1.
New York.
Goddamn is it a beautiful city. Beauty is everywhere you turn. You just have to look deep enough to see it.
In a world with six billion people, no matter who you are, what you do, where you come from, a very tinny, if not small percentage of those six billion people come together at the earliest hour of the morning in one of the biggest, most beautiful, city in the world.
Opportunity and fortune is always in the air. You just have to have enough balls to reach for it.
Business men hustled around with their briefcase, a mother with its child, a runner training for the marathon bursting with adrenaline, college student pumping caffeine in their blood— doesn't matter who, at some point in the day, they're all one. Be it at 7:00 am starting their day or at 5:00 pm ending it. They're strangers but they share things in common. Things like the sidewalk, the subway, or sometimes, a smile.
There's something beautiful in that unity. Strangers coming together in the rarest form and that's how Piper Chapman finds the beautiful in people and in nature.
Catching someone off guard when they're not pretending; when the emotion is so clear, they can't even hide it, that one moment of profound clarity- that's how you catch the beautiful.
Piper's favorite place to photograph is Time Square. After her morning run, when the city awakes and people are on the move, it's the most beautiful.
And it's the little things too that are the most captivating.
...
"Your usual?"
Piper had walked into Starbucks at the usual hour of eight in the morning to get her usual order of mocha latte and croissant.
"Yes." She smiled.
"How's the fiancé?" Jen asked. "I read his piece on Times the other day. Not bad."
"Thanks. I'll tell him." Piper said.
Her order came through minutes later and soon she was on her way out.
While Piper crossed Seventh Avenue and was on her way back to her comfortable life in her little brick-stone apartment, she shuffled through the shots she took this morning.
The white mockingbirds in the sky at the wee hour of dawn, the wild colors of nature and the true captivating emotions of human kind.
She would develop them into perfection in the dark room once she got home like the artist that she is. Even though her parents only see what she loves as a childish hobby, Piper didn't care. Photography does for her what no master in Lit or Law degree can. Photography gets her heart racing! Taking a great shot puts adrenaline in her blood and she's damn fucking great at it.
Fuck what her parents thought.
And in between transitioning to that thought and the grocery list, like the spaz that she is, she went bumping into strong shoulders and soft breasts.
Her mocha suffered the fate her camera would have if it wasn't literally saved seconds before it hit the hard surface of the floor.
"Shit, I'm sorry."
That laugh. Why did it sound so familiar? Like in some deep cell in her nerve ending, it sounded so familiar and her heart just started drumming in her chest.
When the blonde looked up, she realized why her heart was racing a thousand beats per second. She was speechless in a way one would be if they accidentally bumped into their gorgeous ex.
So let's rephrase this...
New York.
Goddamn is it fucking small.
She stuttered. "A-Alex?"
"Wow."
Green eyes.
That's all Piper saw. That's all her mind flashbacked to.
Pink lips.
That's all her traitorous pussy was singing about and her lips tingled about.
We all have that ex don't we? The ones that even if we've moved on to something or someone we think or know is better for us, they somehow always come to mind in the darkest hour of the night when we can't sleep at night and they make us ponder about what could've been. We all have that ex that looks the same but every time we reencounter with them, it's like they'd gotten a hotter. They look yummilicious and fine as fuck.
And then we wonder some more.
So yeah. Goddamn New York.
It was a fucking cliché happening. You know the kind you see in those sappy fucking romance movies?
Girl runs into ex.
Girl doesn't know what to do.
And girl acts like a fucking retard.
It was totally happening. Right in the middle of the sidewalk where the whole fucking city seems to be moving on but at the same time not at all cause you're stuck on stupid.
Once again, Goddamn New York indeed.
She smirked. "Pipes?"
Pipes. The memories.
"Alex."
To think she's screamed that name so many times in the darkest hour of the night or in broad daylight in pleasure. To think she said that name over and over when she was-God. Snap the fuck out of it.
Alex fucking Vause, her ex lover was standing before her after nearly three years and Piper didn't know left from right.
Her heart was still racing by the way.
"What are you doing in New York?"
"I'm here for a couple of days." Alex replied. "Small world, hunh kid?"
"Y-yeah." Piper stuttered. "H-how are you?"
"Is this gonna be one of those awkward moments where you ask me how I am and I pretend we didn't use to fuck each other into a coma?"
Piper turned pale.
And Alex burst into laughter. "I'm fucking with you, kid."
Yep. Hasn't changed a bit. Same old Alex.
"Asshole."
"Narcissist."
"God, it's so good to see you." Piper smiled.
She couldn't believe she was so collected on the outside when she was frying inside her skin.
"It's good to see you too," Alex smiled back.
She sounded genuine.
"You still take pictures." Alex glanced at the camera in her hand with a smile still plastered on her cheeks.
Piper took the camera back. "Thanks for saving it." She said. "Mocha, I can afford, another digital camera like this one, not so replaceable."
They laughed.
"So what are you doing in New York?" Piper asked again.
"Business."
"Ah,"
Piper knew what 'business' meant more than anyone.
"Do you have time for me later?" Alex asked.
"Depends."
"Well you did just bump into me and I saved your camera from a fatal death so do you really have it in your heart to turn me down for a drink?" The brunette pouted, and her green eyes soften in that cute way puppies get that just melt your heart.
Damn it! And she does it good too.
"History, Pipes. That has got to count for something. And we have plenty."
Piper decided then. Larry was out of town covering a piece in DC and wasn't coming back until Monday afternoon. She was doing family brunch at noon and grabbing an early dinner with her best friend Polly at six.
So, yes. She had plenty of time later.
"Eight o'clock." Piper said. "One drink."
Alex smirked. "One drink." She nodded. "Eight o'clock."
"Don't you need my number?" Piper asked with raised eyebrows.
"Has it changed?" Alex questioned.
"No." Piper smiled as she realized that Alex still had her phone number.
Those are usually the first to go when one goes through a breakup.
"Then I'll see you at eight o'clock, Piper Chapman."
"Okay."
"Okay."
And then they were going about their business again like normal civilians.
Piper was halfway down the sidewalk about to cross the street when she heard her name being shouted.
She looked back and Alex winked at her.
"You still look mighty fine, Chapman."
Piper shook her head. "And you're still you, Vause."
When the blonde waved her left hand goodbye, Alex tried to pretend that the white gold three carat princess cut diamond engagement ring around her fourth finger didn't claw at her pounding heart.
Why had she ever let her go?
888
Okay! This is it. I don't know if this will turn into something big but for now I know it has the potential of being a five chapter short story. Review and let me know what you guys thought of it.
P.S. I didn't forget about my other stories. Especially, "Teach Me". The next chapter for that is still in transition.