The following few days went as normal as one would expect a normal week in the funeral home to go. There was an obvious tension between Alex and Tasha, while Nicky pretended nothing had ever happened. If Piper were asked, she would even say Nicky was nicer to Poussey than usual. Which is saying a lot in terms of Nicky. That girl would be nice to a serial killer. It's just who she was. That's why Piper had no problem believing that Nicky wasn't the thief. She could tell how much Nicky loved Alex. Now, Alex, that was another story. They hadn't touched each other again since their accidental rendezvous in the bathroom. They'd spoken but, only on surface level things.
"Piper, you have a removal."
"Alex, you have a call on line one."
Nothing beyond that. Piper found herself somewhat saddened. She didn't know why. She was engaged, for Christ's sake. When she'd gone home after work the day that woman had thrown a heel at her, Larry dropped everything to take care of her. He wrapped her in his arms and ran her a warm bath. He'd poured her a glass of her favorite wine and rubbed her feet as they talked in bed. He'd even let her pick what they were going to be watching on Netflix that night. She knew she shouldn't have kissed Alex sober. She should have left it at a drunken mistake. But...she didn't want to. She wanted to know how it felt to have Alex touch her all over. She wanted to hear Alex's moan when she climaxed. She wanted to see the look in Alex's eyes when she teased her.
Of course, she didn't even know Alex. She didn't know what Alex liked. They could have completely different political beliefs. She could be incredibly boring. Piper knew she wasn't though. She could feel in her bones that Alex was something different than anything she'd ever encountered. She couldn't tell you how. But she felt it. She felt it in every bone, every nerve, every inch of her body.
They hadn't talked much, but Piper had noticed Alex staring at her in the prep room. She could feel the tension between them when they were left alone. As far as she knew, no one but Nicky knew of their affair, if you could call it that. That made Piper want it even more.
There were more important things at hand than Piper wanting Alex to pin her against a wall. Time was ticking away and they had only a small window of opportunity to execute their plan in order to save Nicky from losing her job and possibly going to prison for something she didn't do. Today was the day everything would come together. Piper's plan took place over the course of three days and it went as follows:
Step one: Get access to Poussey's phone.
This step was rather difficult as Piper noticed Poussey was very attached to her cellphone. On top of this, they would need her fingerprint to unlock the cellphone. In order to do this, Lorna was needed. The three women had explained everything to her. Of course, Lorna was upset about the possible loss of Nicky and volunteered to help in any way possible.
Oftentimes at the funeral home, family members of the deceased would ask for fingerprints of their loved ones to be taken so that they could create jewelry or keepsakes. Lorna used this to her advantage.
"Hey, P." Lorna called from across the prep room. "I got new ink for the fingerprints but I don't wanna try it out on any of the bodies cause I'm scared it'll stain. Will you do it?" She asked. Poussey looked up from her ICA.
"Why can't you do it man?" She asked.
"I've got these long acrylics, you know how it goes." She smiled. "Come on, please? I don't want somebody comin' in and seein' their mother's fingers bright blue cause we tried it and couldn't wash it off."
"Fine." Poussey sighed and finished her ICA before helping Lorna with her request. She offered her left thumb to test the ink. Lorna had watched Poussey very carefully only fifteen minutes earlier and she was 80% sure that she'd used her right thumb to unlock her phone.
"Uh, other hand." Lorna demanded.
"Why?" Poussey asked.
"Cause I don't trust left handed people P. You know, they say lefties are goin' straight to hell."
"Oh…kay?" Poussey said in confusion, giving Lorna her other hand. Lorna did the print on a piece of white cardstock.
"Perfect!" She smiled. "Now lemme go show Nicky and see if she thinks it's good enough to use for the decedents. If you'll excuse me!"
Lorna rushed out of the prep room to the office across the hall. She quickly placed a piece of scotch tape over the thumbprint before gently peeling it off. The print carried over onto the tape clearly. Success. Step one was achieved.
Step two: Distract Poussey long enough for Nicky to take her phone.
This was easier than getting the fingerprint, but it was no simple task. In order to do this, Piper had to wait until an urgent removal call came in to steal Poussey away from the office, as well as get her to leave her phone unattended. It took two days but the call finally came. A 600 pound woman had died in her bed and the fire department was busy cutting a hole into the side of her house in order to get the body out. They requested the funeral home be as quick as possible in arriving on the scene. Perfect.
"Poussey!" Piper yelled from the office. "We gotta hurry, there's a house call and it's pretty bad." Poussey stood in the office doorway, her phone in hand.
"Okay, lemme just grab my blazer and I'll be ready." She said.
"Oh they want an ETA. Do you have your phone on you?" Piper asked. "I left mine at home by accident."
"Yeah, what's the number?" Poussey asked.
"Here, I can call them. If you could just get the car ready? You're better at that stuff than me." Piper smiled sheepishly.
"Okay, I guess." Poussey gave her an odd look. "Just, make sure you give it back in the car. Oh, and don't look through my pictures." She handed Piper her phone carefully.
"No pictures, got it." Piper smiled again.
She made the call to the men on scene and then set the phone on the desk before heading towards the garage. As she passed the prep room she shot Nicky a wink. Nicky nodded in response. Piper climbed into the passenger seat of the car.
"We've gotta go! They said she's purging like crazy!"
"Do you have my-" Poussey started.
"Oh! I left it on the desk. I'm so ditzy." Piper laughed.
"I'm just gonna run in and grab it." Poussey began unbuckling herself.
"I told them we'd be there in ten minutes." Piper said urgently.
"Dude, it takes like twenty minutes to get there." Poussey said in annoyance.
"Really? I don't know this area that well. Like I said, ditzy."
Poussey huffed and buckled herself back into the driver's seat.
"Fine, but we gotta be quick about this." Poussey commented as they made their way out of the garage.
Step two was complete.
Step three: Gain photo proof of Poussey stealing the account numbers.
Nicky gave a look to Alex before snapping off her gloves and heading to the office where she grabbed Poussey's unattended cellphone. She kept the piece of tape hidden away on a shelf in the prep room in order to preserve it. Nicky grabbed it before heading towards Alex's office. Lorna was in Tasha's office, distracting her with a story about a program she'd watched on the ID channel about a man who murdered his pregnant wife. Nicky could hear her talking the other woman's ear off as she passed the doorway of Tasha's office. She let herself into Alex's office before shutting and locking the door behind her. She used her key to get into the desk, opening the drawer that held the files Nicky needed access to. She found what she was looking for.
Nicky set the piece of tape against the home button of Poussey's phone. It wouldn't read.
"Try again? What the fuck?" Nicky whispered. She tried the tape again. Try Again it read. Nicky crumpled up the piece of tape and tossed it on the floor.
"Fuck fuck fuck." She chewed on her thumbnail as she stared at the fluorescent screen. She typed random combinations of numbers. Of course it wasn't a regular four digit passcode but an eight digit passcode. 12345678. Nope. Try Again. 20202020. Nope. Try Again. 43211234. Nope. Locked out.
"Try again in five minutes?" Nicky clenched her fist tightly. She pulled her own phone out of her pocket, hearing Lorna through the wall, droning on about something she'd read in a magazine. Tasha was too nice to tell her to buzz off.
"When is P's bday?"
Nicky texted Lorna. She could hear the conversation pause through the wall.
"Say, Taystee, is Poussey's birthday coming up soon? What do you think I should get her?" Lorna asked sweetly.
"P's birthday ain't for another six months." Taystee replied.
"Really?! My sister's birthday is in December. What day is P's?" She continued.
"Uhh...December twentieth, I think." She answered.
"No way! So is my sister's! How old is she gonna be?"
"She'll be twenty-nine. Ain't that crazy? She still looks fifteen." Taystee laughed.
Nicky had to think for longer than she'd like to admit to figure out what year Poussey would've been born if she were turning twenty-nine on December 20th of 2020. She tried the passcode again. 12201991. Success.
She had to keep herself from cheering as she scrolled through the phone's contents. She made her way to the app store where she downloaded the specific app Piper had instructed her to. Quickly, she took photos of the account numbers, and a few other things that were considered confidential information, just for safe measures. Once the photos were taken, Nicky went to the newly downloaded app and used it to change the timestamps of the photos she'd just taken to three months ago, when the money had begun to go missing. Step three was a go.
Nicky headed back down to the prep room where she returned the phone to its place on the desk with plenty of time to spare. She'd made sure to clean up her tracks, deleting the app from the home screen as well as recently downloaded in the app store. Nicky couldn't help but feel as if she were a secret agent. Now, it was time for the final step.
Step four: Confront Taystee and Poussey with the evidence.
This step was all Alex. She waited until the end of the day when the removal techs were nearing the end of their shifts to call a meeting between her, Tasha, Poussey, Nicky, and Piper. They met in Alex's office. It was a bit cramped with all of them inside the small room. Alex could see the anxiety on Nicky's face as they sat, looking at each other.
"Why's she in here?" Tasha asked, motioning to Piper.
"She's essential to what I'm about to tell you." Alex said in a tone of voice that Piper had never heard. It sounded professional. It reminded her of the way Larry sounded in the courtroom when he was really dominating a case. For some reason, she found Alex's tone a bit sexier than Larry's. The tone of voice on top of Alex wearing her pin striped pants almost sent Piper over the edge.
"What are you about to tell me, Alex?" Tasha asked, crossing her arms.
"I have good reason to believe Nicky isn't the one who stole the money." Alex folded her hands on her desk. She looked to the carpet where she saw the discarded bit of tape with Poussey's thumb print on it. She placed her shoe over it, looking up to meet Tasha's eyes.
"So who do you think did it then? Lorna?" Poussey asked.
"No, Poussey, in fact, I believe it was you." Alex answered. Poussey's eyes widened.
"What?" She asked, looking to Tasha who seemed just as shocked as she was.
"You're being crazy." Tasha said, shaking her head. "P doesn't even know how to get into the bank accounts."
"Actually, she would know if she happened to break into my locked desk and rummage through my files. Piper caught her doing just that." Alex looked over to Piper who was nervously looking at the ground.
"What?" Tasha looked to Piper, then to Poussey who was beginning to squirm. "Piper, is that true?"
"Yes, it is." Piper nodded. "I came up here the other day to grab my blazer and I found her going through Alex's desk."
"Poussey." Tasha turned to face her friend. "Is that true?"
Poussey hesitated to answer.
"Poussey." Tasha said in a sterner tone.
"Yeah. Yeah, it's true. It wasn't like that though, T. You were sayin' how you thought Nichols was stealing but you didn't have any definite proof and you needed a certain paper so I-"
"So you broke into her office and looked through her shit?!" Tasha shouted.
"She told me you sent her in here to find something so I didn't say anything." Piper said. Poussey gave her an angry look.
"Okay. So I went through the desk. I shouldn't have and I own up to that but it was only because we knew Nichols was stealing shit. I just needed a paper showing the info of the finances so we could see exactly how much was missing. I did not steal anything. I don't even know the codes to get into the accounts." Poussey defended herself.
"How do I know you didn't write them down when you broke into my desk? Or take a picture with your phone? How do I know this was your first time breaking into my desk, Poussey?" Alex pressed.
"You can check my fuckin' phone man. I don't have those codes." Poussey said in a panic. Her voice was beginning to crack.
"You'd let me check your phone then?" Alex asked.
"Yeah. Here." Poussey set her phone on Alex's desk, unlocking it. She stood next to Alex, looking over her shoulder as she scrolled through her camera roll. She saw plenty of selfies, photos of Poussey's dog, photos of her and Taystee in various snapchat filters. Then she found exactly what she knew she would. The photo stuck out from the rest as it showed bold, black numbers on a white background.
"What's this?" Alex asked, looking at Poussey. The smaller girl was crying.
"No...That's not." Poussey started.
"What is it?" Tasha asked, leaning over the desk to look at the phone screen. She silently looked at her friend, her eyes beginning to water.
"P…" She said.
"That's not-I didn't!" Poussey cried.
"It's right around when the money started coming up missing. Look at the time stamps." Alex commented, setting the phone back down on the desk. Tasha looked at Poussey with disappointment.
"Yeah. I guess it is."
"Piper, Nicky, can you two step out for a minute." Alex asked, looking at the two women. They both nodded and left, stepping into the hallway. Nicky wrapped her arms around Piper in a tight hug.
"You're a fuckin' genius man." She whispered before letting go. The two went to the prep room where they found Lorna applying eyeshadow to a young woman's eyelids.
"So, how'd it go?" She asked, not looking up from her project.
"Just as planned." Nicky crossed the prep room and grabbed Lorna into her arms.
"Nicky, quit, I'm busy." Lorna smiled. Nicky set her hand on her chin and kissed her sweetly. Piper felt awkward watching the two.
"Would you have missed me?" Nicky smiled.
"You know I would've, you idiot." Lorna giggled. Piper took the opportunity to exit the prep room and enter the office. She sat at the computer and tapped in her login info. She had been wondering about something for quite a while but had never found the opportunity to do her sleuthing. She looked back over her shoulder towards the prep room, making sure she was safe. She typed a name into the search bar of the computer: Diane Vause.
The case file popped up. She clicked through the documents. It showed that Nicky had done the removal with a woman named Trisha. Nicky had also performed the ICA. Piper clicked on the upload link of the document, looking over a photo copied version of the original paper. The outline of the body appeared on the screen.
Height: 5' 10" Weight: 145 Elbow Width: 19"
Discoloration corresponding to drug overdose is evident in decedent.
Piper recognized Nicky's handwriting. She'd finally found the answer to what she'd been wondering since the day Alex had told her about her mother's passing. She exited out of the screen just in time for Poussey to come barreling down the hallway, her backpack in hand. She had her head down as she was headed for the backdoor. Piper watched her leave, feeling a slight tinge of guilt. Alex came through the hallway doors a moment later. She poked her head into the office.
"Hey, could I talk to you upstairs?" She asked. Piper nodded. Great, she thought, she's firing people and now I'm next cause I couldn't keep it in my pants.
Piper followed Alex to her office, feeling anxiety the entire way. Once they reached the doorway, Alex motioned towards the chair Piper had just been sitting in moments before.
"Have a seat." She said, in that same tone she'd used when she accused Poussey of stealing the money. Alex closed and locked the door.
"Is this about-" Alex quickly dropped to her knees in front of the blonde woman. Piper met her eyes in surprise. Without warning, Alex ran her hands up Piper's thighs, under her pencil skirt. Her touch was warm and it took nothing for the younger woman to spread her thighs. The way Alex looked as she peered up at her from between her legs was something Piper never wanted to forget. She pulled her tights down roughly, kissing trails up her inner thighs.
"I wanted to thank you…" Alex said sensually. "for helping me take care of things."
"You don't have to thank-" Piper's breathing hitched in her throat as Alex's lips met her clit. She could feel herself melting at the other woman's touch. Her tongue stroked Piper's clit softly. She licked slowly at first before fastening her pace. The blonde was at a loss for words. She whined, covering her mouth with one hand and using the other to bury in Alex's hair. The woman's grip tightened on her thighs, her fingertips pressing into her flesh. Piper rocked her hips against Alex's face, feeling the soft caresses of her lips as she matched her pace. She was writhing in the chair, trying desperately to get herself as close to Alex's mouth as possible. The older woman took the liberty of placing Piper's legs on her shoulders and using one hand to insert at first one digit and then two into her. She audibly moaned at this, praying that Tasha wasn't in her office on the other side of the thin wall. Alex's fingers were moving in a way Piper had never experienced. How she already knew how to get Piper to her climax this fast was beyond her.
"I didn't think you liked me-" Piper squeaked. "anymore."
"Shut up." Alex smiled up at her, her fingers still moving inside of the girl in front of her. She kissed her deeply, her mouth wet from Piper. She moaned into her mouth, tasting herself on the other woman's lips. Her body was beginning to tighten. Her thighs began to shake involuntarily. Alex started smiling again.
"You like that?" She asked. Piper's face blushed. She was embarrassed that Alex had such a hold on her. She hid her face in Alex's hair, feeling one of her toned arms wrap around her waist. Alex was holding her tight as she kept up the pace of her fingers. Piper seemed so small wrapped in the embrace of the taller woman. A wave of heat rushed through her body as her hips bucked forward into Alex's hand. She dug her nails into the back of Alex's neck. This time she was sure she'd be leaving marks.
"That's my girl." Alex said into her ear, only fueling the fire of Piper's orgasm. She was breathing heavy and the way she unlatched from Alex made her feel as if she were unboarding the world's fastest rollercoaster. She sat back in the chair, pushing her hair back off her face and shaking at the knees. Alex rose from her knees, looking down at her. She had that stupid smirk on her face. The same one she wore when she'd tease Nicky about something.
"We can't." Piper said. The high of her orgasm had worn off as she pulled her tights back up her legs, trying her hardest to ignore the wet spot on the chair beneath her.
"We can't what?" Alex asked, looking confused.
"This, we can't do this." Piper was as surprised as Alex was that she was saying this. "It was one thing when we were drunk but, this isn't something we can do. That I can do."
"Piper…" Alex leaned back against her desk.
"I have a-"
"A Larry. You have a Larry who you're obviously not that into."
"I'm engaged to him, Alex." Piper said, standing up. Alex towered over her. "It's not right."
"You couldn't have told me you felt that way before I ate your pussy?" Alex asked angrily. She crossed her arms across her chest and chuckled in disbelief.
"Are you gonna fire me?" Piper asked.
"No, I'm not gonna fuckin' fire you."
"Alex, I really like you. It's just, I've done this to Larry before. It's why he's the way he is about things with me. It almost destroyed us because I made a stupid mistake."
"It's okay, Piper. You're right. We can't. I'm your boss and you're engaged. I'm sorry." Alex shrugged her shoulders, looking away. "Thank you for helping me with the whole Nicky situation."
"Thank you for understanding." Piper said quietly before leaving Alex's office, shutting the door behind her. She descended the stairs, meeting eyes with Red.
"You're not the only one she's had in that office, Piper." Red said, lowering her glasses.
"What do you-"
"You're a smart young woman. Keep your nose out of places it doesn't belong." She remarked. Piper looked to the ground. She nodded in reply before sighing and heading to the hallway, through the door. She found Nicky and Lorna in the prep room doorway. Nicky had her arm around Lorna's waist.
"We're going out tonight, Pipes, wanna come along?" Lorna asked.
"No guys, not tonight." Piper said sadly.
"What's the matter? You feelin' bad 'bout the whole Poussey thing?" Nicky asked.
"Don't feel bad about that, Piper, she's a real bitch, honestly." Lorna said, trying to comfort her.
"No, Larry and I have dinner plans with his parents. Another night though." She smiled. Piper waved goodbye and continued towards the backdoor, leaving her coworkers inside the funeral home.
She wasn't lying about the dinner plans with Larry's parents. They'd left for Park Slope shortly after Piper arrived home. She took a quick shower and changed clothes at the request of Larry who claimed he could smell the scent of death on her, even though she'd had no removals that day. They arrived at Larry's parents house where they exchanged hugs and greetings before heading inside. Piper, admittedly, wasn't a fan of her in laws. Although, she was very much a fan of their large home. She loved the archways and huge windows. She often sat near the window sills, looking over the fallen leaves on the back lawn as Larry spoke to his parents. She appreciated that Larry's mom attempted to converse with her, and she was always kind, but their discussions were often short and shallow. She couldn't relate to his family when it came to anything regarding law or football or horse races or anything else they indulged in. Too often, Piper was set on the back burner to smile and nod and give an occasional "Wow, that's so fun." in response to whatever it was they were talking about.
She tried her best to socialize with Larry's family. There was just...a rift. It felt as if Larry's parents were on one side of said rift, Piper on the other, and Larry with one foot on each side of the rift, trying desperately to play a game of telephone between both sides. He really did try to incorporate Piper into his family's lifestyle, and she appreciated that. It just often felt as if she were a book, too big to fit on an already crowded shelf.
"So, Piper," Larry's mother, Susan, stabbed her fork into a brussel sprout. "How are you enjoying the new job?"
Piper perked up. Larry had made her promise she wouldn't go into the gruesome details of her new daily life.
"I love it." She nodded. Flashbacks of Alex's face between her thighs hit her like a warm ocean wave. "It's very interesting."
"Larry says you're enjoying being a secretary. They don't make you look at the bodies do they?" She asked.
"No, they don't." Piper shook her head, looking over to Larry. Larry was suspiciously interested in his dinner plate. "I just answer the phones."
"That Vause Funeral home is one of the only locally owned homes left in Brooklyn." His father remarked. "It's surprising the doors are still open."
"Why do you say that?" Piper asked.
"Well, with the lawsuit they had a few years ago, everybody expected them to go under."
"Lawsuit?" Piper set her fork down.
"Larry didn't tell you about it? I represented Diane Vause in that case."
"No." Piper looked to her fiance. "Larry did not tell me about it. What was the lawsuit concerning?"
"Oh, one of the staff was caught stealing the jewelry of a decedent out of the safe they keep there at the home." He said casually. "Diane's daughter, actually."
"Alex?" Piper asked in surprise.
"That was her name." He nodded. "She was just a kid at the time. It didn't go over well though. It took awhile for anybody to want to go through them again. If I remember right, Diane was offering free cremations for a while just to get people to even consider her services again."
Piper felt a pit in her stomach beginning to grow. Larry looked to his father.
"Alex Vause? That's the one who did that?" He asked. "I thought she was an old lady."
"No, she can't be any older than forty, son."
Larry gave Piper a look. She looked away, pretending to admire the large grand piano in the dining room.
"Well, just be careful Piper." His mother sipped her wine. "Don't leave your purse lying around. That place is at the bottom of the barrel from the sounds of it."
"I will, Susan." Piper smiled politely.
Dinner had finished shortly after. Larry and his father had migrated to the den while Piper helped Susan with the dishes. In actuality, Piper was doing the dishes while Susan drank more wine.
"Piper," She said sweetly. "Have you and Larry figured out a date for the wedding yet? Winter is coming soon but a spring wedding could be lovely."
"We haven't discussed it, actually." Piper shrugged. "Larry's been pretty busy with work."
"Well, you two have got to talk about these things. Larry's a bit slow when it comes to making decisions. Sometimes he just needs an extra little nudge." She playfully tapped Piper's arm with her elbow, smiling as she did. "He's a lot like his father in that way." She sighed. "Not to mention, we're looking forward to grandchildren. I've got the guest bedroom saved for our future little one."
Susan's comment made Piper feel nauseous. She finished scrubbing the last dinner plate before drying her hands on a towel.
"If you'll excuse me, I've got to use the restroom."
"I'll pour you a wine, honey. I want to show you this beautiful wedding dress I saw on Pinterest."
"I'd love to see it." Piper lied.
She made her way to the restroom, trying to breathe deeply. She stood at the sink, her hands shaking as she looked at the white porcelain surrounding the perfectly polished faucet. There were no toothpaste stains on the mirror or stray hairs hanging about. Their hand towels were folded perfectly, telling her they were the kind to be seen, not used. That's how she felt. Like a perfectly folded hand towel. She was supposed to sit back and do what she was apparently created to do. Marry Larry, have his kids, bring those kids to the in-laws on the weekends, and go on vacations with her lawyer husband. The sickness in her stomach was growing and her breathing wasn't slowing down. She hugged herself. Larry. Susan. Alex. It was too much. She wanted to grab her phone and purse. Take off out the front door and hail a cab to Jersey. Fly to California and change her name. Move to Canada and pretend she never lived this life. Piper could feel stomach acid burning the back of her throat. She made it to the toilet before she vomited up her dinner. She tried her best to keep it quiet, holding her hair back from her face and lurching forward violently as she did.
Piper had just flushed away her vomit as Larry knocked on the bathroom door.
"Pipes?" He asked quietly. "You alright?"
"Yeah." She answered, wiping her mouth on one of those stupid hand towels. She climbed to her feet, opening the bathroom door. Larry looked at her with his doe eyes. "Just have cramps." She smiled. Larry grabbed her hand gently.
"Did my mom say something dumb? She's drank a lot."
"No, baby." She shook her head. "I'm okay."
"You sure?" He held her face, looking her over. The gash on her nose was finally fading. Piper looked into his eyes. She hadn't noticed but Larry had aged since they first began their relationship only a few years earlier. She could see a stray gray hair in the curls of his hairline. She smiled and grabbed it, plucking it.
"Ow!" He yelped.
"Look," She smiled. "You're getting old."
"I guess so." He laughed, taking it from between her fingers. "Mom! Dad! Look what Piper found!"
The two returned to their home. Piper's nausea and anxiety had subsided after finding Larry's gray hair. He held her hand on the ride home as they both stared at their phone screens. It was on this ride to their apartment that Piper realized Larry's gray hair was the most interesting thing Larry had presented in their entire week. Everything else had been talk of sports and court cases he was working on. Conversations between him and Pete about Polly's pregnancy or how his father was planning a fishing trip that Larry really didn't want to attend. Things that Piper simply didn't care about. She used to care so much. Or did she actually never care at all?
Larry kissed her head before climbing into the shower. Piper sat on the couch, stewing on her thoughts. Did she ever find Larry interesting? Yes. At the beginning. Or did she find him interesting because she loved him? Did she still love him? Yes. Did she feel guilty about what she'd done with Alex? No. Well, yes. She had to feel at least a little bit guilty because she ended things for Larry's sake. Right? Or did she end things because that's what she was supposed to do, like a perfectly folded hand towel. Piper felt her nausea returning.
She climbed into bed, staring at the beige sheets under her. The thought of Alex came back. The way her hands gripped her thighs. The way she'd picked her up and set her on the sink seemingly effortlessly. The memory of Alex's tongue against her clit was enough to get her excited all over again.
Larry tossed himself onto the bed next to her. He gave her a smile before he kissed her goodnight and settled under the covers. Within moments he was asleep. Piper was wide awake. In the dark, their alarm clock read 9:32pm. She was twenty-five years old, engaged to a lawyer, and going to sleep at 9:32 on a friday night. It hit her. Life was boring. Larry was boring. This was boring. That was the whole reason she'd taken the job at the funeral home. Because she was bored with her stupid, boring little life. Piper wanted to cry. How had she become this? Only five years ago she was living life as if the sun wasn't going to rise in the morning. She was going out every night. She was sleeping with whoever she wanted, whenever she wanted. She was usually hitting her first bar of the night at this time, five years ago. Now she was looking at wedding dresses on Pinterest with her wine-loving future mother in-law.
She used to live off her parents money, drinking all night, and skipping her college classes. She used to wake up in strangers' beds. Men or women. Now she was with someone who would never be able to wrap his mind around her finding women attractive. She was living in a lavish apartment, not struggling for anything, most times getting anything she asked for. She had her life together. But she didn't want to have it together. She didn't want to be married. She didn't want to have Larry's kids. She didn't want to be in this bed right now. Her nausea was coming back and it was coming back strong. Piper threw herself out of bed, running to the bathroom.