After being released from prison Piper Chapman had a long struggle ahead. Adjusting from prison life was difficult and Piper often awoke in the middle of the night having night terrors. Since being released she decided to continue with her lifelong dream of making Popi a raging success however she no longer had her once trust worthy best friend and business partner, Polly. After discovering Larry and Polly had been having an affair behind her back whilst she struggled with the dangers and drama of Lichfield she cut all ties with both.
Piper now had a one bedroom apartment in Brooklyn which she could comfortably afford with a little help from the inheritance she had received upon her grandmother's death. It was rather spacious for a one bedroomed apartment. In the living room, she had an L shaped white leather sofa, an old rustic coffee table in the centre of the room and a book shelf absolutely filled with various genres from old classics, crime novels and poetry. She had a decent sized bedroom with a king-size four poster bed, which was rather unnecessary as she currently lived alone. Just off the bedroom was the most amazing en-suite. Piper had always loved getting clean. she loved baths. she loved showers. It was most undoubtedly her happy place. Even more so once being released from prison. She felt safe in the shower and it held so many special memories of a certain tall brunette for her. Her bathroom was the most spectacular room in her apartment; the room was huge and covered in large black tiles. In the middle of the en-suite was a huge double shower with massaging jets. There was a free-standing bath made of marble and marble his and hers sinks. This was Pipers favourite place to be.
Piper had just received another order for Popi and was on her way into work that cold, dark morning when she received a phone call on her mobile. She didn't recognise the number and was eager to get to work to see how her staff were progressing with the current order, so she decided to let it ring through to her answer phone. She arrived at work and was pleasantly greeted by Taystee. They had stayed in touch since being released and Piper had offered her a job at Popi as she needed people in her life she could trust to help her make a success of the business. Trust was everything to Piper as she had been screwed over by so many people, Alex, Larry, Polly… just to name a few.
"Morning Chapman, how's it going girl?"
"Morning Taystee, we have a lot of work to get through today. The order we received last night has a sharp deadline and we need to get going. Can you bring the paper work through to my office please?" Piper replied.
"Damn! You all business no pleasure this morning. I'll bring it through in a minute" Taystee countered. With that she spun on her heal and strutted off.
Piper continued into her office after saying good morning to the rest of her work force. Although Popi was reasonably successful, Piper wanted to push her business forward and develop it further. The current workshop was rather large, comfortably big enough for her ten-strong work force and she had her own private office where she could find sanctuary from the madness of the production process of the beauty products. Just as she sat in her plush leather desk chair her mobile phone received a message. She ignored the bleep of her phone and began sifting through numerous emails. She was interested in expanded the marketing for her products as well as trying to clinch deals that would mean her products were stocked in stores across the country as opposed to just the state of New York.
As she finished replying to various emails Taystee appeared in front of her desk with the paper work. She thanked her and began looking over the figures and numbers for the forthcoming order and was pleased that she had enough staff to deal with the capacity of the order. The day was nothing out of the ordinary and as she finished for the day at around 7pm she was feeling rather positive about how the order was progressing. She decided that she would walk home that night, although the weather wasn't particularly warm and there was a slight breeze in the air she felt she could use a short walk to unwind from the day at work.
Just as she reached the steps to her apartment block she noticed a car parked outside, the car was an Audi RX8 which looked out of place in this neighbourhood. She continued up the stairs to her apartment no longer thinking about the car and approached her apartment door. There was a letter outside her door, she scooped the letter up and continued inside. She placed her purse and the letter on the side in the kitchen and walked over to the refrigerator wondering what she could have for her dinner. After checking the refrigerator and being disappointed with the lack of food she had, she settled onto the sofa and ordered take out. She had a quiet evening reading one of her poetry books before retreating to her bed and falling asleep.
At 3am she awoke dripping with sweat and out of breath. She couldn't move for a short few moments as she was paralysed with fear from one of her nightmares. Yet another terror attack that was caused by her nightmares over Alex Vause.
She hadn't heard from Alex in quite some time. After she had released her and Alex had promised to keep in touch through letters as there was no possible way that she would be allowed on Alex's phone contact list thanks to the narcissistic, evil guards that ran the shit hole that was Litchfield. The letters continued between them for 6 months after her release, then she stopped getting replies from Alex. She thought of hundreds of scenarios as to why Alex had stopped responding and after trying to get in touch with other inmates to see if Alex was okay she decided to send one letter a week to Alex in the hope that one day she would get a reply. It was hell for Piper but that's the only thing she could do… hold out hope and wait to hear from Alex. Throwing herself into her work helped her cope with the mess that was her personal life as that's the only aspect of her life she was fully in control of.
She got out of bed and walked the short to her kitchen to grab a glass of water once she had fully recovered from her night terror. She stood against the kitchen work top, glass of water in one hand and the other rubbing her temple. It's going to be a long night she thought.