“Shit! Everyone get dressed, now.”
I looked around to see who had spoken; it was the girl who had been entertaining the guys when we first walked in. She looked frightened but I’m sure I looked just as confused as everyone else.
“That’s the signal that cops are coming in, move it!”
That sure got everyone moving. She took off towards the front of the theatre and disappeared behind one of the curtains. Everyone else was scrambling and I was passing clothes to the girls in rapid fire succession. Within seconds we were all seated again but Sarah was still doing up buttons as the doors were slammed open. In they came.
Some were uniformed and some were in civvies but they were all unmistakably cops. They did a slow scan of the audience but by now everyone was seated and looking as innocent as you can in an adult theatre.
They zeroed in on the girls. A couple went down to speak to some of the other patrons while three came over to speak to us. One in particular had a really arrogant sneer. He pointed to Jess.
“I know you. You work in that smut shop in the alley. Don’t you get enough of this filth at work?”
She looked him straight in the eye. If she was afraid she sure didn’t show it.
“A girl’s allowed to have a hobby.”
“Oh, so is this a part of your hobby or are you on the clock tonight?”
“Check with the rest of your vice buddies, I’m not a street worker. I’m here purely for the pleasure of it.”
“Yeah I bet you are. What about you, why are you here?”
He was pointing at Sarah this time. She seemed to take her cue from Jess.
“Well the whole point of coming to see a movie is to be entertained. I’m fairly certain we still live in a society where entertainment and the enjoyment of it is still legal.”
“Everyone’s a fucking smart ass. We have the right to question anyone we suspect of committing a crime and seeing as solicitation and public indecency is a crime we have the right to question you.”
I was getting really pissed off now but rather than argue with this jerk off I turned to one of the other officers.
“Excuse me officer.”
“Yes sir.”
“If your partner here continues to refer to my fiancé as a whore we are going to have a problem. The least of which will be a formal complaint to the highest member of the police force I can find. That will be followed with charges of harassment and slander. Insinuating she is a prostitute in front of other professional people as well as friends and other members of the public, in a public place that we all, as adults, have a right to be in, very much fits that definition.”
By now the first cop was practically glowing with rage. He was clenching his fists and I honestly thought I was about to receive a thorough beating when the other cops stepped in. Things were very intense for what felt like an eternity but was probably only about ten seconds. Realising there was little more he could do, at least with this many witnesses, he just looked at me in disgust.
“If I were you I’d get going home now and I wouldn’t waste my time hanging around outside here either.”
He stormed to the end of the aisle and looked back around at everyone then up at the screen where a new “glory-hole amateur” was giving a stranger the time of his life.