant that she really
looked at him. They were supposed to be enjoying Dinny’s birthday party. All of
her friends from the local theater circuit and some of the entertainment lawyers
from the firm were there. Dinny had invited a ton of people to celebrate her 35
birthday. People that Alicia respected, admired, and worked with. All people who
she was now embarrassed to see again. Thank you Marshall. Of course there was no
way to get around it, she had to work. But she didn’t have to be with Marshall
Petticrew when she did it. Not ever again.

Alicia’s car floated over the yellow center line as her mind raced with the
indignities of dating Marshall. Headlights and horn blast through her distraction.
Heart pounding, she jerked the car back into her own lane. Just what I need, a
crash because of Marshall!

No sooner had the thought flashed in her mind, red and blue swirling flashes lit
up her rear view mirror. Instinctively she looked down at the speedometer. Nope.
She wasn’t speeding. She kept driving. He must be going somewhere else, after
someone else.

"Pull, over. This is the police."

She hated that disembodied muffled, mechanical voice that came over microphones
and radio walkie talky type equipment. She was certain that police and other
officials used it to scare the daylights out of people. God complexes! Woo wee
we’re the police yada yada yada- she couldn’t help but think fascist. None of the
cops she had ever encountered in her life time were worthy of a Cub Scout badge
let alone a protect and serve the people medal!

Alicia was tempted to floor it. She was certain she could out run the cops in
Marshall’s hot racy Jag. She chuckled to herself, that’s why she had originally
been with Marshall. He was flashy, sexy, and when he wasn’t smashed off his ass he
was a rather dapper fellow.

"Pull it over."

Alicia twisted her lips. Just floor it girly. It’s Marshall’s car. They’ll arrest
him. It’s his heap! Can’t prove you’re the driver.
Sometimes she wish she was more like those bad biker women. The kind that throw
caution to the wind and say "fuck it." If she were she really would floor it! Jam
her foot down on the gas and punch it up, up to the max. That made her giggle. To
the max. She sound like one of those teen cartoons on Saturday morning, To the
max, dude! All I need is two fingers up and a head rag. Shoot, right now she felt
more like going for the eye patch, cut off leather gloves, and a Harley Hog T-
shirt.

Instead Alicia, sighed, shoulders slumped forward. Who am I kidding. If I were a

rebel I wouldn’t have been with Marshall. I would have staid with DM. Now that was
a sweet heart. She sighed again, put the would be get away Jag in park, cut the
engine, and waited for the cop to saunter up to the window and either hit on her
or try to arrest her. Either way she prepared herself for an encounter with a real
dick.

The trooper barked, "Stay in the car. Keep your hands visible."

Could we just get this over with! It’s freaking 2:30AM and I’m seriously tired.
Out here on some back road with some trigger happy... come on get a move on!
Alicia mumbled to herself.

Ever since she had been in the car when the cops in Beverly Hills had pulled over
her brother, her loathing for them had increased. Jordan was a successful plastic
surgeon, in Beverly Hills no less. But because he was a black man in a nice car in
BH, he was an automatic suspect. The arresting dick, slammed up against the hood
of the car. He wrestled Jordan to the ground and pulled a gun, holding it to his
head, never once listening to Jordan. Why should he? Black "boys" in fancy cars,
had to be a thief right? Alicia’s went nearly white with the tension in her grip
around the steering wheel.

Fortunately, Gabriel, their older brother was the fiercest attorney in all of
California. Jordan was out of lock up in no time, and the offensive officer was
promptly let go. Alicia smirked. Serves him right, racist pig!

The door opened. For a split second, as she looked in the rear view mirror, Alicia
harbored some hope. She noticed darker skin. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. But then
she remembered that the brothas in blue could be just as bad, if not worse, than
the othas in blue. She jumped at the knock on the window, but did not look up.
Finger on the electric window button, she looked straight ahead.

"Do you know fast you were going?" That bright cop flash light blinded her.

"Actually I do. I was going 65 on the dot. Cruise control and all."

"Do you know why I pulled you over?"

"Have no idea. Feeling like handing out tickets? End of the month quota?" She was
quiet. reserved but tension, anger, and annoyance would not be stuffed away. She
had no intention of being some back street , newspaper headline come morning.

"I noticed you swerving back there. You nearly hit that on coming vehicle."

Alicia snorted.

"Please, keep your hands where I can see them." He walked back to the squad car.

Turn the ignition. Punch it! But she didn’t; the office was coming back with some
apparatus.
"I’m going to need you to step out of the car, Mrs."

Alicia didn’t move.

"Mrs. -"

"It’s Miss, thank you."

"Miss, I will need you to step out of the car please. Have you been drinking this
evening?"

"No."

"Well, ma’am, I smell alcohol."

"Perhaps, you’ve been nipping at the bottle, yourself."

"Not likely. Now, please, step out of the car."

Slowly she unlocked the door. She still refused to look at the officer. But she
made note of the badge number.

"I’m not drunk. I don’t drink."

"Of course, ma’am. However, I smelled alcohol as you rolled down the window.
Please, breathe into this."

She did.

"Can you walk a straight line?"

She could.

"Can you say you ABC’s."

She sang them in Spanish.

"I told you I wasn’t drunk. Officer..."

"Officer Button, Miss Rylie."

"What you smelled was the aftermath of my insanely drunk boyfriend’s bender."
Alicia was throughly annoyed. Should have floored it! Then something in the way he
said her last name... she finally looked right into his eyes. It couldn’t be!

"Dort?" Her voice squeaked and broke.

"Good evening, or rather morning, Alicia."

Now she did feel drunk. She took one step forward, wobbling. The next step she
twisted her high heel pump, plopping down to the side of the road like a
blithering drunk. Dort. She nearly fainted.

"Are you alright!" Dort Morton Button leaded down to help her back up onto her
feet. He gathered her in his arms, swinging her up from the pavement. Gravel
crunched under his feet. "Can you stand up." He tried to set her on her feet, but
pain shot up from her ankle to her thigh. She collapsed against the hood of the
car.
‘Wo. "Em, let’s get you to a hospital."

Dort Morton Button, carried her to the back seat of the squad car. He took the
keys from her and locked up the Jag.

Dort. She could not believe this. DM. She hadn’t seen him in 12 years. Since had
been leaving to go to college, he had been a gang banger trying to get out. She
hadn’t know what he was into when they started dating. She wasn’t from the area,
just visiting her aunt for the summer. DM worked on her aunt’s side of town.
Alicia wouldn’t have figured him for a banger. DM didn’t look the part, sound the
part, work the part. Alicia thought he was going off to sophomore year of college
just like she was. He talked a good game. Right down to the details of where and
when he was going and for what. It wasn’t until his cousin, Lemiel got shot that
Alicia learned what it was exactly DM was like and who he was affiliated with. She
broke it off and left summer vacation early. She wasn’t about to be some Bonnie to
his wild Clyde routine. She’d worked to hard and she wasn’t getting dragged into
his mess, so she left.

But here he was again. Dort Morton Button. The first time he had introduced
himself, she’d laughed in his face. "Dort? What kind of name is that? You must be
joking! Your parents must have had it out for you from the womb to give a child
such and odd name as Dort Morton Button!"

Dort simply looked at her with his head cocked, one hand behind his back, a silver
tray in hand, then bowed. "May I take your drink order?" He didn’t even
acknowledge her rude hilarity.

She tried to compose herself. Weird name aside, Dort was a handsome man. Broad
shoulders, dark chocolate skin, thick lips, full mustache and goatee, and
wonderfully tall. "I’ll have a virgin raspberry daiquiri, please."

"Excellent choice."

Every day for two weeks she went back to the café’ and sat in Dort’s section.
Every day he simply took her drink order. He never made a move, was a polite
gentleman. Alicia liked that.

After work the second Friday, Dort asked her to a movie. For Alicia it was so much
like one of those after school specials. The new girl meets a geeky guy. He
approaches first. She rejects. She starts to like. Then he gets the courage to ask
again. S he accepts. They fall in love. Summer magic.

Alicia groaned in pain as the doctor examined her ankle.

Summer magic. And it had been. It was perfect up until the day Lemial was shot.

"Alright, Miss. You are free to go." The doctor wrote a pain medication
prescription.
"Officer Button, she’s all yours now."

Dort and Alicia’s eyes met over the doctor’s head.. There was a time when she was
perfectly willing to be all his. But that was 12 years ago...

Now here she was with a sprained ankle, after dumping a rotten boyfriend, riding
in a squad car with Dort Morton Button, a police officer. It was after 2AM and
they drove on in darkness, silent. This was strange. Time was playing a joke on
her and Fate mocked her.
Here I am in the darkness, in the front of a cop car with DM. He still looks good.
How in the world did he become a cop of all things? Dort Morton Button!

They didn’t say anything, not even when he opened the passenger side door, helped
her to her front door. When he held out his hand for her purse, she hesitated. Sin
her mind she ran through its contents- lipstick, credit cards, ID, keys, condoms.
Mortified, she blanched. He’d think she was a slut for carrying them. What! He
hasn’t been around in 12 years. You left him! Who cares what he thinks?

It wasn’t until she remembered tossing the last two out of the window when she
raced off in Marshall’s hot rod, that Alicia handed over the small clutch and
breathed a sigh of relief.
Officer Button stuck the key in the door and held it open as Alicia hobbled over
the threshold. When she was safely inside, he nodded courteously.

After she closed the door, "Goodnight Alicia." Slowly Officer Button walked back
towards his cruiser.

Alicia Rylie. He had thought he was over her. 12 years was a long time. But seeing
her again, obviously hadn’t carved her out of his heart like he had believed.

****
PROMPTS USED
3) It's been a while since you dated, and he's asked you out. Yes,
the man you've had a crush on for quite some time. Is he everything
you thought he would be? Will you see him again?
6) We have all had experience with the police, write about your's.
11) A list. What is in your purse?
13) In the darkness, I _
17) Write about what happens under cover at 2 AM.
18) Write about an odd name for a child.