Imperfectly Bad by A. E. Woodward

stuffy and airless conference room discussing my most recent case, a memory suddenly takes over my conscious…

    I’m driving too fast. Jenny is beyond drunk and standing on the center console, her head through the moon roof. She’s yelling, and I think she may or may not have just flashed her tits to everyone on the boardwalk. She’s crazy and I love her. The meeting with my parents could have gone better, and she hadn’t helped matters, but I can’t blame her. They are being dicks about the whole situation.
    At least I stopped drinking a few hours ago and my head is clearing rather quickly. In any case, if I hadn’t already been sobering up, the flash of blue lights behind me would do it. Fuck.
    “Jenny, get in the car!” I yell as I start to slow.
    “No way! I’m having too much fun.”
    “Jenny, there are cops behind us.”
    “Oh shit.”
    In a flash she’d back in the passenger seat next to me. As the car slowed to a stop I see all the color leave her face. She seems to be sobering up a bit, wringing her hands, shaking.
    As the man in the relationship I know I should be brave, and not worry about this. I could handle a couple of cops.
    Nah, too late. I’m already shitting my pants.
    She looks at me and I see the whites of her eyes as she becomes more frantic. “Rob, I’m so shitfaced.”
    Needing to do something to calm her down before she completely loses it, I grab her hand. “I know. It’ll be okay. I got you, baby.”

    Wanting to keep good people out of trouble had been the reason I got into law in the first place. Jenny had deserved as much, but hadn’t gotten it, just because her parents couldn’t afford a good lawyer. After our run in with the law and Jenny’s inability to defend herself, she’d gotten a bad deal… and an even worse reputation. Truth was, everybody had a story, and I’m sure this guy was just as worthy of my defense as the next.
    “I got this,” I stated proudly to my boss. “Let me talk to the client and I’ll see what I can dig up. I’m sure there’s something we can use.”
    My boss nodded at me and told me he’d arrange the meeting for sometime the following week. Collecting up my shit from the table, I thanked God that the day was over. The files I had were confidential and so I had to lock them away so I made my way to the office, checking my phone to see a message from Tyler, telling me to meet at Emma and Shane’s at 7:30 p.m. A quick check of the clock told me that it was just before six. Plenty of time to make my way to their new place.
    Even though they’d never made me feel anything but welcome, I’d only been there a couple of times. For some reason, I always felt like I was intruding. I know they insisted that we stop by whenever, but it just didn’t seem right now that they had their own little family.
    It didn’t take long for me to flag down a cab. Hey, I already explained this—I was awesome at getting cabs. We drove past a cop pressing some drunk up against the side of his cruiser and slapping cuffs on him. Having Jenny back in my life was driving me insane because it seemed like everything I saw reminded me of something I’d been through with her. This situation was no different…

    With my hands cuffed behind my back there’s nothing I can do except watch the cops fight with Jenny. She’s just about the feistiest girl I know, but when she’s had a few drinks she’s almost uncontrollable. She’s screaming and slapping at the cops as they try to get her in cuffs.
    “Get your fuckin’ hands off me you pigs!”
    The cops are fast losing their patience. This doesn’t bode well for either of us. I really wish she’d shut up, but I can’t talk to her without drawing more attention to myself. “Miss, you better calm down or you’re going to get hurt.”
    That’s it. I’m going to have to say something or she’ll going to make a bad situation even worse.
    “Jesus, Jenny, baby, just let them do their job,” I plead from the other