Turning Pages

Chapter Six

SIX 

Blake walked down the hallway to where I sat outside the judge's chambers. When I saw the snowflakes dusting the shoulders of Blake's overcoat, I knew the snow I had sensed in the air had finally fallen. 

"Addie, was that bail I just posted for you, or a fine?" Blake's voice was a little more clipped than usual.  

"I'm actually not sure," I said. "It all happened so fast." It's hard to come up with good answers under duress. 

He shook his head. "I can't believe this. From what they told me at the desk, you attacked the mayor with a sign, resisted arrest, and then you asked the judge if he even knew how to read." 

I slunk down in my chair. It sounded really bad when Blake put it that way. "He was being impossible." 

Blake took a step forward and lowered his voice. "I took money from the library's petty cash to get you out of here. I trust you'll pay it back, in full, when you come in tomorrow morning." 

"I will. I promise." He had taken a risk by borrowing the money, and I couldn't believe he'd do something like that for me. Maybe he really was human under that uptight-guy exterior. "Really, it wasn't a big deal," I said. 

He raised an eyebrow. "But it was an arrest, right?"  

"Yeah, it was. I think it was." 

"Then it's a big deal." 

He walked me outside and toward the lot where I'd parked my car. "So, is this over now?" 

"I made an agreement with the judge to appear at the city council meeting and present my objections in a 'slightly less dramatic' way." I made air quotes as I spoke. "He asked me to write down my ideas and provide copies for the entire council." 

"That sounds like a really good idea to me," Blake said. "Why do you feel he was being unreasonable?" 

"He accused me of attempting to disfigure the mayor by means of cardboard, but I talked him out of pursuing that. I mean, cardboard attacks are so hard to prove." 

We reached my car and Blake glanced at the driver's side. "You forgot to roll your window up all the way," he said. "Snow's been getting on the seat." 

"Oh, it's broken. It doesn't go up any farther than that. It's okay, though-I have towels." 

"Whatever." 

I was tempted to ask him about the logic of driving a motorcycle, which is totally exposed to the weather, and then mocking me for having a broken window, but I decided it wasn't worth it, especially when he went the extra mile and brushed the snow off my windshield with his coat sleeve. He also offered to check my back seat for bad guys, which I appreciated, then stood and watched me drive away. The expression on his face was priceless. He was obviously trying to figure out where he'd gone wrong, and what had happened to his little subordinate that she should end up with a police record.

?? 

It was Tuesday-the day of the city council meeting. It was also two days before Thanksgiving, and just three days until my date with Rob. I decided I'd rather focus on the date than the meeting, but I did put together my ideas and print them off, as the judge had asked-er, ordered-me to do. I was as prepared as I was going to get. 

Blake surprised me by saying he was coming to the meeting. "But I have to leave right after," he explained. "Tara and I are driving home for Thanksgiving, and if we don't leave tonight, we're not going to make it for her family's annual turkey shoot."  

I had no reply for that. 

At the meeting, I smoothed my blouse for about the hundredth time. I wish I'd known when I bought it that it was going to billow up funny when I sat down. I was so nervous, and preoccupied with my uncooperative clothing, that I really wasn't paying attention to the meeting at all.