THe Breath that Attracted a Siren

I had had a very long day on the road. To make matters worse, I had a cup of coffee at 3pm with a burger and fries from the local fast food chain. I personally don't eat fast food too often, but it was all that was close and I was HUNGRY! Needless to say, an hour later, my breath was filling up the car and began to offend me. Ugh. I was just getting off the freeway and approaching a red light at a major intersection. The light had just turned red and knowing this was a long light, I reached for my bottle of Crest Pro-Health Advanced Mouthwash which I now always travel with. I took a big swig and began swishing when to my chagrin, the light turned green. I quickly capped the bottle, continued swishing and continued through the intersection. Before I crossed over the far crosswalk, there it was, the flashing blue light we all love. I police officer on a motorcycle was signalling me to pull over. I drive for a living, so I was really freaked out about this. I was trying to think what I did. Did the light really turn green? It was a short light. OMG, did I run a red light!! All these thought of paranoia ran through my brain as I slowly pulled to the curb. Oh yeah, mouth wash! I still was swishing, quite frantically now, but I grabbed my empty coffee cup from earlier and expelled the fluid. At least my breath will be good for the officer. Ugh. I look in the side view mirror and he is walking up to me as he removes his gloves. I roll down my window, shaking all the way. He very cautiously asks me for me drivers license, registration and proof of insurance which I had ready for him. He told me to stay in the car and walked back to his bike to most likely run my numbers. Let me tell you, the that short amount of time seemed to take forever as my mind was twirling in scenarios. Finally, he came back and, still holding my info in his hand, asked me if I had been drinking today. Shocked, I spurted out a NO, maybe even a little to strongly because he stiffened a bit.
He then said "I will give you one chance to tell me the truth. What will it be?"
"Coffee....", was all I could stutter out.
"Please step out of the car sir," he said putting his hand on his sidearm. I did as he said.
"What is this about, sir? Did I run the light? Was I swerving? I don't get it?" I pleaded.
"Sir," he continues, as he walks towards my car to peek in it "I was right behind you. I saw you take a swig out of a bottle. It didn't look like a soda bottle."
My body released. Everything dropped as I relaxed and I chuckled.
"Is something funny, sir? I'm gonna need you to do a few tests," he was a bit upset.
I then told him, "Sir, you did see me drink out of a bottle. It was mouthwash. It is right there inside the door." I was leaning over trying to point it out.
He found it, and pulled it out and was looking at the bottle. He set it down, and continued to look through the car. He found my coffee cup and removed the lid and sniffed. He winced and looked back at me quizzically.
"I can't swallow the mouthwash," I explained.
He put the lid back on and walked over to me still carrying the bottle of mouthwash.
He made me run through the tests anyway. And as I was successfully completing all the tasks,he asked about the mouthwash. He said he had never known Crest made mouthwash. I told him I hadn't known either and that I had gotten a free sample from BzzAgents.com to review. He then chuckled a bit as he noticed the mouthwash was Alcohol-free. "Well, I couldn't have been more wrong," he said as he handed me back the bottle and all my information.
He apologized unnecessarily, and I asked if he wanted a coupon for the mouthwash that I had printed off of coupons.com. He shrugged and took the coupon and told me to drive safe. And that was that. I got into my car and headed home......finally