"We need to talk."
Piper let Grace into her apartment and led her into the living room. She sat down and looked expectantly at Grace who now decided to be nervous.
"I've fucked up majorly," Grace revealed. "I don't know what to do!" At this, she then started to cry and sat down on the opposite sofa and Piper just became incredibly confused. However, she didn't move and just waited patiently for Grace to continue when she was ready. "I loved Zoe with everything and then when I got told she'd kissed someone else, I got really mad so I flipped and ended it and got with Lindsay because she knows me and I thought a relationship with her would be easy because we knew each other so well but that wasn't the case at all. Sex was really quite awkward because we'd told each other what we'd done before. She then revealed to me that Zoe slept with someone else the day we broke up and now she's with someone else. I thought she would at least try and get us back together but she didn't even bother. She didn't even tell me about your kiss which made it even worse."
"So you do know it was me then?" Piper asked eventually when Grace had finished her monologue.
"Well it couldn't have been anyone else." Grace shrugged and wiped her eyes. "There weren't any other blondes around apart from you." Pausing, Grace looked Piper in the eye. "If I ask you something, will you be honest with me?" Piper nodded. "Was it you Zoe slept with?"
Again, Piper nodded. "I'm sorry. I was a mess that night." Piper then explained what had happened.
"I recall that problem from when we were 'together'," Grace said referring to the drinking. "I hated it, I bet Alex does."
"You have no idea but now I've gone sober. It's been around six months since I last had a drink," Piper confessed. "I don't miss it at all actually." Sighing, Piper asked the question she probably wasn't meant to. "What do you want me to do about it? Zoe's seeing someone else as you said and we don't really talk anymore. It got a little odd."
"So you can't talk to her for me?"
"She's not in next week until Friday and I don't know if I'll see her. It's a little awkward as I said and Alex is currently working with me and she doesn't like us being in the same room. What does Lindsay think?"
"I think she feels the same way that I do," Grace said. "We've broken up but I'm staying at hers for now as I can't exactly move back to where I was because it's Zoe's apartment."
"I'll find her and talk to her," Piper finally decided. "Now, can I get you something to drink?"
Grace ended up staying a while at Piper's that evening and they talked of old times back when they were seeing each other. It wasn't even that awkward between them either. They had a fair few cups of coffee throughout the night too which meant that Piper found it ridiculously hard to fall asleep once Grace had left but it eventually came to her.
oOoOo
Friday soon came around and Piper and Alex had spent their morning discussing Alex's move in the day afterwards. Both of them were ridiculously excited to be together again but they were also looking forward to apartment shopping. Piper had shown Alex some of the apartments that she'd seen and they had narrowed it down to three to look at that were very close to where Piper's apartment was at the moment so that they wouldn't be too far away from Lorna and Nicky one she was out.
When Alex and Piper arrived back to work in the afternoon, Piper used Alex's distraction of her book to her advantage. Alex still hadn't quite started writing her book yet as she was still planning but there were only a few more things that she needed to sketch out before she felt comfortable about writing her super lesbian detective novel.
Zoe had been out for the majority of the week so Piper decided to book a meeting with her. It wasn't uncommon for this to happen as Piper needed to update Zoe what she had missed. Piper had these meetings all the time when high staff members had been off. Zoe had been off due to feeling a little stressed and wanted a couple of days off to fully rest before coming back. She had an important meeting with a demanding client that Friday so she couldn't take the whole week off. Piper was glad of this.
Part way through the afternoon, the reminder of the meeting popped up on Piper's computer which alerted Alex's attention too.
"I've got a meeting to go to," Piper answered Alex's unasked question. "It shouldn't be long so I'll be back soon." Piper stood from behind her desk and moved to behind where Alex's was sitting. She slipped her arms around the brunette's shoulders and kissed her temple before standing back up and heading to Zoe's office.
She knocked on the door briskly before entering as Zoe had called her in.
"Yes, Piper, our meeting," Zoe said more to herself than to Piper but Piper shrugged and sat down at the opposite side of Zoe's desk anyway.
"I know we normally do this in my office but Alex is in there," Piper replied with a shrug. "I didn't want to disturb her and she wouldn't approve of what the second half of our meeting entails."
"I feel like I want to start off with that part," Zoe said nervously but Piper just shook her head and started to inform the other blonde of what she had missed.
In actual fact, Zoe hadn't missed much. There had been two new books submitted to be edited but Veronica had dealt with them and given them to two different editors who concentrated on the specific genres that the books demanded. There was only one book that needed to be given to Zoe to read through to comment whether it was good enough to be sent to Piper before being published.
Piper tried to think of things to tell her about work as she wanted to avoid the other topic as long as she could but it got to the point when Piper told her about taco Tuesday that she had missed and she realised it was time to tell.
"So I went home to Connecticut this weekend and when I got home, Grace was outside my apartment," Piper revealed and then went on to tell her what Grace had said to her.
"Are you kidding me?" Zoe asked. "It's been around six months and now she decides that she wants me back?"
"It looks that way," Piper replied. "She was really upset. She doesn't even care about us because she just loves you. I have no idea how it came to be but she's realised what she's done and wants you back. I'd actually go as far as to say that she needs you. Perhaps she is your person after all."
At this, Zoe started to smile a little. She let out a little laugh and looked up at Piper. "I knew she was. Can I confess something?" Piper nodded. "I'm not actually seeing someone else. I just said that to get Lorna off my back. I've just been sitting alone in my apartment."
"Oh Zoe! You could have told me the truth at least."
"Not now that Alex is here! She looks like she wants to murder me every time she sees me." Taking a deep breath, Zoe stated, "She knows, doesn't she?"
"Yeah, she overheard you telling Trevor a couple of weeks ago."
"Oops, how did that go down between the two of you?"
"She wasn't too happy but it's in the past and we've moved on from it. We're moving in together tomorrow! I'm so excited!"
Zoe grinned at this news as she was truly over Piper now that Grace had realised that she wanted her back. She spoke excitedly with Piper as they discussed what was going on the next day and Piper told Zoe what she thought she should do in order to tackle the Grace situation.
"Thanks, Piper," Zoe said at the end of their meeting and for the first time in months, the two of them hugged.
"Text me with how it goes?" Piper requested.
"Of course!"
When Piper got back to her office, she saw that Alex was busy scribbling away and didn't even seem to notice that Piper was back. Smiling, Piper decided to leave her be and decided to get on with some more work that needed doing before she could go home for the day.
oOoOo
That evening seemed to go ridiculously slowly for Piper as she just wanted the morning to come. Deciding that she didn't want to spend it alone, she called up Polly who dutifully came round barely minutes after their call had ended. She came stocked with films, popcorn and ice cream.
"What are we watching first?" Polly asked after she'd put the ice cream in the freezer and sorted the popcorn out into different bowls. She'd brought a number of films with her despite knowing Piper had a fair share of her own.
"You know, I've been meaning to watch Bridget Jones for the longest time!" Piper replied and picked up that DVD, putting it in the machine and sitting back.
For the majority of the film, the two just watched it and made the odd comment at what happened and laughed at the funny parts. Piper even commented that Bridget's cooking reminded her of Polly's back at university as Polly was hopeless. Part way through their first year, she just gave up and got Piper to cook for the both of them so that she wouldn't get ill from food poisoning. Eventually, Piper got fed up with cooking and taught Polly some simple recipes. Fortunately now, Polly had improved and was able to cook for her husband and son without making them ill.
When it got to the part when Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver started to fight each other, Piper's phone started to ring. Automatically, Polly paused the film so that Piper could talk on the phone.
Looking down at the caller ID, Piper was surprised to see that it was Zoe who was calling her.
"Zoe?" Polly's head shot straight up at the name and started to glare at Piper. "What's up?"
"It's official! We're back together!" Zoe replied happily. "I called her and we went out for a meal and she told me she was sorry and we've agreed to get back together but we're no longer engaged. I just hope that we will be soon. She's currently asleep in my room so I thought I'd update you."
"That's so amazing, Zoe. I'm so happy for you. Go back to your girl and I'll see you on Monday!"
Piper then hung up the phone and put it back on the table. She then looked expectantly at Polly so she could resume the film but the brunette wasn't looking at the TV.
"What was that?" She asked calmly.
"It was Zoe telling me that she and Grace are back together?" Piper said with a raised eyebrow, confused to why Polly was questioning it. She knew that Piper and Zoe barely spoke anymore. However, after Piper explained, Polly shrugged, smiled and turned back to the TV without an explanation and resumed the film.
Still highly confused, Piper leant back and continued to watch the film. Realising that Polly had always been a funny onion, she shrugged and dug back into her popcorn.
After the first film, the two decided to watch the sequel straight afterwards which was then followed by Chicago and Music and Lyrics. By the end of the four films, the two of them had fallen asleep on the sofas.
Piper woke up part way through the night and realised that she was still in her living room. She looked over and saw that Polly wasn't there. Sighing, Piper stretched and made her way into her own room and saw the sleeping brunette on her bed. She'd clearly woken up earlier and decided to crash at Piper's. Of course Piper didn't mind but Polly could have at least gone slept at the other side and not at Piper's side. Laughing slightly, Piper changed into her pyjamas and slipped in beside Polly.
oOoOo
The morning soon rolled around and Piper jumped out of bed with excitement. Today was the day that Alex was officially moving in with her, despite the fact that all of Alex's belongings were already in her house. She almost skipped into the bathroom to get a shower before getting ready.
Polly was the complete opposite of Piper, groaning as she got out of the bed. She knew she shouldn't have stayed up so late but she wanted to have one last Alex free evening with Piper. It wasn't that she wasn't happy Alex was getting out, she truly was but for Piper's sake rather than her own. She was just anxious to see how everything was going to play out.
Deciding to be the nice best friend that morning, Polly dressed and went into the kitchen to start their breakfast as a thank you for not kicking her out of the apartment and she knew that Piper always missed something out on a morning when she was excited for something. This way, she didn't have to concentrate on making breakfast, simply eating it.
Once out of the shower, Piper dressed into a loose fitting white tank top and a pair of denim shorts, remembering that Alex always liked seeing her in shorts, before following her nose into the kitchen. When she was there, she saw that Polly had the coffee going and was making pancakes. Pancakes had been the only thing that the brunette could cook prior to university.
"See, this is why I picked you to be my best friend," Piper said happily as she peeked into the pan. "Pancakes made from scratch!"
"So it wasn't the fact that I'm clearly hilarious, gorgeous and smart?" Polly joked. "Or the fact that we just have so much in common? It's just the fact that I can cook pancakes?"
"Got it in one!" Piper just continued to laugh as Polly stuck out her tongue and turned her back on the blonde to start serving up the food.
The two ate quickly and had to say their goodbyes. Polly needed to get home to relieve Pete of daddy duties as he was needed in work and Piper needed to set off to the halfway house. She knew that it was the last time that she would ever be there and she was ridiculously relieved at that fact. Denise was a lovely woman but her job wasn't the friendliest.
The drive to the halfway house wasn't long at all and Piper was soon parked outside the house. She jumped out of the car and ran to the front door, knocking on it perhaps a little too harshly as when the person answered it, she didn't look amused.
"What do you want?" She asked. She was fat and tall and simply terrifying.
"I'm here to pick up Alex," Piper muttered timidly.
"Pickles, leave her be!" Someone called from inside and Piper realised that it was Denise. "Come on in, Piper. Alex is just sorting out the last of her things upstairs."
Gingerly stepping past Pickles, Piper entered the house and went to the kitchen to wait. She was nervous as she didn't know any of the women there. Fortunately, she wasn't waiting for long as after five minutes, Alex walked into the kitchen holding her bag and smiling brightly.
"Piper!" She called and rushed forward to hug her and kissed her sweetly on her cheek. It didn't matter that they'd only just seen each other the day before, they were simply just ecstatic to see each other again.
"Hey, babe! Ready to go?" Piper asked and Alex nodded frantically as Denise walked into the room.
"Now you two, I never want to see either of you again!" Denise said. "Go live your lives how you were supposed to and I wish you all the luck in the world!"
"Thank you!" Alex replied and hugged the smaller woman before taking Piper's hand and leading her outside. Rae had left the week before so she had no one to say goodbye too as she didn't get on with anyone else beside her.
"Let's go!" Piper said as they got into the car and set off.
The drive seemed to pass in a blur and she was parking in her garage. She jumped out of the car and picked up Alex's bag from the back and led her into the apartment. The door was barely shut when Alex pounced and pinned Piper against it and started to attack her lips. Piper kissed back immediately but quickly pulled away.
"What?" Alex gasped, clearly upset that Piper didn't want what she wanted.
Laughing quietly, Piper leaned away from Alex. "We don't have time. We have our first viewing in twenty minutes. I just wanted to drop off your things before we go!"
"You're such a tease sometimes! These apartments better be worth it."
Piper didn't stop laughing at Alex's pout for the rest of the time before they had to leave. They had all three different apartments to look at that day. They had one later on in the morning then Piper was going to treat Alex to lunch before looking at the other two in the afternoon. Piper just hoped that Alex could settle on one as she knew she could be extremely picky with places as she'd been on holiday with her numerous times!
Hey! So the conversation between Piper and Grace was different to what people thought it was going to be but the majority of you got that it regarded Zoe. It also now gets Zoe away from Piper, don't worry, things will look up for Lindsay too. Also, Alex is officially out of the eye of the police and government. Woo! Reviews are welcome too. Love, Emss :) x