A/N: Thank you for all your responses. I appreciate your encouraging comments. I'm not sure what else to say, so...
Chapter 7 - Hung Over (You)
What was that shuffling noise?! Piper frowned at the sound of footsteps tiptoeing around her. She didn't want to open her eyes, her head was pounding. Cautiously she opened one eye. The room was unfamiliar, she was wrapped up in deep red bed sheets, and she could see the outline of a woman moving carefully around the room. She blinked and opened both eyes, the figure came into focus. Alex. The tall dark haired woman was rummaging through draws, her long, toned legs exposed as she moved around in her underwear. Piper shut her eyes tightly. 'No, no, no…'
The icy feeling of panic spread through her as she tried to cast her mind back to the earlier hours of the morning. She hadn't slept with her ex-girlfriend had she?! No. She would remember that, right? What about Larry? Wouldn't he be worried sick, wondering where she was?
"Fuck!"
Piper opened her eyes to see Alex balancing uneasily on one foot, her hand cradling the the other, "Shit"
Piper watched as the familiar face cast a glare towards an upwards facing plug.
"Those will get you every time," Piper warned with a smile.
"Fuckers!" Alex growled at the plug. Her expression eased as she looked towards Piper.
"I didn't mean to wake you," she apologised.
Piper looked at her with an unspoken question.
"Don't worry," Alex laughed, "I draw the line at taking advantage of drunk exes who chuck up on my shoes. I slept on the couch." She could see Piper wincing at the light coming in through the part-open blinds in the window, "you should sleep it off before you go home.."
Piper groaned, "Why are you up?"
"I have work in an hour," Alex grimaced.
Piper screwed up her nose, "ouch."
"I know.. Nikki's working today too, so you will have the place to yourself until you're ready to face the world."
As much as Piper wanted nothing more than to remain horizontal on the soft sheets which were faintly scented with the smell Alex's shampoo, she didn't want to impose.
"I better get back to Larry before he sends out a search party.."
"No need, I text him for you," Alex spoke over her shoulder, as she pulled a black t-shirt from her draw. She pulled it over her head and set about the task of finding her work pants.
"You did what?!"
"From your phone, I text him. Said I was Nikki, and that you were crashing here for the night. Don't worry, your dirty little secret is safe."
"He does know about you.." Piper felt as though she had something to prove, "Like, he knows about me and you.. us.."
Alex studied Piper for a moment. She was surprised, she'd expected Piper to have swept their relationship under the rug like dust. A secret life that nobody knew about, expect for Polly, her best friend. If Larry knew that Piper had an ex-girlfriend, did he also know about the business? Did he know about how Piper had helped to shift a significant amount of heroin across the world? She felt sure that he didn't. Piper didn't like to take accountability for anything she wasn't proud of, and in the privileged upper middle class world which Piper had come from, and probably Larry too, a life in crime was just unexplainable, inexcusable.
"And how did that go down?"
Piper shrugged, "Larry is very.. understanding," she tried to find a word to accurately describe her boyfriend. Larry had been understanding to an extent, he had understood Piper's lesbian relationship as being a rebellious phase, and she hadn't exactly corrected him on the details. It had been too raw to talk about the emotional significance of their relationship at the time she had met Larry. Too messy to explain.
"I bet!" Alex scoffed, "how does he feel about the whole work thing?"
"He doesn't know about that," Piper admitted, "I didn't think there was any need to worry him.."
Alex smirked, "what would he need to be worried about?"
"Nothing," Piper answered a little too quickly. And then it hit her. Last night, she had tried to kiss Alex.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have.."
Alex could see the pain in those blue eyes.
"Hey," she interrupted, "don't worry about it, you were drunk, I was there, your feelings were probably all mixed up. We can just blame the Tequila?"
Piper closed her head and groaned, "I'm such a dick!"
Alex shrugged, "just a little bit.."
"You didn't kiss me back."
It was a statement, not a question, but Alex answered anyway.
"No, I didn't. I'm quite proud of myself for that actually. I wanted to.. You know me, Pipes, I have very little self-control when it comes to.." she paused as she thought about what she was going to say, but went with the truth anyway, "when it comes to you," she finished. The words hung awkwardly in the air for a few seconds.
"I'm sorry," Piper re-apologised.
"Like I said, it was the tequila."
Alex grabbed a pair of pants from her wardrobe and pulled them on. She left the room without another word. Piper rolled onto her back and stared blankly at the ceiling above. She thought back to the night before, she could remember being stood in the taxi queue, she could remember Alex taking care of her. It had felt so good to be so close to her again. She had missed her ex-girlfriend, and the alcohol allowed her forget her inhibitions and tell her so. She replayed Alex's response in her head, "I missed you too, kid" and she allowed herself a smile.
"Drink this," Alex passed Piper a glass of cloudy looking liquid. Piper held her nose and swallowed the bitter contents.
"That stuff is worse than the headache," she complained.
Alex disappeared again and reappeared with a plate full of buttered toast, "should help to absorb some of it," she explained, "I'd make bacon and eggs or something, but I can't deal with any loud noises."
"Toast is good," Piper took a slice, suddenly hungry at the smell of it.
Alex sat beside her on the bed as she ate. A few years ago she wouldn't have thought anything about leaving Piper in bed, it had been normal, but it felt strange seeing her ex-girlfriend cuddled into her bed sheets, familiar and at the same time, unfamiliar. She wondered if Piper felt the same, and shifted around so that she could face her, "I honestly didn't think I'd get you back into my bed this soon," she joked.
"I didn't think it would happen at all," Piper countered.
Alex gave her a smirk, "next time you won't get off so lightly."
Piper frowned. Next time? Was this just some big joke to Alex? This was her life!
"There won't be a next time, Alex," she said in a serious tone.
"We'll see," Alex shrugged. She knew that while Piper was currently suffering a moral dilemma, the younger woman felt exactly the same way she did. It was up to Piper to figure it out on her own. Alex didn't like drama. She cast her mind back to the beginning of their relationship, when her girlfriend at the time had found Piper in their bed. That had been messy. Then there was Jules – their arraignment had been so simple, sex with no strings attached. No emotions equals no mess. But somewhere along the line, the sultry red head had a change of heart. Alex didn't like drama, but it seemed to like her. She checked her watch and stood up from the bed, "the door is on a latch, it locks behind itself, spare towels are in the bottom draw, help yourself to anything you need.. I'll see you Monday?"
Piper nodded her head, "Monday," she agreed.
She could hear Nikki's voice outside the room as the pair of them left the apartment and headed to work. Piper sat up and looked around the room. It looked like Alex, she thought. It had a look of attempted tidiness lacking in the willpower required to maintain it. If it wasnt for the homely mess, the room could have been that of a show home. There was a mixture of furniture, some newer looking and some more antique pieces, somehow it worked well. Alex had always had an eye for interior design. Piper recalled the apartment Alex had in New York, she had filled it with expensive furnishings, and top technology. She had a real talent for mixing new and old, and creating comfortable yet stylish spaces. Piper had often told Alex that she could make a career out of her vision, but Alex was much more passionate about her illegitimate means of making money, opting for excitement over stability, opting for sporadic but massive pay outs rather than a regular wage. Piper wondered whether Alex was happy with her life now, working in a book shop at the lower end of the pay scale didn't seem to suit her somehow.
Piper stepped out of the bed, her feet touching the cold wooden floor. It felt good, her hang over came with a raised temperature. She walked around the room slowly, looking for things which could tell her more about Alex's life now. There was a photograph of her mother on top of the chest of draws, Piper picked it up, finding herself suddenly filled with guilt and sadness. She put the photo-frame back exactly as she had found it, and continued to peruse the room. There wasn't a lot of overly personal items, but she did see a collection of photographs of Alex with Nikki and some of their friends. She flicked through them, frowning each time she saw the familiar red haired woman appear at the side or towards the back of the photos. She was pretty, Piper noted with jealousy.
She left the room and headed across the living area into the kitchen, she took a bottle of water from the fridge and held it against the back of her neck. She looked at the clock on the wall, it was nearing 10.30, she looked around for her phone and found it on the kitchen counter.
Larry: Thank you for taking care of Piper, I will pick her up in the morning, whats your address?
Larry: Piper are you awake yet?xx
Larry: Let me know where you are and I will come for you x
Larry: Piper its a Sunday, our only day off together, are you coming home?x
She hit the call button beside his name and waited for him to answer.
"Piper!" his voice seemed happy yet aggrivated.
"Don't yell!" Piper held the phone away from her ear.
"Sore head?"
"I feel like my head has been ran over by a tractor.. and then reversed.."
"Tequila?"
"Always Tequila," Piper said with a smile.
"At least you had a good night, did you make any new friends?" Sometimes Larry spoke to her like a parent.
"Sort of," she thought about Alex.. they had become friends this weekend, hadn't they? Would they ever really be 'just friends'? She couldn't think about that now.
"So, are you ready for me to pick you up?"
Suddenly occurred to Piper that she didn't know where she was. She explained this to Larry, who told her to look out of the window for the street name, but it was too far make out.
"I'll ring you back," she said and hung the phone up. Surely there would be some post somewhere with the address on it? She started to scan the Kitchen surfaces looking for an address. Having no luck, she moved into the living area where she found a magazine rack. She picked out a white envelope.
"Alex Miller?" she looked at the envelope with curiosity. It had never occurred to her that Alex may have been going by another name, although it made perfect sense. Still, she thought about Kubra, and worried for her safety. It may have been years since Alex had made an escape, but she made him a lot of money, and she knew too much about the business. She could give information to the feds or a rival cartel. It was surprising to her that they hadn't yet found Alex.
She looked at the address on the envelope, and sent it to Larry in a text. He replied to say he would be there in half an hour.
Piper ripped the lip of the envelope off and scrawled her phone number on it with a pen. She held it between her fingers for a moment, thinking about what she hoped to achieve by opening a line of contact between herself and Alex. She thought about Larry and how hurt he would be if he knew, and thinking better of it she crumpled it up and pushed it back into her pocket.
No sooner had she sat down before Larry text her to say he was waiting for her outside. She grabbed her phone, and her purse and headed for the door. She pulled the ball of paper from her pocket, and straightened out the creases. She knew that she shouldn't, but she left it on Alex's pillow anyway.
Once she had arrived back into the comforts of her home, Piper enjoyed a hot shower and changed into a pair of pyjama shorts and t-shirt and curled up on the couch. Larry ordered in Chinese food and Piper channel hopped through the hundreds of channels which had nothing of real interest. She settled on a recent drama series based on a woman's prison. She jumped as her phone buzzed on the arm of the sofa. She looked at the phone, and smiled at her best friends name. "Polly!" she answered, moving quickly into the bedroom for privacy. She had partly hoped that it had been Alex, the store closed earlier on a Sunday, so she should have been home hours ago and she hadn't yet heard from her.
"Piper!" Polly's voice was excitedly high pitched, "how is life in tinsletown?!"
"It's good, Larry's enjoying his new job.." she brought her friend up to speed with things, and skirted around the issue that she really wanted to discuss. Polly was literally the only person who she could talk about this with. Eventually, in a hurried whisper, she said "Alex is here!"
"Alex? Alex the Supercunt Alex?!"
"Yes," Piper frowned, "shh, I haven't told Larry."
"You said she was there? Where is there? Is she there with you? Piper! You-
"No," Piper interrupted her friend before she had a chance to rant, "she's not with me now. I work with her. Well, I work at the place where she works."
"Piper, are you turning back into a lesbian?"
"No, Polly, I told you.. you don't just turn-" she sighed, she was too tired to get into this right now, "no. I'm not doing anything... lesbian."
"Do you want to?"
Polly knew Piper. She had been there when she returned from Paris. She'd seen first hand, just how difficult it had been for Piper. It had been as though Alex was a drug, designed and created just for Piper, and when she got back to New York, she'd had to go cold Turkey. This right now, this could be a relapse.
"No!" Piper tried the lie out, but decided to be honest, "well, maybe.."
"Piper, Larry is a decent guy! He loves you, you love him.. dont you?"
"Of course I love Larry but.."
"But Alex is Supercunt, remember? She's destructive Piper. You broke up with her for a reason."
Piper rolled her eyes, she had half expected this reaction. Polly hated Alex. She hoped her friend would calm down enough to at least listen to her.
"What if the reasons we broke up are no longer relevant?"
"Did she stop being a Supercunt?" Polly asked, her voice dripping with scepticism, "you cant actually be serious about this Piper?"
Piper wasn't sure what exactly it was that she felt, but she no longer felt certain about a future with Larry.
"I don't know, my head is a total mess Polls.."
Polly remained silent for a short while, trying to think of some advice.
"OK, Hypothetically speak, lets say Alex said to you tomorrow, 'Hey Piper'" the woman tried to mimic the raspyness of Alex's voice, "'I want you, I need you, run away with me!' what would you do?!"
Piper laughed at her friends lame attempt of impersonating Alex, "she wouldnt say that."
"Hypothetically Piper,"
"Hypothetical Piper would jump her bones."
"And unhypothetical Piper?"
"Unhypothetical Piper is confused right now and doesn't know what she would do!"
"Here in lies the problem," Polly said, "if you don't know what you would do, then you aren't fully committed to Larry."
Piper nodded at her rational argument.
"And,"Polly continued, "I think it also means you're not ready to commit to Alex yet either."
"So what do I do?"
"You do nothing, you just see how things go for now. Seeing Alex again may have just stirred up some old feelings, it might not mean anything.." Polly advised, "And maybe that's why you don't feel fully committed to Larry right now. You guys were solid before, you've just moved across the country together!"
Piper nodded with a frown, all of this made perfect logical sense but logical sense did not necessarily make emotional sense, and she couldn't just ignore the way she felt and put her feelings in a box, and push them aside as Polly was suggesting.
"So, how's things with you?"
"Well it sure isn't the same around here without you," Polly answered, happy for the change in conversation, "I miss you, the baby bump misses you.."
"I miss you both too,",Piper smiled sadly, she was going to miss the birth of her best friends baby, and she knew that Polly hadn't quite forgiven her for that. It was an unspoken truth but an obvious one.
She spent the next hour on the phone to her best friend, with occasional interruptions from Larry. She went to bed feeling bad for her boyfriend, but while she was trying to figure out this whole Alex thing, she wanted some space. She plugged the phone charger into her phone, and saw that she had a text from a number she didn't recognise. Alex. Her heart skipped a beat. She looked over her shoulder at Larry who was sat with a small pile of papers in his lap, his pen tucked behind his ear. "Do you mind if I keep the lamp on, I just want to go through some of this before tomorrow," he asked. Piper told him it was fine, and turned over to read the text. She saved the number as "Lex" just to be safe.
Lex: Guess who?
Piper: Alex Vause, I mean, Miller.
Lex: "Who is Alex Vause?"
Piper: Just some ex, nobody special.
Lex: Nobody special eh? How's the head?
Piper: A bit better now, but I'm not touching Tequila ever again.
Lex: I've heard that one before.
Piper: Hah! How are you?
Lex: Tired, just about to get into bed, its a shame you're not in it tonight.
Piper paused for a moment, trying to think of the best way to respond. She placed her phone face down on the bed and looked back over her shoulder at Larry.
"Sorry," he said, feeling her eyes on him, "I won't be much longer."
Piper picked her phone back and stared at the last text. She thought about how sharing a bed with Alex was definitely preferable. But should she play along? She shouldn't, not with Larry right beside her..
Lex: "Too much?"
Piper smiled. Alex wasn't usually one for backtracking on her words.
Piper: Just thinking.
Lex: Do you need a moment ;-P
Piper couldn't help but let out a small laugh. She turned to look at Larry who had an eyebrow raised.
"Just one of the girls from work," she said - it wasn't a lie, "telling me about her crazy journey home last night," - that was.
Larry nodded and turned his attention back to his work.
Piper: No, you goof. I'm in bed with Larry, and I'm thinking about you.
Lex: Gross. We don't exactly use the same equipment..
Piper: Not like that, Miss One Track Mind. I mean, I can't stop thinking about us.
Lex: Me too.
Piper felt her heart skip another beat. She took a deep breath. Was this really happening?
Piper: Really?
Lex: Really Really.
Piper: This is fucked up, right? I mean, I have a boyfriend.. and you're, you!
Lex: I'm just going to take that as a compliment.
Piper paused, she needed a moment. It felt as though her whole life had changed in just minutes. Was she really the kind of person to have an affair? She thought back to when she had been a child and she had discovered her dad kissing a woman who wasn't her mother. It had felt like a nightmare. But this was Alex. This was the love of her life. She thought about Larry, and how it would be unfair on him to cheat, but then she thought about what Polly had said, this Alex thing, it could be temporary, it could be just old feelings coming to the surface. She had to know, but she didn't want to loose Larry, she loved him too. It wouldn't be an affair, she tried to justify, it would just be weighing her options. Though she knew if she did this, there was no going back, and she also knew, deep down at least, that if it came to it, Alex would win over Larry, hands down. She just wasn't ready for it yet.
Piper: Let's go out for lunch or something.
Lex: Are you asking me out on a date Piper Chapman?
Piper: Yes. I'm off on Wednesday and Friday this week.
Lex: Wednesday works for me.
Piper: I don't know LA, you can pick where?
Lex: OK. I need to hit the hay, see you tomorrow?x
Piper smiled despite her guilt.
Piper: Sweet dreams x
