I've cried over Alex Vause before.
"You know Alex?" Piper asked completely shocked. She knew that she didn't know everyone single girl Alex had slept with, partially because Alex couldn't remember half of their names, but she never expected to meet another of her exes so soon.
"Yeah, we worked together many years ago," Lindsay replied with a shrug.
"So you were arrested for drugs then?"
Lindsay then looked highly confused and shocked. "No! I had some problem with taxes and some shit. Why you mentioning drugs?"
"That's what Alex was arrested for. I presumed you were in the same cartel," Piper replied quickly. "Sorry!" She added as she realised what she'd said was quite offensive.
"No, it's okay." Lindsay sat down beside Piper on her bed. "Alex and I go quite far back. We were never together but I crushed on her badly. Like I said, we worked together in a fast food restaurant before she left to do something else and everyone knew she was gay so I thought I had a chance but she said, 'I see you as a friend' and it broke my heart, hence why I cried. How do you know her?"
Piper smiled and laughed slightly. "She's my girlfriend. Do you want the long story or the short one?"
"Why not the long one?" Lindsay suggested. "If we're going to be roomies, we should know about each other."
Piper sighed and warned, "It's a really long story,"
Lindsay then looked down at her watch and saw the time was barely five. They had to be downstairs for dinner at six. She looked up at Piper and grinned. "We got time."
oOoOo
At first, Piper thought that she shouldn't tell this stranger her love story but the more she said, the more Lindsay seemed deadly interested in what happened. She barely chipped into the story, only adding a comment like, "Yeah, that sounds like Alex," before shutting up and letting Piper continue her story. When Piper was done, she took a deep breath and looked over to the redhead for her comments.
"You were horrible to each other!" Was the first thing that she said. "But it's so obvious that you love each other. You sound perfect for each other in some twisted way." She then looked down at her watch and was gobsmacked that it was almost time for dinner. "We gotta go, dinner time."
"Okay," Piper replied. She left her photos on her bed and stood to follow Lindsay downstairs. She was terrified to meet everyone else because she knew that not all of them were going to be as nice as Lindsay seemed to be.
Lindsay seemed to sense Piper's nerves and turned round to smile at her. "Just stick with me while you're here and you'll be fine."
So that's what Piper did.
oOoOo
Before Piper knew it, it was 7 o'clock on Monday morning and it was time for her to get ready before breakfast. She didn't need to be up for another hour but she wanted to be prepared and get a shower before the other girls did. The other girls on her floor were called Shelly, Coral, Nancy and Bernadette. Shelly and Coral were in the room next to her and it was obvious that there were hooking up but everyone kept it quiet so that Denise didn't find out. Nancy was a little irritating but Bernadette was the worse. She was terrifying and Piper would swear that she was arrested for murder but when she'd mentioned it to Lindsay, the redhead just laughed and informed the blonde that Bernadette had been arrested for protesting.
Piper showered, savouring the new hot water before returning to her bedroom. She dried herself and put her hair in a towel turban before picking out a dress to wear for her first day of work. Then for the first time in well over a year, she got out her makeup bag and started to apply it. She noticed that the mascara and eyeliner were new due to the fact that her old stuff would have dried out and she noticed a new eye shadow pallet. It was the newest naked pallet by urban decay and she silently thanked Polly for her purchase knowing that it would have been her who bought it.
Just as Piper was finishing her makeup, Lindsay's alarm was going off and she was heading to the shower meaning Piper could finally blow dry her hair without waking her up. Despite it normally being a mundane task, Piper found herself totally excited at the prospect of being able to blow dry her hair. It usually dried bone straight anyway but the fact that it would be dried quickly was amazing.
When Lindsay returned back from the bathroom, she only had a towel on that left little to the imagination and Piper couldn't help but notice it but she quickly looked away and started to style her hair.
"Morning, Piper," Lindsay said happily. It surprised Piper how easily the two of them got on already. She had started to worry that all the women were going to be terrifying but she'd learnt that wasn't the case.
"Morning," Piper replied with a warm smile. "I'm gonna head down to breakfast."
"Wait two minutes and I'll come with you." Lindsay was just putting on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.
"Don't you have work today?" Piper asked confused as her outfit was rather informal.
"I woke at the local gym as a fitness instructor," Lindsay replied and motioned to the door. The two then started to walk downstairs to the kitchen. "I'll be out of here in just over a month and I'll go back to running my gym in Brooklyn."
"Which one?"
"Callahan and Keels." Piper then stopped dead. Lindsay turned back to wonder what had happened to the blonde. "You okay?"
"I go there! That's the gym I've gone to for the last like 7 years! But I don't recognise you!" Piper explained and then started to move again.
"I run the pool and the kid sections. My partner, Grace, runs the others."
Piper nodded, she knew Grace well. Piper had started going to that gym after she came back to the States after her break up with Alex. She'd worked out to get over her heart ache. Grace was also the first woman that Piper slept with after her break up. It had taken her a while to build up the courage but she did eventually. Grace was a lovely person but it just wasn't right; she wasn't Alex. Piper stopped going when she found out that she was going to go to prison, she was also guilty at the fact that she was engaged and knew that Grace had some feelings for her. "I know Grace," Piper muttered. "Are you two together?"
"God no." Lindsay laughed. "Just because we're two lesbians working together, it doesn't mean we're together. She's engaged now."
At this point, the two women were in the kitchen and Lindsay had just switched on the kettle. Bernadette and Nancy were sitting at the table with tea and toast. They greeted Lindsay and Piper before going back to their food.
"Oh, I didn't know." Piper then put her own bread in the toaster and was looking in the fridge for some butter and perhaps some jam.
"I know you slept with her," Lindsay said and Piper quickly spun round.
"How?"
"Grace tells me everything." Lindsay shrugged and handed over the strawberry jam to Piper. "She told me about some blonde woman who was completely gorgeous apparently called Piper. It only clicked when you told me that you used to go there and were arrested. She told me that we could be prison buddies when I was arrested but I guess we were in different prisons."
Piper shrugged and turned back to her toast. Fortunately, Shelly and Coral entered the kitchen at that point giggling to each other. Lindsay finally looked away from Piper and started to tease the new comers about what they'd been up to that morning as Denise was either out or not up yet.
The breakfast then passed and Piper found herself checking her watch. It was almost 8:30 so she quickly went upstairs and found her black heeled boots before returning downstairs. She had no idea what her day was going to be like but hoped for the best.
When she was back downstairs, there was a knock on the door. Shelly was closest to the door, so she was the one who opened it. "Hello, I'm here to pick up Piper Chapman," said the woman at the door.
"Chapman, it's for you," Shelly called and then laughed as she realised that Piper was stood behind her making the shout unnecessary.
"Hi, let's go," Juliette said and motioned that Piper should follow her. There was no welcoming smile, it was all business.
"See you later, girl," Shelly said letting Piper past. "And good luck with that one."
As soon as she was outside, Piper felt ridiculously nervous. Juliette reeked of disapproval, annoyance and irritation. She was shorter than Piper with dark brown hair with some gray patches. She was slightly chubby but dressed in a white blouse, black skirt and a black jacket. She walked briskly to the car as it was getting closer to winter.
The car itself was a nice one being a black audi. It was a car Piper wouldn't mind having herself. She made a mental note to check her back account now that she was out. She would check it when she was at work, if she got the chance.
The two women got into the car and Juliette quickly put it into drive and set off. She wasn't the most careful of drivers and it seemed to Piper that she wanted to spend as little time with her as possible. The car journey was awkward as Juliette said nothing so Piper remained just as quiet. However, that all changed when she pulled up in front of a huge building. A valet was stood outside and greeted Juliette a good morning before taking her keys and taking the car to the car park behind the building.
"Which floor is it on?" Piper asked as a tall man walked up towards them.
"It's all of it," Juliette replied. The building had to be 20 floors high. Piper wondered if they had a different floor for each genre of book. She later learned that one floor was the canteen area, another was a gym and the very bottom was a children's area for the staff members who had children and needed the extra help to look after them. The rest of the floors were specific to the business.
The tall man was then in front of them. He looked like he was in his early fifties but like he meant business. He had an air of importance hanging round him but it all seemed to disappear when he smiled brightly at Piper. "Hello, Piper, I'm Trevor Beckett," he greeted and held out his hand which Piper shook immediately.
"It's nice to meet you," she replied.
"Thank you, Juliette," Trevor said, "Meet Piper outside her office at 5 to drive her home."
Juliette nodded and smiled, though it was clearly forced, before heading into the building.
"Shall we?" Trevor motioned for Piper to follow him into the building. He handed her a badge which Piper saw had her name on and the title of company boss but no picture as of yet. "We'll take your picture today to be put on."
Trevor led Piper up to the elevators, passing many people who all greeted Trevor. When in the elevator, Trevor pressed floor 20 which was the highest number. "It is horrible when these are out of order. It makes me glad that I stay in shape," he joked. Piper actually smiled and began to relax for the first time today.
They arrived at the top of the building and the elevator pinged before the doors opened. Trevor stepped aside and let Piper leave first but she then paused and looked around. There were only a few officers this high up.
"If you'll follow me," Trevor said politely and Piper once again started to follow him. He pointed out a few officers but they were just names to Piper though when he pointed out one room Piper almost wanted to back turn and go in. "That's where we spend out coffee breaks but it's not time for that yet," he said knowingly. If Piper was anything like her late grandmother, she would be spending a lot of time in there.
They walked for a few moments longer until there were only two offices left. The name on one read Trevor Becket and the one beside his read Piper Chapman.
"This is mine?" She asked.
"It's all yours," He replied with a bright smile. "Let's have a look inside."
He stepped past Piper and opened the door for her. In the room there was a large mahogany desk fit with a mac on top with a mouse and keyboard just underneath. There was a black notice board on the wall and a filing cabinet in the corner. There was also a large black comfortable looking chair behind the desk and Piper wasted no time in crossing the room and testing the chair.
She looked up at Trevor and saw that he was smiling at her again. For someone who came across so scary, he was ridiculously smiley. "I love it!"
"This was Celeste's office," he revealed and stepped inside. He then took a seat at the opposite side of Piper's desk.
This made Piper smile too. The fact that she was sitting in what was her grandmother's office was an amazing feeling for her.
"Let's get down to business."
oOoOo
As her grandmother had said in her letter, Trevor showed Piper how everything worked. She turned on her mac and saw all the different figures and Trevor explained them all to her. He told her which staff members she needed to look out for as they had caused a few minor problems in the past. He also explained all the different positions in the place and how it all fit together. It was a lot of information for Piper to take but she liked it immensely.
It finally came to lunch and Piper made her way down to the canteen that Trevor had shown her earlier. It was more than just a canteen as there were many different stations depending on what food you wanted and Piper immediately headed over to the burger shack. She wasn't usually a burger person but she was looking forward to real food after being locked up in prison.
When she had her food, she sat down at a table on her own and started to enjoy her food. She ignored all the people that were looking at her. She expected it as she was the new girl, granddaughter of the previous owner and ex convict. She also expected to eat her lunch alone as Trevor had told her that he had a meeting during his lunch break but she was surprised when someone came over to sit with her. He wasn't that tall and a little younger than Piper.
"You must be Piper," he said as he came over. "I'm Tyler, can I join you?"
"By all means," Piper replied and so Tyler sat down. "I'm just glad I'm not alone on the first day."
"I remember my first day and I was sat alone, I didn't think you should be left to fend for yourself after what you've been through."
Piper was sure that he didn't mean anything over it but she just put down her food and looked at him. "Excuse me?"
"I mean with your grandmother dying," he said quickly but he didn't add anything else nor did it look like he was avoiding a topic. It seemed that only Trevor and Juliette seemed to know about Piper being in prison.
"Oh, sorry. Yeah, it's been quite hard. So, what do you do here?" Piper asked.
The rest of the lunch was spent with Tyler informing Piper what he did and others did similar to him. He started as intern a few years ago after studying English Literature like Piper used to do. He then got a job and is now a go between authors and the company. He arranged meetings and organised press events and book launches.
"I'm sort of Bridget Jones before she got sacked for sleeping with the boss. I don't want to sleep with you though," He said and laughed before realising that what he said was rude. "Oh my gosh, that was so rude because you are the new boss and... Fuck."
Piper just laughed at him but it wasn't in an unkind way. "The feeling is mutual. If you'll excuse me," Piper said and stepped away from the table. She got the elevator and went up to her office deciding to write her letter to Alex so it would be sent that evening. She knew that when she got her letter, she could be aware that her sentence was shorter and Piper was so excited to be able to talk about it. However, she kept it out of this letter just in case Healy hadn't told her yet.
She had just finished her letter when Trevor knocked on her office door to tell her that he wanted to see in her in ten minutes. This gave Piper a chance to check her bank balance now that her grandmother's money had been put in and she was incredibly shocked that she now had. She technically never needed to work again but she knew she'd go insane if she didn't. At least she and Alex could still travel across the world now without the drug money. She quickly shut down the page not quite wanting to believe her eyes.
She then went and met Trevor and got her afternoon started. They got round to taking her picture for her badge. Before she knew it, Juliette was collecting her and driving her back to the halfway house. The journey was as silent as the one in the morning and Piper was happy to get away from her when they pulled up outside the house.
Once inside, she headed to Denise's office and handed her the letter with the request of it being posted soon. Denise allowed it and told Piper to get ready for dinner. Once dinner was over, Piper headed upstairs. She and Lindsay discussed how their days had gone but Piper was much more tired than she thought and fell asleep half way through their conversation. Fortunately for Piper, Lindsay didn't seem to hold grudges and just let the blonde sleep.