"His skin...fell off?"
"Right in my hands Polly." Piper nodded with a smirk on her face. She, Larry, Polly, and Pete sat on the balcony of Larry and Piper's apartment. Larry and Pete were at the grill talking about whatever football game had aired earlier in the day. Polly sat across from Piper, her noticeably pregnant stomach sticking out under her maternity tank top.
"Oh my god, that's disgusting. Did you throw up?"
"Nope." Piper took a bite of her shishkebab.
"And the thought of that, doesn't make you repulsed to eat?" Polly asked in disgust.
"It did a little at first but, it's really not as bad as you'd think. I enjoy it." She shrugged.
Polly repositioned herself in her chair and set her hands on her belly, looking over at the two men standing near the grill.
"How's Larry feeling about it?"
"He doesn't wanna hear about any of it." Piper shook her head. "He says it's all disgusting and then tells me I have to shower before he'll kiss me after I get off work. I mean, I still make him kiss me anyways." Piper retired her shishkebab back to her plate and sipped her beer. "He'll get over it." She shrugged.
"How about the coworkers? They cool?" Polly asked.
"They're pretty cool for the most part, besides locking me in a cooler full of dead bodies."
"What?!" Polly exclaimed.
"It was an accident." Piper held her hands up. "Nichols accidentally shut me in there so she could talk to her girlfriend."
"Girlfriend?" Polly leaned closer.
"Well they're not together, I guess. But, they sure do act like they are. They're always sneaking off to talk to each other or flirting in the prep room. I mean, Nichols is for sure a lesbian. I think my boss is too. Or a bisexual? I don't know." Piper said.
"Maybe that's why no men work there. The owner is a lesbian so she only hires women?" Polly suggested.
"I feel like that's homophobic to say." Piper squinted her eyes at Polly.
"Oh relax. You're bisexual, if I was homophobic I wouldn't be best friends with you."
Piper swatted Polly's knee.
"Shhh. Larry doesn't know about that."
"Oh right." Polly rolled her eyes. "So this lesbian boss? That's Vause of Vause Funerals?"
"Yes. Her name is Alex Vause." Piper nodded, reminiscing on the tall woman and the way her waist had looked in those pinstripe pants.
"She's the owner? How old is she?" Polly pressed.
"Thirty something...maybe? I actually don't know. She inherited the funeral home from her mother after she died."
"Well, how mysterious."
"I know!" Piper exclaimed. "She told me that her mom was taking her to murder scenes and letting her sleep in caskets by the age of fifteen."
"Ew, Piper." Polly struggled to stand up out of her chair. "Don't get the hots for your weird goth lesbian boss."
"It's not like that." Piper blushed, jumping up to help Polly.
"Relax honey." Pete and Larry approached the women, plates in hand.
"I have to pee." Polly said sternly. Pete gave Larry and Piper a look before grabbing a hold of Polly's hand and leading her back inside the apartment towards the restroom.
"So what're you girls talking about over here?" Larry sat, immediately biting into his shishkebab.
"Just work." Piper smiled, resting her hand on his knee.
"Gross." Larry said. "Anything else?"
"Just my coworkers. My boss." Piper shrugged, looking away.
"Is he nice? Is he the owner of the funeral home?" Larry asked.
"Well she is nice. She's also the owner, yes."
"Ah, so it's an old lady then?" He pressed innocently.
"Yeah." Piper nodded. "I guess so."
She didn't know why she hadn't corrected him. It just felt safer to say Alex was in fact a harmless old woman rather than an incredibly attractive older woman.
"Everyone is being nice to you though? Besides the cooler fiasco?" Larry asked. Piper remembered the look on his face when she had told him about the cooler locking shut with her inside of it. He seemed petrified yet sad.
"Pipes, that's horrible." He had said. She didn't go into detail about the puddle of unknown fluid she'd slipped in or the fact that her boss had saved her. She told him she'd broken out of it in a much shorter time than she truly had and that she'd done it all on her own. It wasn't a major lie. But, it was still a lie. Piper had always done that when it came to Larry. Lying about very small things that didn't matter. Or at least, didn't matter to her. No, she wasn't looking at that guy who was running down their street she was spacing out. No, she'd only spent a hundred dollars while shopping, not three hundred. Yes, she would consider taking the job at his father's law office, not completely write it off immediately. Small things to please him or save his feelings. She quickly realized in her relationship with Larry that things were much easier this way.
Pete and Polly returned. She knew whatever secret she shared with Polly would never circle back around to Larry. Besides, she had more things to worry about in life at this moment than Piper's small crush on her boss.
Over her weekend away from work, Piper found herself conflicted on her feelings about her new job. She couldn't deny she loved the look on people's faces when she told them about her official job description. She loved answering questions about it. But, when she closed her eyes at night to sleep, the image of the man who'd died in his recliner flashed over the backs of her eyelids. His purple face. His deteriorated lips. The sound of the gurgling. She'd have to scoot herself closer to Larry in bed, despite her hatred of being held when she's trying to sleep.
It wasn't traumatizing. It was an everyday occurrence for Lorna, Alex, and Nichols. It was just another body in the cooler, and Piper knew that. She just couldn't shake the memory of him. She'd never bothered to learn his name. Never bothered to find out if he'd had any family who were missing and grieving him. She'd simply bagged him and patted herself on the back for having the willpower to keep pulling even when she'd plunged her fingers into his rotting leg tissue.
She rolled over in bed. Larry was snoring away, the way he always did. Piper had found it cute when they'd first started dating but now, it was a nightly annoyance.
Piper stared up at the ceiling, listening to Larry snore. She tried to focus on the sound of the air conditioning unit in their bedroom window to drown him out. She closed her eyes. The man. She opened them again. She tried so hard to push her mind to something else. Larry's snoring was reminding her of the gurgling sound the man had made when they began pulling on him. She couldn't take it.
She grabbed her pillow and headed to the living room, planting herself on the couch. She turned on the tv for some background noise before lying down to attempt to fall asleep again. Piper truly fought the images of the man this time. She imagined counting sheep but the sheep would just turn purple and bloated and pop into disgusting pools of fluid as they landed on the grass they were supposed to be hopping on.
"Ugh!" She rubbed her hands over her face. She checked her phone. Two in the morning. She had to be up in four hours for another day of work. She set her phone down, took a deep breath, and pulled her blanket up to her chin.
Gurgling stomach acid...No. Skin slipping off his ankles...No. Nichols. Nichols' hair. Lorna and her red lipstick. Red's glasses. Alex...Alex.
She'd found the thought that stuck.
Alex's eyes, meeting mine. The way her hair looked when it was pushed back away from her face. The way her arm muscles stiffened under the sleeves of her dress shirt when she opened the heavy cooler door. Her rose tattoo.
Piper began to feel the familiar heat rising in her core.
Her voice. The way it sounds when she tells me to do something. She thinks I have potential.
She took a deep breath, imagining Alex becoming angry with her for failing a task she'd asked her to do. What does Alex's voice sound like when she yells? Does she clench her jaw? Does she ball her fists at her side and say things sternly?
Without much thought, Piper snaked her hand to her lower stomach, playing with the lining of her spandex shorts. This was not a good idea. This was not a pedestal she wanted to place Alex on. She did not want to associate this level of sexual attraction to her boss. Yet, here she was, sliding her hand into the front of her shorts. She carefully dipped her fingers into the familiar wet feeling between her legs. Piper was much more excited than she'd anticipated. Her fingers slipped inside herself easily. She let out a sigh, continuing her mental fantasy of the tall dark woman.
"Piper, didn't I ask you to get this done before noon?" Alex asked, her voice edging on passive aggressive.
"Yes, I'm sorry. I just didn't have time." Piper apologized, looking up at her green eyes.
"You're sorry? I guess that just fixes everything." Alex huffed, throwing a clipboard down onto her desk loudly. Piper flinched at the sound.
"Well...how can I fix it?" The blonde asked, rising slowly from her chair. Alex looked down on her, her hands resting on the desk behind her as she leaned back. Her long legs crossed at the ankles in her perfectly fitted pinstripe pants that Piper loved so much.
"How can you fix it?" Alex chuckled, pushing her raven hair back. Piper inched closer, raising her hands to unbutton the top button on Alex's shirt.
Piper circled her fingers around her clit, fastening the pace as she continued her fantasy. Her breathing quickened and she could feel the muscles in her upper thighs tightening like a cable being stretched to its limit.
Piper unbuttoned the top three fastenings of Alex's shirt and began kissing her neck. Alex buried her hand in Piper's hair, keeping her stance against the desk.
"You think that's gonna fix it? Really Piper?" She asked, grabbing a fistful of Piper's hair and jerking her head back. Alex pulled the smaller woman into her, wrapping an arm around her waist and kissing her deeply. Their tongues danced as Piper desperately grinded her hips against Alex's. Alex spun Piper around, bending her over the desk. Piper arched her back, feeling Alex lay over the top of her. Alex's lips met Piper's ear.
"I'll tell you what'll fix this." She barked. "If you take this like the good girl I know you can be."
Piper whined and set her hand on the edge of Alex's jaw as she felt her skirt being pulled down roughly from around her waist.
The feeling in her core was beginning to rise. The heat building in her stomach, her fingers working faster and faster. She was beginning to writhe on the sofa, her free hand grabbing the back of the arm rest. Her forehead began to bead with sweat and her wrist was beginning to cramp but she wasn't going to stop.
Alex's long fingers plunged inside of her. Her fingers curling in a quick pace. Piper rocked her hips against Alex's hand.
"See? I knew you could be a good girl." Alex laughed. Piper let out a choked moan as Alex's hand wrapped around her throat. She could feel the other woman's hips matching her rocking movement. Alex was grinding her hips against Piper's backside, her height making them fit perfectly against each other like two puzzle pieces.
"I'm always good for you." Piper said, fastening the movement of her hips. Alex moaned, bringing Piper even closer to her climax.
"Don't stop baby." Alex demanded, her voice cracking from its normally husky and cool demeanor to an almost pleading whine.
Piper could feel her climax rising. Her hips lifted off the couch and her teeth dug into her bottom lip. Her thighs began to shake.
"Come for me." Alex demanded.
Piper's breath hitched in her throat.
"I want you to come for me Piper."
Piper fought the choked moan that escaped her lips as she climaxed, feeling the warmth pool between her legs. She panted, throwing her free arm across her eyes and swallowing hard as she retracted her now exhausted limb from beneath the lining of her shorts. In her fog, her body slumped weakly. Piper couldn't have formed an intelligent thought in that moment if she'd tried.
Before Piper knew it, Larry was shaking her awake.
"Pipes, wake up." He said quietly, handing her a mug of coffee. "What are you doing out here?"
"You were snoring again." She said sleepily, blowing the steam away from her coffee.
"Sorry babe." He sat next to her on the couch, kissing her cheek.
"Wait!" She shouted, desperately patting around on the couch for her phone. "What time is it?" She asked.
"Seven why?" Larry said innocently.
"I'm late for work!" She jumped from the couch, set her mug on the coffee table, and hurriedly ran to the restroom to begin her morning routine.
"I thought you didn't go back until tomorrow?!" Larry shouted from the couch.
"No Larry!" She shouted back, jumping into a pair of tights and a skirt. "Did my alarm not go off?!"
"I guess not, babe!" Larry followed her into the bedroom. She was hastily applying mascara in the vanity mirror.
"I mean you're already late. Why don't you just stay home today?" He asked.
"It's my second week there. Are you serious Larry? You know I can't do that." Piper slipped into a pair of heels.
"Just stay home with me today babe." He pleaded, sitting on the bed, and reaching for Piper's waist.
"Larry." Piper stood up straight and looked down at him. "I cannot do this with you right now." She headed towards the kitchen to grab her purse and keys.
"I just don't understand why you're doing this. I've told you so many times that you don't need this job. You don't have to work at all, Piper." He crossed his arms.
"I've told you. So. Many. Times." Piper said angrily. "I want to work. I do not want to be your stay at home wife who cleans the house all day, pops out six of your kids, and has dinner waiting on you when you get home from work." She unlocked her phone, quickly scrolling through her notifications as she headed towards the front door.
"That's not what I mean Piper." Larry followed after her. "It seems like you're forgetting the conversation we had when we got engaged."
"Did you disable my alarm?" Piper asked, looking at her phone.
Larry fell silent. He looked away. Piper pointed her finger at him and opened her mouth to say something before deciding against it.
"We will talk about this when I get home." Piper said angrily before storming out the front door.
She hailed a taxi to the funeral home. Usually, she was able to walk to her destination but because of Larry's attempt at sabotage, Piper was in a rush. She hurried through the front door of the funeral home, finding the lobby chock full of people dressed in black. She immediately straightened herself and gave a shy wave to the people in her immediate area. Alex came walking at a quick pace from the chapel, gesturing towards Piper.
Piper was hit with a wave of flashbacks to her fantasy of Alex bending her over a desk. She managed to hide the blush spreading across her face as she closed the distance between her and her boss.
"Sorry I'm late, Alex, I slept through my alarm." She apologized.
"Don't worry about it. I'm just glad you're here." Alex said. Piper couldn't help but smile.
"My funeral attendant decided to fuck off for her shift so we're down a person." Alex said quietly, smiling and nodding her head to an elderly couple.
"Funeral attendant?" Piper asked. The two walked into the chapel, Alex shutting the doors behind them. It was just them in the large room filled with folding chairs and a casket containing the body of an elderly woman.
"It's a part time job. They help with the funerals, greet families and stuff. I've been going through an outside company to get people so I wouldn't have to hire people just to stand and monitor funerals but apparently that's what I'll have to do thanks to this bullshit company." Alex sighed and removed her glasses to pinch the bridge of her nose.
"Well what do I have to do?" Piper asked.
"Stand at the edge of the funeral. Direct people to the restrooms if they need it, hand out tissues, tell them you're sorry for their loss." Alex crossed her arms. "It's really nothing. If you could just do this for me today."
"I mean, I could just be the funeral attendant all the time." Piper shrugged. "That way you wouldn't have to go through an outside company and wouldn't have to hire somebody else." She suggested. Alex smiled and looked her up and down.
"Really? If you did it'd take you up to full time hours."
"I could always use the extra cash." Piper said, smiling.
"And what about Larry?" Alex cocked one of her thin eyebrows high up on her forehead.
"What about him?" Piper sounded a bit more tense than she had intended to.
"Alright. Let's do it then."
Alex opened the chapel doors and allowed the large crowd of mourners to flow in. Piper had only attended one funeral in her life. It felt strange to watch a funeral for someone she had absolutely no connection to. Everyone was crying and sniffling, the small children in the crowd were understandably confused. She watched as one by one they slowly approached the casket to say goodbye to their loved one. The preacher gave a eulogy before going into a few gospel songs that Piper wasn't familiar with. She spotted Alex across the room, mouthing along with the words as the crowd sang. Once the funeral was finished, the crowd migrated into the reception area. Alex and Piper followed, standing near the doors.
Piper was surprised to see the family members laughing and smiling as they mingled in the reception area.
"I thought funerals were supposed to be sad?" She whispered to Alex who smiled.
"Death is different for everybody. Sometimes people are angry, sometimes people are happy, sometimes people are insanely relieved. It's fun to watch." Alex answered.
An elderly man sitting at a table near Alex spoke loudly to another man at his side.
"All I'm saying, Vern, is that this place has really gone down hill." He said, stabbing his fork into a meatball. "I mean, it's alright and all but when Diane was running this funeral home, that's when this place had dignity. You saw the amount of makeup they caked onto Aunt Eva in there. She looks horrible." He said in disgust. Piper looked over to Alex who'd hung her head. She was smirking and nodding her head as she listened.
"The Vause family used to mean something around here, ya know." He continued. "But that Vause daughter of Diane's...she's better off to cut her losses and run for the hills." He laughed.
"Bill! Shut up! She's right there." A woman across the table from him snapped. The man turned to the side to meet eyes with Alex. Alex simply smiled and approached him.
"I hope the service was up to par. I'm sorry for your loss. If you'll excuse me, I have some things to attend to. My colleague Piper will be happy to help you if you need anything else." Alex patted the man on the shoulder and exited back through the chapel. The man went back to his meatballs, unbothered.
Piper continued standing near the door for the remainder of the time until Tasha led the family from the reception hall to the parking lot outside to begin the procession to the cemetery down the street.
Once Piper was in the clear she walked back through the chapel to the lobby where Red sat behind her desk.
"Did you see where Alex went?" She asked.
"Her office." Red replied lazily, not looking up from her book.
Piper climbed the stairs to Alex's shut office door. She knocked gingerly before opening it. Alex was in her desk chair, resting her head on her hand and staring at a blank computer screen.
"Hey." Piper closed the door behind her and sat in the chair facing Alex.
"Hey." Alex replied, taking a deep breath in. Her eyes were red as if she may have been crying.
"The family left." Piper said.
"Well thank god for that." Alex chuckled, sniffling.
"Tissue?" Piper offered, holding the box of tissues she'd been given to hand out to mourning family members during the service.
"No, thanks. Alex laughed and swatted the box away.
"Listen, what that guy said is bullshit. He's just one of those gross old men that think they know everything."
"No, he's right." Alex said, much to Piper's surprise. "This place was better when my mom was running it." Alex picked up a framed picture off her desk and looked at it. She showed it to Piper. "That's mom and I."
Piper looked closely at the photo. It was a visibly older photo that showed a woman who looked similarly to Alex next to a very small child who Piper assumed was Alex who couldn't have been any older than three. They were standing in front of the entrance to the funeral home.
"That's the day she got the keys to the funeral home." Alex smiled, reminiscing on the memory. "My great grandpa started this business. Then he gave it to his son, who died. Then it got passed on to his brother, who sold it. Then, my mom saved all her money and bought it back. She wasn't even a licensed funeral director when she bought it. She just wanted back what had once belonged to the family."
"Wow." Piper said in amazement.
"Yeah. Then she went back to school, got her license, and made this place what it is. Or...was, I guess." Alex said sadly.
"I think it's a great funeral home, Alex." Piper said, setting her hand on Alex's arm. She took it away once she realized what she was doing.
"Thanks, Piper." Alex set the photo down. "Diane really did have this place at it's best. We were still running cremations then. Doing a thousand removals a year. We were fuckin' busy man."
"Why'd you guys stop all of that?" Piper asked.
"Other places popped up. Corporations that could do services and cremations for a lot cheaper. Places that could afford not to charge for certain things." Alex shrugged. "Then, mom died and when staff found out I'd be taking over all of them walked out. Except for Nicky and Tasha."
"Why'd they walk out?" Piper pressed.
"I uh...haven't always been this well put together person you see before you." Alex shrugged, waving it away. Piper was dying to learn more. She had to bite her tongue in order not to ask a question that may have offended Alex.
"They at least stayed for the funeral though." Alex chuckled, rolling her eyes. "As soon as that was over they all left and never looked back. Nicky got her shit together and jumped in to help me thank god. Tasha was already a director by then. It's just been us since." Alex looked at Piper.
"What was up with you this morning? Overslept?" She asked, changing the subject.
"Well, actually, my fiance turned off my alarm because he's mad that I don't wanna be a 1950's housewife." Piper said, shaking her head.
"What?" Alex laughed.
"It's not as simple as it sounds." Piper laughed.
"What's his issue with you working?" Alex asked, scrunching her eyebrows.
"When we got engaged, he asked me to consider taking a break from looking for work. So we could maybe try to have a kid. At the time, I was so excited to be engaged and-"
"At the time?" Alex interjected.
"I mean, I'm still excited to be engaged." Piper said, somewhat unconvincingly.
"I love him. Very much." She sighed. "He's a Jewish lawyer. He wants a wife to give him children and allow him to be the breadwinner. His parents want grandkids. My parents want grandkids."
"Do you want kids?" Alex asked, looking Piper deep in the eyes.
"Yes...no...maybe." Piper made a face. "I'm twenty-five. I wanna drink margaritas and go to the beach. I want to travel. I want to see and do things."
"So that's a no." Alex smiled.
"He never said anything about kids our whole relationship." She sighed. "But he pops out a two carat ring on our vacation to Hawaii and I say yes and then all of sudden we're planning what suburb we'll move to after the wedding and good names for boys and the best schools in New York." Piper set her head in her hands. "Now, it's all his parents ever ask me about. It's all anyone ever asks me about."
Alex reached across the desk and set her hand on Piper's shoulder.
"You don't have to do any of that. Trust me." She reassured her. "Don't have kids when you don't want them. That's what Nicky's mom did and now look at her."
"What?" Piper raised her head.
"I'm just kidding. She's my best friend, I can say that." Alex laughed. "But no, seriously. Don't let everyone around you push you into what society thinks you should be doing. If there's anything this job has shown me, it's that death will find you. Whether it's in ten years or within the next thirty minutes. Trust me when I say, do whatever the fuck you want in this life. Cause once you're laying in that casket with your corpse pumped full of embalming fluid it'll be way too late to go back and do all the things you always wanted to do."
Piper found herself lost in the sincerity of Alex's eyes. Her hand was still resting on Piper's shoulder as she spoke. A moment in time passed where the two didn't say a word to each other, only held eye contact.
"You know…" Piper began.
Alex's office door swung open, interrupting their moment. Piper turned to see Nicky in the doorway. She was in her blue surgical gown, stained with an unidentified green substance down the front of it.
"Hey, Vause." She nodded, flicking a stray curl onto her forehead. "Lorna's got one comin' in from the morgue. I'm working on one already and Taystee's gonna take it if you don't get your ass down there." Nichols said with a slight sense of urgency. Alex stood from behind her desk, stripping off her black blazer and tucking her navy blue dress shirt into her gray slacks. They weren't pinstriped today, but they still fit her figure just as perfectly.
"Pipes, you've got a removal with Lorna waiting on you anyways." Nichols nodded to Piper.
"Why didn't you call my office?" Alex asked, slightly annoyed.
"Eh, time got away from us." Nichols laughed.
"Don't fuck around down there Nicky. I've already got Taystee on my ass about you two."
"Ah, relax, Vause. Taystee won't say anything. Hey, Vause, why'd you have your shirt untucked?" Nicky laughed.
"Shut up!" Alex punched her in the arm, laughing as she did.
Nichols led the two to the prep room. Lorna was wheeling in a cot with a white body bag on top of it. Piper could see small streams of maroon blood rolling through the creases of the white plastic material of the bag. When Lorna parked the cot next to the prep table, she could hear the slosh of blood inside, moving around.
Alex was tying her hair back into a high ponytail while Nicky went back to embalming the elderly man on her own table. Alex put on a white apron that was splattered with dried blood stains. Piper laughed.
"What? The apron?" Alex asked.
"Yes. You literally look like a butcher." Piper said.
"I don't like wearing the gowns, they get in the way. Plus, Diane gave this to me. It's what she used to wear." She shrugged, unzipping the body bag. Inside the body bag was the body of a young man. Alex grabbed his arm and his left hip and pulled him roughly onto the metal embalming table. Piper had never seen any of the bodies that'd come from the city morgue before.
"Woah." She said, walking towards the table.
The man couldn't have been much older than Piper. His body was covered from head to toe in tattoos. His abdomen was cut in a Y shape going from the edges of his collar bones down to below his navel, nearly reaching his groin, slicing his intricate tattoos in half. Piper watched as Alex took a scalpel and cut the twine holding his flesh together. The flaps of skin were flayed open and inside his body was a red bag with the word BIOHAZARD strewn across it.
"What the hell is that?" Piper asked in disgusted curiosity.
"His organs." Alex answered, carefully taking the bag and placing it on the prep room floor near her feet.
Piper watched Alex cut the twine that held the flesh on the man's head together. His scalp loosened, showing the inside of his empty skull. Piper felt the same way she had on her first day when she'd walked in and seen Nichols working on a body for the first time.
"Hey! Piper!" Lorna called, snapping Piper out of her trance. "Let's get goin'. That body ain't gonna remove itself."
"Coming!" Piper said. "Shit I forgot my jacket. Lemme grab that and I'll be back."
"Meet ya in the van." Lorna replied.
Piper hurried back to Alex's office to grab her jacket off the back of the chair. When she entered Alex's office, she found Poussey rummaging through one of the drawers.
"Oh. Hi." Piper said.
"Hi." Poussey closed the drawer and stood up straight.
"What're you uh...Whatcha doin'?" Piper asked.
"Just looking for something. Taystee, sorry, Tasha, sent me in here. She needed a document." Poussey said, shrugging her shoulders. "But, I'm not seeing it."
"Okay. I just wanted my jacket." Piper slid her jacket off the back of the chair and turned to leave.
"Hey, Piper." Poussey said. Piper turned back around.
"Nobody needs to know about this, right? I mean, technically Tasha is also one of the bosses. So it's not like I'm doing anything wrong. It would just...sound like something it isn't, you know?" Poussey rubbed the back of her neck.
"Yeah, no." Piper shook her head. "I wasn't planning on telling anybody."
"Awesome." Poussey smiled. "Knew I liked you for a reason." Piper smiled back and made her way back down the staircase to the hallway. As she passed the prep room door, she caught a bit of Nicky and Alex's conversation. They were whispering to each other.
"You have got to get this shit tight, Nicky. Taystee came real fuckin' close to driving that body to the airport last week because your guy was too fuckin' drunk to take care of it." Alex hissed.
"You think I don't know that? I took care of it. Drop it." Nicky replied, a slight tone of hostility in her voice.
"We need someone better than your guy, Nicky. If Taystee had been caught with that, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."
"And you think I could? I'm working on it. If you're that worried about it how about you do it."
"Yeah Nicky, because I can just leave-"
"Hey!" Lorna called from the doorway leading into the garage. "You comin' or not?" She asked in annoyance.
"What? Oh. Yeah." Piper answered, following Lorna into the van.