Alex rarely made any pretenses about her interests. What you saw is what you got. So when she first saw this hot blonde at the bar, she didn't hesitate to approach her – even though her table full of friends rolled their eyes when she got up.
Teasing the woman about her Smith College degree and her awkward attempts to get a job she wasn't qualified for, Alex poured on the charm, and made it clear that her interest wasn't just in passing.
But she was a little surprised to see Piper reciprocate it quite so quickly.
"What else do I need to know about you?" she asked, studying Piper's eyes with a half-smile.
"Who are you?" Piper asked, a curious smile playing on her lips.
"My name is Alex," she answered.
Piper paused, letting her eyes drop lazily to study Alex's full lips, painted candy red. She smiled and looked back up, catching Alex's eyes.
"And what do you do, Alex?" Piper asked, flirty. "Besides make fun of strangers in bars."
"I work for an international drug cartel," Alex said, letting her words hang pregnant in the air.
Was she joking? She was joking, right? Alex finally laughed, and then Piper did too.
The rest of the bar receded from view. Alex was only aware of Piper's long blonde ringlets falling in soft curls, her honey-cream skin, her dancing eyes. Her lips were a modest pink, her makeup just enough to give her a dewy glow without being caked. In a word, tasteful – WASPy. But the low-cut outfit she was wearing suggested something else entirely. She was probably educated and cultured, most certainly beautiful, looking for adventure and maybe a little danger - she'd make a great mule. And maybe some fun along the way.
"For a second I thought you were serious," Piper said, smiling.
Alex shrugged with that same half-smile she'd had since she walked up to the bar. "I'm whatever you want me to be."
Alex was now studying Piper like a wolf, eyes poring over her face, pausing at her nose, her lips, lingering longer than was seemly. She hadn't made any attempts at subtlety before, and she surely wasn't bothering now. She was intrigued and wanted this blonde in her stable.
Piper inhaled and pursed her lips. She didn't know what to say, but was convinced she wanted to know more about this dark-haired Suicide Girl lookalike.
Alex grabbed both of their drinks finally, hitching her head toward her table of friends. "Come over here," she said.
Piper followed close behind, practically tripping over herself to move and grab her purse at the same time. She stuffed her now-wrinkled resume back inside her Coach bag.
Alex sat down and put Piper's drink in front of a chair right next to her. Her friends were staring at the unfolding scene with amused, knowing expressions.
"Meet Piper," Alex said to the assembled crowd. Piper managed a short wave back at the nodding faces.
But Alex's interest in the rest of them now was old news. As soon as Piper sat down, Alex turned to face her and the rest of the table shouldn't even have bothered to exist.
"Tell me something else about you, Piper," Alex said.
"Well, you've made that a pretty hard act to follow," Piper said.
"That's true, I AM pretty awesome," Alex said, fake flipping her hair for effect. "Tell me a secret about you."
"I think you've already discovered one," Piper said. She pointed at the corner of her crumpled resume sticking up out of her purse.
Alex laughed.
"You don't want to be a waitress, it's a drag," Alex said. "There are way more interesting ways to make money."
Piper took a sip of her margarita, remembering how amateurish Alex had made her feel when she first came up to the bar and noticed what she'd ordered. She slowly passed her tongue across the salty rim, feeling the crystals attached to the glass.
Alex dropped her gaze down to Piper's mouth. She was trying to tease her – and it was working. She felt her lips part very slightly, then caught herself.
Piper finally took a long drink. "Right, like working for your 'cartel?'" she asked, using air quotes.
"Sure," Alex said. "If you have the cojones for it. I'm not sure you do."
Piper blinked once, hard. She suddenly wasn't quite so sure that Alex had been joking after all – and yet she found she didn't really care.
Alex felt one of the other people at the table tugging at her sleeve, and turned around slightly irritated. "Yeah?" She looked pointedly at the short-haired brunette who'd been trying to get her attention.
"Hey, I don't mean to interrupt you two," the brunette said, laced with sarcasm. "But I do need to know where we're headed next before I lose you for the night. You said it was either Morocco or Tokyo. Which?"
"Why not both," Alex said, and the table erupted in cheers.
"We've never done Tokyo before," squealed the flamboyant lone man at the table.
"That's right girls," Alex said, then turned back to Piper.
"So you all work together?" Piper asked.
"You could say that," Alex said.
"All that travel sounds … exciting," Piper said, biting a tiny bit of her lower lip as she searched Alex's face.
Alex shook her head almost imperceptibly. She'd thought it before, but now she knew there was no way she wasn't going to have this woman.
"Maybe you'll find out sometime," Alex said. "If you're lucky. Maybe."
"Who said I want to?" Piper asked, a teasing tone creeping into her voice. "I mean, I just turned in an application and as you know I'm highly qualified. My last two waitressing jobs were really fun."
Alex rolled her eyes, then abruptly stood up. "Let's get out of here," she said, extending both hands to Piper.
In the time it took Piper to grab Alex's hands, the rest of her crew were already out of their seats and bustling toward the bar's exit, talking animatedly among themselves. The first woman up from the table shoved the bar's door open, and a mercury vapor street light just above the entrance illuminated her in a hazy orange glow as she crossed the threshold.
Alex went through the motions of pulling Piper up, even though Piper didn't need help. And Piper let her.
Alex dropped Piper's hands as they snaked their way through bar tables and chairs to the exit, with Alex leading the way, some distance behind the rest of her friends.
As Alex and Piper they stepped outside onto the sidewalk, slick from a brief rainstorm, Alex looked over her shoulder abruptly and caught Piper looking squarely at her ass. Alex smirked as Piper jerked her head up.
Alex's crew kept walking left down the sidewalk, but Alex began walking the opposite direction. She grabbed Piper's hand again, and her steps quickened as she turned the corner into an alley right next to the bar. "I want you to myself for a minute," Alex said, and Piper felt a thrill run up the back of her neck.
Piper allowed herself to be pulled, her senses heightened, but too curious to protest. Alex stopped up short and whipped around. As she did, Piper bumped into Alex. And though their bodies touched only briefly, Alex felt a buzz of electricity between them, every cell humming with the imprint of where they had touched.
Piper backed off abruptly, her face a mask of confusion and anxiety. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to –"
"I'm not sorry," Alex said, grabbing Piper by the elbows and pulling her back close. They weren't touching, but Alex could smell her perfume, could feel her body trembling slightly. Piper looked up to see Alex smiling, one corner of her mouth quirked up.
Piper exhaled, relaxing slightly as she reached up to touch Alex's hip, her fingers closing lightly as she tried to steady herself.
"You're beautiful, Piper from Smith. And you're going to have dinner with me," Alex said.
Piper opened her mouth to speak, but Alex stopped her short, putting a finger to her lips. The heat from Alex's finger seared her lips. Being so close to the tall, intense woman made her feel a little faint.
Alex leaned in close, putting her lips close to Piper's ear. "Yes. Tomorrow at 8 p.m. Meet me at Marrakesh," Alex whispered, her warm breath cascading over Piper's neck.
"Yes," Piper squeaked. Piper closed her eyes.
Alex drew back, and Piper had barely pried her eyes open again but Alex was on the move, walking back toward the sidewalk, leaving Piper with an ache and butterflies more intense than she'd ever known.
She peered around the corner, watching Alex stride away down the sidewalk to rejoin her friends, who were dutifully waiting a block away. Alex looked at her feet as she kicked down the sidewalk, grinning from ear to ear.
"Your newest recruit, right Vause?" asked the brunette who'd led the pack out of the bar.
"Yep," Alex said, brushing her off.
"And that's it, right?"
"Yep," Alex said - but she knew they could see right through her. And she didn't care a bit.