11
Keep walking, Piper thought to herself as her heart thumped dangerously in her chest, don't look back. You're almost there.
After crossing the revolving doors, she hurried to the elevator and took it to her floor. Once inside her apartment, she ran to the window and craned her neck to see below. Her heat sank when she saw that the red car was no longer there.
What where you expecting? For her to stick around…idiot, she cursed herself.
She stood there half-hoping that the red car would pull up at any second but when a few minutes passed and there was no sign of the car or Alex, she sighed and walked to her room. There, she began opening drawers and taking out clothes, tossing them hard on the bed.
Idiot. Idiot. Idiot.
She was mad and she didn't know why.
#
"What do you think she's doing?" Lorna asked Nicky.
"I don't know," Nicky replied. She was leaning against the window looking down at the entrance of the garage. It had been close to an hour since she'd seen the red car pull in, but there was still no sign of Alex. "Maybe she's on the phone."
"Or something happened with Piper," Lorna said as she joined Nicky on the window.
"Or something happened with Piper," Nicky grumbled. This can't be a good sign, she thought.
"Should we cancel?"
"Are you kidding me," Nicky grumbled. "Where's my phone?"
"What are you going to do?" Lorna asked.
"Change of plans," Nicky said typing a message.
#
The last time Alex Vause had been in love was over a decade ago. The last person Alex Vause had been in love with was Sylvie, her high school sweet heart, who ended up cheating on her after dating for six years.
Did the fact that she had been unable to give her heart to another mean that she still loved Sylvie? Heck no. She'd gotten over her heartbreak years ago. Sure, the infidelity still hurt from time to time, but it was for other reasons that she'd stayed a free agent for so long. Work, for example, took a good chunk out of her day. Most specifically, her time.
Because it was time that she couldn't offer a partner, she refrained from committing into a serious relationship. Not that her affairs meant nothing to her. If she was seeing someone at a specific point in her life, she would only see them. Not that she had to, but she did it mostly out of respect because even if she didn't sport the title of being someone's girlfriend, she had come to value fidelity.
There were rarely any feelings involved as most of the women she saw where just like her—too busy to have, or want in one of the cases, something serious. The most she ever felt was admiration and a sense of friendliness towards them. After all, they had intimate relationships and she would travel with some of them for business reasons. Other than that, nothing more ever sparked in her heart.
Until now.
When Piper placed her lips on Alex's cheek, something inside of Alex stirred. It wasn't anything noticeable at first, but the more time that passed, the more she began to notice it.
If Alex had to compare her heart to something, she would say it was like a car battery that had not been put to use in years. Car batteries, if you don't know, lose their charge if left alone for long periods of time. The reason they don't die when you drive them is because of the alternator which works to maintain the battery in good condition. The only way for the alternator to work is if the car is on and running, but if the car is off the battery slowly loses its charge. In time, the battery will die. In some cases the battery still works and in such situations all it takes is a jump-start to get it working. (This means running the black and red cables with the jagged teeth from the good battery to the dead one.)
That's what the kiss had been: a jump-start.
Because Alex knew that what kept the heart (battery) warm, alive, and working was love (alternator) itself. Considering it had been years since she'd used her heart, she didn't think she still had it in her to flourish feelings for another.
That was before the kiss.
Now she wasn't so sure. She didn't even know why she was thinking about cars or batteries or why she even gave much thought to what had clearly been a friendly kiss. But why didn't she turn around to look at me? She further asked herself. Maybe she was embarrassed or immediately knew I would overthink such a simple act and didn't want to make it awkward.
For the hundredth time, she placed her hand on her cheek. The warm sensation was long gone and for some reason she missed it.
#
Piper had barely gotten out of the shower when she noticed her phone blinking in the corner of her bed indicating she had a missed call. Her hearth in her throat, she walked towards it and picked it up making sure she took her time to unlock it.
Her heart sank. It was a call from Nicky. She set it down and walked towards the bathroom but ran back when her phone buzzed.
For the second time in a minute, her heart deflated. It was a message from Nicky.
Nicky: Call me when you can. It's an emergency.
"Piper," Nicky began immediately, "are you doing anything tonight?"
"Not really," Piper said cautiously. She could tell there was a hint of excitement behind Nicky's tone. That was either a good thing for Piper or a bad one.
"Great! Listen, I need you to do me a favor. I have a buyer that's interested in our foreign accounts," Nicky said her voice rising with each word. "I'm going to meet up with him tonight but I need you to go with me to give him a quick update on the financial health of—"
"Nicky I'd be more than happy to go with you but I don't know much about the accounts other than what I presented to the investors last month," Piper interrupted, "Why don't you call Linda? She's the one that's been dealing with them from the start."
"I tried calling her but she didn't pick up. I need you, Piper. You know I wouldn't be calling you on a weekend if I didn't have any other choice. Please?"
"Nicky…" Piper ran a hand through her hair. She was good with numbers and running reports as well as presenting them. But that was back in the office. She never directly dealt with their investors and buyers. Sales had never been her forte.
"Please?"
"I don't have any reports ready. If I had more time…"
"Listen, just give him the same report you gave the board. I will take care of the rest," Nicky pleaded.
"Wouldn't that be lying?" Piper said as she opened the reports in her laptop. They still had the previous month's date on them.
"Change the date," Nicky said as if having read her mind.
"Well…I guess I can do that…"
"Is that a yes?"
"You're not allowed to blame me if it goes wrong," Piper protested.
"Don't worry about it. You'll do great. Besides, the meeting isn't until tonight so you will have a couple of hours prep time."
"Tonight?"
"He's a busy man. Listen, we need to impress him. Piper, I know you will rock this meeting but just in case your report doesn't do the trick, doll yourself up."
#
It turned out Marcus Jason, the buyer, had expensive taste. He'd arranged their meeting at a private conference room in one of the most prestigious restaurants in the city. Because of it, Piper had to dress for the occasion in a black dress that hugged her figure and pulled her hair up. To go with it, she threw on some heels, a necklace, and accompanied her outfit with a purse that matched her outfit (inside her chrome book fit snuggly). Simple, yet elegant.
They were scheduled to meet at eight so she arrived an hour early to give herself enough time to prepare. She had done some minor adjustments to the report to reflect some of the accounts current statuses. While she would have loved to have done a better job, she didn't have enough time so she concentrated on the ones she thought Marcus would be interested in. She just hoped she was right.
Fifteen minutes before the meeting, her phone rang. It was Nicky.
"Where are you," Piper asked before looking at the gold-plated clock on the wall.
"Is he there?" Nicky asked. For some reason she sounded worried. Piper just hoped it had nothing to do with the meeting.
"No, not yet but I'm sure he'll be here any minute. Where are you?" Piper repeated.
"Piper, you're going to kill me but I can't make it. L—"
"What do you mean you can't make it?" Piper panicked, causing her voice to rise "He's going to be here any second! What am I supposed to do?" When one of the waiters peeked in through the glass doors, she lowered her voice to just above a whisper. "Where are you?"
"Piper I am so sorry. I promise I will make it up to you. Lorna had an emergency—"
"Is she okay? Is the baby okay? What's wrong?" Piper's stomach turned at the mention of the pregnant Lorna.
"She's going to be fine," Nicky's voice broke but she composed herself. "I'll tell you later but right now just focus on the buyer."
"Nicky…"
"I know, Piper. Trust me I know. Listen, maybe you can call Alex to help you."
Piper's heart fluttered at the mention of Alex's name. That flutter was immediately replaced by her previous worries.
"She knows as much about the accounts as I do."
"Piper I have to go…just…I'm sorry," Nicky apologized again. "If you want I will call him and cancel."
Piper sighed. She was stuck between wanting to go home to the comfort of her bed and staying to give a presentation to a man she didn't know. A presentation that could decide the fate of Litchfield. Damn it, Piper.
"No. I can do this," she finally said.
"I owe you one, Piper."
#
"And that," Nicky said smiling to Lorna after she hung up on Piper, "is how you fake an emergency."
"I just feel bad you used me as an excuse…" Lorna said rubbing her belly. "I don't believe in jinxes but…"
Nicky sat next to Lorna on the couch. She wrapped an arm around her wife and pulled her in for a kiss.
"Technically this is an emergency," she whispered against Lorna's lips.
"How so," Lorna pushed herself back enough to look into Nicky's eyes.
"We haven't made love in a while," Nicky said leaning in to kiss Lorna.
#
A/N: Here is something I learned: don't write until you run out of ideas because if you do, you won't have anything to write the next day. Always leave something to inspire you for the next writing session. And so I stopped here. Since I said I would update frequently, here you have it. A split chapter. Would I call this a filler? I don't know. If you like it, you like it and if you don't well, too bad. Thanks for the love though. You guys rock and I always screech with excitement when I read your reviews.
Quick question: is there such a thing as being too old to write and/or red fanfiction?
(Btw, if anyone guesses my age correctly, I will make a Vauseman kiss happen in the next chapter. You will know if you're right in chapter (; 12, he he)