A/N: Hey, it's me again. Are you guys ready to meet Sylvia? I don't think Piper is. Not one bit.

Chapter 4

"You need to relax. As soon as we get inside we're going straight to the bar and you're getting some alcohol in you. I haven't seen you this nervous since finals week senior year."

"I'm not nervous, Polly-"

"Oh no? Then why have you been rambling since the moment we got in the cab? And why have you been wringing your hands like that," Polly points at Piper's hands and she immediately stops and places them at her sides, "the whole ride over? And more importantly why do you look like you took uppers?"

"What?"

"Your eyes are really wide and I can see you breathing." Polly paid the driver and they stepped out of the cab onto the sidewalk in front of the store, Room 248.

Piper let out an exaggerated scoff, "I'm not, no, listen I'm fine. See?" Piper made a gesture that was supposed to put Polly at ease but only served to make her confused.

"Whatever, Piper, just don't embarrass me because I know you'll be embarrassing yourself." Piper didn't even make an effort to look offended at the very true statement. "Ok now let's get inside. The invite said it's open bar!"

There was a soft knock on the door, Alex looked up as Nicky walked in.

"You know, this isn't how parties work. You invite the guests, you know the people downstairs, and you're supposed to be there to talk to them. I mean, that's the general rule of parties."

"Well where's the fun in doing things the conventional way?"

Nicky looked over at Alex's computer screen. "Jesus, Alex, really? First of all, work hours are over and second of all we're technically closed until after New Year so you're definitely not supposed to be up here working."

Alex looks at her screen while she types and asks her, "You came up here to tell me all these things that I already know. How thoughtful of you."

"No, asshole, I came up here because Sylvia asks me every five minutes when you're coming down and there's only so many times I can lie to her before she realizes you're avoiding her." She puts down the paperweight she'd been tossing around.

Alex lets out a loud breath and turns towards Nicky, "Fine, fine. I'll be right down. Just-just go mingle and I'll be down in five."

Nicky looked at her friend a moment longer and turned to leave.

"I need a bathroom. I need a bathroom right now."

"You are worse than A CHILD."

"I get bladder issues when I get nervous you know that, Polly."

"I thought you weren't nervous?"

"I'M NOT." Piper said just loud enough for a few of the other people in the show room to turn their heads.

"Look who showed up" Both women turn their heads and see Nicky with an almost scheming smile on her face. "Don't pee on my floor, Blondie, bathroom's over there." She said pointing to a corridor in the back of the store.

Piper mumbled a quick "thanks" before rushing off towards the bathroom.

"Who're you?" Nicky asked bluntly.

A little taken aback by her bluntness Polly took a few seconds to answer, "I'm Polly, Piper's friend and business partner."

"Hm, only her business partner?" Nicky asked with an overly serious look to compensate for the lack of tact in her question.

"And friend. Business partner and friend." Polly repeated a tad confused not understanding why she was answering the same question within five minutes.

Nicky nodded and sipped her drink.

Alex walked down from her office and down the corridor. She was reading an email on her phone and didn't see or hear the bathroom door open and close, nor did she see the person walk out.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Piper quickly picked up the dropped phone and turned to look at the other person. "I didn't see you, I'm sorry, I was a little, um-" just then Piper saw who it was she'd run into.

Alex looked her in the eyes and smirked as she said, "You made it. I was beginning to think you were lying about liking antiques and weren't gonna show up."

"Yes, well, I RSVP'd and it would be considered bad form to do that and not show up. Oh god, I sound just like my mother." Piper said as she pressed the palm of her hand into her forehead.

"Well, if you ask me, your form is far from bad."

Piper wanted to be annoyed at the cheesy line but with Alex's smug little grin and the spark in her eyes it was almost impossible. "Thanks."

Alex looked at her for another moment and then laughed out loud. "You're something else you know that, kid?"

With the most ungracefully endearing snort Piper shook her head and pointed at herself with both hands, "yeah, well, when they made me they broke the mould."

Alex caught and held her gaze for a minute before she said to her, "if you need help holding those pieces together I've got two very well functioning hands."

Alex reached over and played with a piece of her hair and just before letting go she looped it around her index finger a couple of times. Piper looked like she was going to pass out. The hallway wasn't exactly small but right then it felt like a 4x4 room to the blonde. Giving Piper an almost too intense stare down she stepped back suddenly.

"Looks like someone needs a drink. Come on, I need one too." And she took off towards the bar with Piper following.

They walked out of the long corridor and made their way over to the bar that'd been set up for the party. Alex walked up to the bar and asked for a whisky neat with a splash of water.

"What about you?"

"Um, can I have a margarita?"

The brunette gave her a look, a mixture of amusement and disbelief. "It's a little cold out for a margarita don't you think?

"I need tequila."

"You need tequila?"

Piper only nodded and stood there nervously waiting for her drink.

"Are you alright? You seem… nervous."

"What? No, I'm not nervous. I'm just not relaxed, that's why I need tequila."

"Ah, ok, and why are you 'just not relaxed'?"

"Just… there's a lot of people here and well I'm not always great with crowds. Especially when I have to talk for longer than a few minutes with people." She said as she tapped her fingers on the bar. It was a complete lie, but she wasn't about to tell Alex that her little move in the hallway had left her in quite a state.

"I remember very well." She gave Piper her signature smirk and came a step closer to her.

Piper snorted, "If you think that was bad then you're in for a treat." She thanked the bar tender as she took her drink and downed most of it in one go. Alex seemed to be getting closer and closer to her as the night went on.

"I like your style. I mean, you have a natural difficulty at maintaining a regular conversation with people so the next logical step would be to add alcohol into the equation."

"Well, you know, I figured if I have no filter when I'm sober, I might have a filter when I'm drunk." Piper shrugged and continued to drink her margarita. All the while her eyes were fixed on Alex's.

"Oh good, you're back. Did you make it to the bathroom or do I have to get a mop?" Both women turned to see Nicky and a woman with shoulder-length brown hair make their way to the bar for a refill.

Piper placed a hand on Nicky's shoulder, the alcohol beginning to kick in, and said, "I did, so you don't have to worry about anything." She shook her head in an attempt to assure Nicky that she did not in fact pee on her floor.

Nicky was amused by the blonde's friendliness. "Good, 'cause I'm not dressed for that tonight."

Piper finished her drink and signaled the bar tender and motioned for him to make her another. She swallowed the liquid she'd been holding in her mouth and looked at Nicky's legs, "you know what, those are very nice pants. I think I might have the same pair. Are those midnight blue or dark navy?"

"They're really dark fucking blue. Even said that on the tag." Nicky picked up her drink and sipped while looking at Piper.

"Nicky, it's very rude not introduce your guests." Piper tried to admonish Nicky but failed because she was actually smiling.

"Lorna this is Piper, she owns that soap shop you love, the one with the bath salts you can't live without, and Piper, this is the person that has the patience and grace to put up with me daily, Lorna."

"Very nice to meet you! I just love your products!" Lorna smiled real wide at Piper.

"Oh well that's very nice of you to say, thank you. I love that you love our products."

Right then a hand wrapped around Piper's arm and turned her around. "That was the longest bathroom trip ever, even for you. I thought you fell in the toilet again."

"Again?" Alex asked.

"Yeah it's a long story." Piper tried to brush off the embarrassing story her best friend conveniently brought up.

"No, you can't just bring up falling in the toilet again and not tell the story. That's not how it works." Nicky explained as if it were law.

Polly furrowed her brows, "How what works?"

"It's a basic rule: you bring up an embarrassing story and it has to be told. If you didn't wanna share it you wouldn't have brought it up." She held a hand out to her side and looked at them as if this were common knowledge.

"Come on, Piper. Tell us about the time you fell in the toilet." Alex said as she smiled while looking at Piper and lightly touching her elbow.

"Times." Polly said just before she sipped her cocktail. Piper gave Polly a look that said 'you will pay for this.'

"Ok fine I'll tell you about one time. It was sophomore year of college and Polly and I went to a party and got excessively drunk. Through some miracle we made it back to our dorm in one piece and went directly to the bathroom. Well we were in there a while and Polly fell asleep on the toilet-"

"No I didn't."

"Yes you did. Anyway, I didn't have any toilet paper in my stall so I asked Polly for some, but I was whispering? Well I thought I was whispering. Yeah, so I heard Polly snoring and knew someone was asleep but in my drunk state I didn't realize I was in a dorm bathroom and that's not where people slept."

"Except for Polly." Alex said.

Piper smiled at Alex, "except for Polly. So when Polly didn't answer I decided to look over the partition, but when I stood on the toilet I lost my footing and almost ended up falling in the toilet."

"Wow, that was anticlimactic." Nicky said with a bored look on her face.

Piper sipped some more of her second drink. "Mmm, there's more."

Nicky smiled real wide, "there's more!" she said as she looked around at everyone.

"Well, I thought since I almost fell in the toilet once that night that I'd, you know, cheated death or something."

"That's pretty deep." Piper nodded her head as if to say thank you to Nicky for her compliment.

"Well, after I was done, I felt a little sick and threw up. But just before I left I had to throw up again and turned around, but just as I did someone open the stall door and ended up knocking me over and I tried to catch myself on the seat but my aim as a drunk person is… not great."

By this point Nicky was staring at her half smiling, half completely grossed out. "Wait, don't tell me you got an handful of your own puke." When Nicky saw Piper's 'yup' expression she could no longer contain her laughter. "Yeah, you're alright, Blondie. We'll go drinking sometime and I'll tell you about the time I woke up naked on a beach in Florida with about ten loaves of sliced bread dumped all over me."

"And a jar of pickles" Alex added.

"No, those were mine. I just wanted a snack."

They'd been chatting for a little while when they were approached by a woman, on the shorter side, with auburn hair, aggressive eyes and a very rehearsed smile. "There you are! I've been looking for you for ages. Please tell me you weren't working again."

Sylvia pulls Alex down for a less than subtle kiss in front of the other women. After a few moments she pulled back and looked at the others as if noticing them for the first time. "Hi, I'm Sylvia, Alex's girlfriend. And you are?"

"This is Polly and that one's Piper. Piper here's in search of a new desk so we told to stop by." Nicky explained not leaving any room for Sylvia's active imagination.

"Yeah sort of like a moving slash late Christmas gift to myself type thing."

"A desk as a Christmas gift. Oh ok." Sylvia said.

"Well, I mean, it's not gonna be just any desk. It's an antique! And I'm thinking of going all out and getting one of those real fancy ones too."

"Ok, yeah, good for you." Sylvia wasn't even trying to hide her confusion at this point. Desks aren't Christmas gifts.

In an attempt to make the awkward tension go away Piper decided to talk. "I like your necklace! It's very nice!" Piper gestured to the necklace that was resting on Sylvia's collarbone.

"Isn't is just gorgeous? It's my Christmas present from Alex." Sylvia wrapped an arm around Alex's waist and continued, "I told her I only wanted one gift. And I wanted it to be something thoughtful, you know. Not just any gift, but something that made her think of me." She looked up at Alex and smiled real wide, "And so when I opened this Christmas morning I was just at a loss for words. It's perfect."

"What about the shower gel?" Piper asked mildly confused. She could've sworn that when Alex was in her store, both times, it was to buy her girlfriend a gift.

"Shower gel. How do you know about the shower gel?"

"Oh, Polly and I, we own Popi. That's our store."

"Right. Yeah, the shower gel's Alex's. She knows better than to show up with a bottle of grey shower gel as a Christmas gift for me." She says and she touched her necklace and laughed incredulously at Piper's ridiculous suggestion.

As Sylvia calls the bar tender over Piper looks away from the woman that was just talking to her and sees Alex looking at her intently. Alex kept the shower gel for herself. The shower gel that Piper not only created but picked out for her.

Piper downed the rest of her drink in one gulp.