A/N: Chapter 14 is here but first off I want to thank everyone that left reviews and followed my story! I've gotten over 100 reviews and 100 follows and I definitely never would have guessed that I'd make it this far with my story so all the thanks goes to you all!

You guys are seriously the best and I love reading everyone's reviews, they really make my day! Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend :)

Chapter 14

Piper makes her way over to the bar confident in her own new found understanding of Alex, the brunette had short attention span and she was just her next conquest. Fuck that.

As she reenters the club she sees Aiden standing near the bar and purposely walks over and stands next to her. Just as she had leaned over the bar to look for Chad, he appears with an apologetic look and places the tray of drinks in front of her.

"Sorry about that Blondie, we got kinda busy outta nowhere."

"It's all good, I was in the bathroom anyways." She says loud enough for Aiden to hear as she picks up the tray of drinks and turns her back to the bar.

She can't help but steal a glance over her shoulder at Aiden, who's looking back at her smugly. Piper simply shakes her head and smiles at the silly girl because if she knows that this is the type of person that Alex is and still wants to be with her, then the dumbass could have her.

No phased by hen she reaches the back table the men erupt in a small cheer and Piper laughs. "Was I really gone that long?"

One of the other men at the table answers as Piper hands out their drinks, "Not at all! We're just excited and out celebrating our boy Eli over here!"

The men cheer again and the one of the men closest to the handsome man on the end and ruffles his hair.

"Alright Jake! Not the hair!" Eli yells kiddingly at his friend as he unsuccessfully tries to fix it.

"And why are we celebrating Sir Eli?" Piper asks in a terrible British accent making the table laugh and earning a smile from Eli.

"Well I just became the youngest senior director of marketing at one of the biggest marketing firms here in New York but it's really no big deal."

"Come onnn, no big deal?! They're revamping the whole image of the company because this kid, he's a fucking wiz! Humble, smart and good looking huh!" Jake asks and looks at Piper for confirmation.

"I'd have to agree with you. Congrats!" Piper even throws in a sly wink for good measure as she focuses solely on Eli because technically she was single. Nothing between her and Alex had ever really been official so why not flirt a little, or a lot?

Just then Piper feels an arm wrap around her waist and pull her close. Her brain immediately registers that it's Alex, because who else would it be? And then it hits her…Aiden's words in the bathroom flood her ears again and just when she thinks it's over, she hears Aiden's voice morph into that deep sexy purr she had become accustomed to and it's like déjà vu as she hears Alex telling her how she recruits girls all over again.

Just as Piper reaches to push Alex's arm away from her waist her mind yells at her, don't get mad, get even! And for a change Piper actually likes the idea and listens to it rather than telling it to fuck off because Alex could definitely use a taste of her own medicine.

Seeing the closeness of the two causes Eli's face to scrunch up in confusion, unsure of who Alex is.

Of course, the one day she doesn't wear a shirt with the club's name plastered all over it, Piper thinks to herself as she sees the question forming in Eli's head.

"Ohh...Umm, my apologies, is this your girlfriend?" He looks between the two women, "I was unaware."

"Nope," Piper says as she skillfully slips out of Alex's embrace leaving the brunette out of the loop this time. "This would be the owner of this fine establishment and my boss, the one and only Alex Vause."

Piper almost misses it but she catches as the confusion registers on Alex's face for no more than a millisecond before it's replaced with a fake grin.

Over the last month around Alex, Piper had found herself picking up on many of the brunette's nonverbal cues because Alex was more likely to retreat inside herself than to voice her anger. She didn't believe in visibily losing her cool and her grin and icy stare were proof of it.

Eli reaches his hand out to shake Alex's and at first is only met with a smirk. Alex is usually never rude to her customers unless they're belligerently drunk but then again, her customers usually aren't hitting on her girlfriend either.

Reluctantly Alex extends her hand shakes his, "Pleasure to meet you, Mr?"

Eli cocks his head slightly as he pulls his and back and returns Alex's smirk.

"Mauro. But please call me Eli. And the pleasure is all mine Ms. Vause." Thoroughly uninterested in Alex and her visible attitude he quickly redirects his attention to Piper.

"Soo actually, I don't think I caught your name."

"Oh, sorry my name is Piper." The blonde answers eagerly, partly to spite Alex but also because Eli was pretty cute.

"Well it's a pleasure to meet you Piper." Eli responds as he feels Alex's eyes burning holes into the side of his face. "What's a nice little blonde lady like you doing working at a club? I think I might have to scoop you up and get you working some normal hours closer to me."

Piper knows exactly what Eli is doing and decides plays right into it.

"And where do you work Mr. Mauro?" Piper questions interestedly.

"Call me Eli, Piper." He flicks his eyes over to Alex who's wearing her perfected mask of indifference and sees her green eyes ablaze, her disdain evident but he never falters under Alex's piercing gaze.

"But I work at Fordham Marketing here in New York."

Piper's eyes go wide in excitement and suddenly this conversation is about more than making Alex jealous, this was real life again. Fordham just so happened to be the biggest marketing firm in New York City and any marketing major that aspired to be anything, aspired to work at Fordham.

"Seriously? I applied there like a month ago and no one got back to me." Piper says a bit too enthusiastically for Alex's liking.

"Is that so? I can look into if you'd like," Eli replies and it's suddenly too much for Alex, his slick grin and words push her over the edge and all she can hear is the blood rushing in her ears.

Disgusted and thoroughly convinced that decking a customer would be bad for business she and cuts in their conversation, "Well, you gentlemen enjoy the rest of your evening and if there is anything I can get you please don't hesitate to let me or Piper know." Alex half-ass hopes her voice was at least somewhat pleasant as she turns and strides away from the group, dumbfounded at whatever the fuck she had just watch unfold in front of her.

Piper stands there and watches as the livid brunette walks off before turning back to the table. Fucking with Alex had felt good for a moment but she hadn't expected the brunette to react like that. She had practically felt the hate radiating off of Alex though her expression and voice remained calm and now Piper was worried.

After leaving VIP Alex makes a beeline to her office so she can flip out and act on whatever the fuck these feelings building inside of her were. But before she pushes through the door to the back of the club, she stops and briefly speaks with Enzo before she disappears.

She's still calm as she reaches the top of the steps and walks down the hallway.

Upon reaching her door and swiftly unlocking it and she steps into the dark office, slamming her door shut so hard that she hears the glass rattle. Her breathing is heavy as she feels as her hands tremble with anger at the thought of Piper and Eli giving each other the eye as they bantered on.

Without thinking she turns and grabs her doorknob but quickly releases it like she'd been burned.

Alex knows better than to go back downstairs so instead she buries herself in some paperwork that should have been done days ago. Before she had gone to her office, she told Enzo that she didn't want to be disturbed unless the club was being robbed or on fire so she figured she might as well be productive.

xxx

An hour had passed and Alex was still in her office fuming. Not only was she pissed at Piper for whatever the fuck she had decided to pull but she was gona rip Nicky's fucking head off when she saw her.

"Nicky finds this fucking girl for me, tells me I should get involved with her and doesn't tell me she's straight? Really Nichols, another fucking straight girl?! The number one fucking rule," Alex yells at no one as she picks up her cell phone and dials a familiar number.

An annoyed voice answers on the third ring, "What. the. fuck?"

It was a little past midnight but this call couldn't wait any longer.

"Nicky, you've lied by to me by omission plenty of times and I've never questioned why, even when I knew you were lying. But why the would you not tell me that Piper was straight!" Alex seethes into the phone. "I'm actually going to fucking murder you this time," she continues in a deadpan voice.

"Oh hello there Alex, nice to hear from you for the first time all week. I'm great thanks for asking! It isn't a good day unless you're threatening to kill me right? Oh and by the way I wasn't busy or anything." Replies an equally annoyed Nicky.

Her comments silence Alex, the sting of her words setting in.

"See I can be an asshole too Vause so cut the shit and say what you gotta say."

"Why didn't you say anything?" asks a calmer Alex.

"First off whole told you Blondie was straight? And more importantly who told you that I knew?"

"Nicky…" Alex's voice is low and serious, daring Nicky to try her patience that happened to be wearing awfully thin at the moment.

"Fuck the rules Vause! If you like her, you like her fuck it. Besides what can some dude do for Piper that you can't? Stop worrying about it, you two are fucking insane for each other! Hence the reason I get calls like this." The last bit Nicky mutters under her breath.

"Hey I fucking heard that," Alex half complains. "And what about the number one rule Nick! Remember you said it yourself, 'Straight girls they'll fuck you up every time!'"

Nicky grudgingly agrees and tells Alex to give her the abridged version of whatever the fuck had her so riled up.

Ten minutes and about 137 curse words later Alex was finishing her story emphatically as Nicky quietly tried to make sense of everything

"…Plus she was just blatantly flirting with this guy in front of me, I almost broke his fucking face!" Alex finishes her story and it's quiet as she lets Nicky take everything in. During the break in conversation Alex can't help picturing herself punching Eli right in his smug fucking face and maybe even decking one of his friends too as a wicked smile creeps across her face. Who the fuck did he think he was flirting with Piper anyway? Didn't he know who the hell she was?

It isn't until Alex hears Nicky laughing that she snaps out of her thoughts.

"What the fuck could possibly be so funny right now Nicky? Like really?"

Nicky keeps laughing at this rare display of naivete from Alex because everything made perfect fucking sense!

Alex was jealous and if Nicky wasn't half sleep she would've figured it out 5 minutes dude had Piper's attention, Alex hadn't liked that shit one bit and it was fucking hilarious. She had seen her best friend do the exact same thing to hundreds of people over the years and now it was finally happening to her.

"Aww is this what a jealous Alex sounds like?" Coos the bushy haired woman.

Her words leave Alex baffled for a moment. Never once had she had thought to attribute these feelings of pure hatred and rage to jealousy.

"Me jealous? Puh-lease, come on Nick let's be realistic here." The word didn't even sound right coming out of her mouth but her recovery was lame at best. Her mind was already trying to register how she could have been "jealous" in the slightest. Alex hadn't been jealous for years, that guy was just an asshole…or so she tried to reassure herself.

Finally Nicky breaks the silence, "Whatever Vause, have a normal fucking conversation with your girl–" Alex cuts her off.

"She's not my girl." She tries to keep the defensiveness out of her voice but she hears it anyway and Nicky chuckles at Alex's denial.

It was blatantly obvious that Alex had feelings for Piper, Nicky hadn't seen Alex in over week. Even though they didn't live near each other they always made it a point to see each other, but she'd bet her ass that Alex had seen Piper at least three times outside of work in the last week.

It was all good though, seeing Alex squirm in a relationship, "or not" according to Alex, was nice treat. But even Nicky wasn't sure how Piper had snuck her way around Alex's defenses so quickly, or at all for that matter. Choosing to forgo the extra argument with Alex Nicky picks up where she left off.

"Like I was sayin, work this shit out or don't. No more of this gay/straight stuff, if she's clearly flirting with someone in front of you that's one thing but it shouldn't be worse because of who she does it with. That shit is straight up disrespectful either way you flip the coin so you need to get to the bottom of it. She didn't just wake up this morning and say 'hey, I'm gona fuck with Alex's emotions today!'" Nicky had done a terrible impersonation of Piper as she spoke making Alex snort in amusement.

"Get to the point Nick!" She prods jokingly.

"Jesus, grow some balls and stop being such a jealous teenager Vause! Now she's got the upper hand, have I taught you nothing? All the mystery is gone!"

"You taught me fuck all Nick, if it wasn't for me you'd never get laid and I'm not jealous, I just lost my cool."

"Apparently they're the same thing since I've haven't seen you 'lose your cool' like this since you were crushing on Jenna in the eight grade!" Nicky counters back with the last time she's seen Alex get crazy over a girl.

"Heyy that's off-limits! You swore to never speak of that again!" Whines Alex as she reminsices.

"But alas, I have no more fucks to give for the night dear friend. Now what are the magic words you say to great-friends-that-deal-with-your-bullshit-at-twelve-a.m.?"

"Uhh," sarcastically questions an annoyed, exhausted and apparently jealous Alex, "Thank you?"

"That's what I thought! You fucking owe me again Vause, don't make me cash in on my debts!" Nicky says in a perfect Italian mobster voice that makes the brunette break out in laughter.

Before Alex can control herself and reply to Nicky's "ultimatum," she hears her phone alert her that the call has ended. The sounds makes Alex laugh again because she wouldn't trade Nicky for the world, even if Nicky made decisions that caused many of their friends, Alex included, question her sanity.

Her laughter dies down and it isn't until she hears the silence in her office again that she realizes how much she needed that break in tension. It still takes the brunette a few more minutes of quiet thought she Alex feels prepared to talk to Piper without completely flipping out.

She glances at the clock and cringes when she sees the time, "Fuck it's only 12:30."

There's no way that she could wait another two hours and a half until closing to talk to Piper, she thinks to herself.

Her paperwork had momentarily taken her mind off of the blonde but she knew that this couldn't just get brushed under the rug. This conversation was inevitable and the longer she put it off, the worse things would be.

Pushing her glasses back onto her nose and runs a hand through her hair as she groans aloud, rubs her eyes and stretches.

"I can't believe this shit," Alex whispers to herself sits up and organizes her finished paperwork when there's an abrupt knock on the door.

"Come in!" She calls without looking up from her desk.

"Sorry to bother you but there's a situation downstairs, we have everything under control but I thought you might want to uhhh, sort things out for yourself."

Alex slides her glasses back onto her nose and raises an eyebrow at Enzo, unsure of what the hell he's talking about because even as a man of few words, whatever the hell he just said made no sense.

Alex's day had been strange enough without having to decipher one of Enzo's cryptic messages on top of everything. Thinking better of questioning him, Alex pushes away from her desk and follows her husky bounce downstairs, listening as the rumbling of the music gets louder.

Thinking that whatever required her attention was somewhere in the club, she braces herself in case she sees Piper, or worse Eli as just the thought of him would make her pulse race. But again she is left puzzled as Enzo walks in the opposite direction and leads her toward the employee locker rooms.

"Should I be worried that you're taking me back here to kidnap me while the rest of you guys begin your official coup d'état of the dictator Alex Vause?" She asks only half kidding as it would be fitting after the night she'd been having.

"Nope, but you should definitely be worried about what you're going to find behind these doors because all hell almost broke loose."

Enzo stops and gives Alex a solemn look and hands her a fresh roll of duct tape before he turns and walks away.

"What the fuck?" Alex mutters to herself as she watches Enzo disappear. When she turns and faces the women's locker room door she realizes that regardless of how tonight ended, this was going to be one memorable goddamn day.

A/N: Not another cliffhanger I promise! Chapter 15 will be out either tonight or tomorrow!