It started slow. Knock. Knock. Then it grew louder until it was a loud pounding. Its two fucking am, she grumbled, hoping it would echo through her tiny Manhattan apartment, just enough space for one. After the last two years that was exactly what Piper needed. Nobody to notice or judge when she drank a bottle of cheap, well cheap for a yuppie, Chardonnay. Nobody to notice her put two shots of tequila in her coffee or smoke her nightly joint from Cal's stash. Nobody to notice that instead of her first days back from Paris six months ago where she swore to get her life together she was falling apart more with each day. She had convinced herself the last two years of her life were just a youthful dalliance and put it behind her. All this worked for about two months, okay barely worked. After fucking her way through the neighborhood she quickly realized it did nothing for the pain in her heart. So Chardonnay became her best friend. She came up with what she thought were ingenious ways to hide the bottles and to convince herself she wasn't a wino like so many of the rich housewives she saw growing up. As the pounding grew louder she worried about whoever this was waking up her neighbors or that it was the super trying to get into her apartment because her idiot upstairs neighbor flooded the bathroom again. Once she had pulled a zip-up hoodie on and was in the hallway she heard a voice she recognized say her name. No, it couldn't be.
She opened her door and without looking at the person on the other end huffed, "Why the fuck are you pounding on my door at two am? How long have you been fucking stalking me? I thought I made myself really fucking clear in that suite in Paris! I don't want anything to do with you or your career! I meant it when I said I couldn't be your girlfriend anymore."
"Pipes, just hear me out. Let me tell you where I've been and what I've gone through to get here. Please. Just give me a few minutes of your time."
"Pipes! You lost every right to ever call me Pipes ever again when you asked me to go to Istanbul."
"Okay, I wont call you Pipes," Alex stepped out of the shadows as Piper opened the door a little wider. She got her first real look at Alex. Her nose was slightly crooked and she had scars on her face. Most noticeable was her heavily bandaged arm in a sling.
Every bit of love she still had for the woman flooded to the surface, "What happened, Alex? Are you on the run? Are you in danger?"
"Let me in and I'll tell you everything and then if you never want to see me again I'll leave you to your life. But I had to try."
Piper finally let the latch of the lock go and opened the door, "Come in. I have orange juice, tequila and Chardonnay. Or I could make you some tea. Have you eaten? You look so rail thin and pale. Let me order us some sesame chicken from the all night Chinese place."
"I'll take some tequila, I need the hard stuff. I've been surviving on cheap vodka, it helps with the pain and is easier to find than legit painkillers on the streets and I don't want to do heroin again but its so easy to get."
"Why don't you go to a doctor?"
"Piper, think for a second about what you just asked me. I can't. That should give you a little hint about what I've spent the last five and a half months doing. I don't want you to worry about me or fix me. I don't want you to make me a double shot of prissy ass tequila and order me fucking Chinese food like I'm your girl and I just got home after a bad day. But here I am letting you."
"Sorry I don't have what you would choose to drink but you don't look like you have a whole lot of choices these days. And I might let you take a shower because it looks like you haven't had a good one in six months. You want to check out the menu or should I just order for us?"
"My takeout orders haven't changed in six months, Alex answered as she winced in pain. This led Piper to run to her medicine cabinet, open a bottle and measure out three pills, taking one and popping it into her mouth like an M&M and folding the other two into her palm. She saw an old bottle of Tylenol with codeine from a dental procedure last year that was a month from expiring and put two of those in her palm."
Piper went to the kitchen and grabbed Alex her drink, she added a splash of flat ginger ale and squeezed some lime into the glass then strode into the living room where the brunette was making herself comfy on the couch.
"Here's your drink, I added soda, I know you love a splash of soda with your liquor. And I've seen you wince about twenty times in the three minutes you've been in my house here's some of my Valium and some nearly expired codeine. It isn't much but it might help. I'll give you the bottle when you leave, there's six more pills."
"I tell you I don't want you to fix me and you do this?"
"I know this wont fix you but I cant hear you out if you can hardly talk and your tummy is grumbling. You'll buy pills on the street but you are too noble to take a handful of pills from your ex-girlfriend? Sometimes Alex Pearl Vause you make no fucking sense! I'm going to order Chinese. Take the pills," Piper commanded as she took the menu from the drawer then went to her room where her phone was on sleep. She called for the order then poured herself a glass of Chardonnay and sat in her cozy armchair.
"You aren't going to sit with me?"
"Nope."
"Should I start?"
"Finish your drink, maybe have another and eat some dinner then we'll talk."
"What do you want to do while we wait then?"
"I think I have some cards in my junk drawer," Piper said as she hopped up and shuffled through the drawer in her kitchen, "Ah yes here!"
She threw the small box at her ex, "You deal. Poker."
Alex said nothing and just opened the box, shuffled and after Piper was comfy on the floor, "Cut."
Piper took the cards, reshuffled them and handed the deck back to Alex. They played through three rounds before there was a knock on the door.
"Ms. Piper! Get more than normal? You have friend over?"
"Yeah an old friend showed up tonight so were just playing cards and catching up."
"Gentleman friend?"
"No an old girlfriend," it was a good thing the space or lack thereof couldn't be heard.
"You enjoy friend Ms. Piper."
"I'll be right back with your tip."
She took the bag and put it on her counter then to her purse and got her wallet out, two fives and a twenty, she pulled the twenty out.
"You too generous, Ms. Piper!"
"It's nearly three a.m. on a Saturday morning. You deserve a little something extra. And you always give me sauces for free."
Piper locked the door again and found her only two plates and fished for the chopsticks out of the bag. She also grabbed a fork and spoon in case Alex had trouble eating. She set the big plate down in front of Alex and the small one down on her end table and then snapped up their glasses and poured them both a double shot of tequila and opened up a new bottle of club soda. The two ate in silence.
"Okay Alex, you have my undivided attention for half an hour. It's what you asked and after that I decide."
"Where to start?"
"You must have practiced this. You've had six months to figure out what to say. So talk, you're wasting your precious minutes."
"I've done nothing but practice since I got back to the States six weeks ago. I tried to imagine the best way."
"But yet here we are at 3:15 am. The best way became impossible the second you decided two am was the best time to knock on my door."
Alex looked at her hands, prayed a silent prayer and took a deep breath. The floor was hers.