Chapter 2

Alex sat in Bibble and Sip looking out of the glass front of the café watching the people and traffic drift past. Alex was a people watcher; she enjoyed absorbing the finest of details about people from how they dressed to their elaborate hand movements as they talked. It was a bitter cold November day and Alex was looking out for the mysterious Piper Chapman and her fiancée. Very few couples past the window but when a slim blonde in a well fitted grey coat and a curly haired man in a thick woollen jumper walked past and entered the café Alex's spidey senses were tingling.

Alex stood from her chair and gingerly approached the couple trying to listen for any signs these were her lunch date.

"Larry, just pick a drink it's not hard."

Alex recognised the voice, she had built an image in her mind of what the woman would look like simply based on that voice and she was more than happy to see she had under estimated Piper Chapmans looks. Joining the queue behind them she stood a bit closer than some may deem good manners to the blonde. It was noticed as she looked over her shoulder with a frown only for it to lessen almost instantaneously.

"Piper Chapman I presume."

Alex's low voice filled the air around them as a smile tugged on the corner of her lips.

"I am Alex Vause, I am sitting over there" She pointed to the table by the window where her coffee sat steaming next to her book and half eaten sandwich. "Get them to put your order on my tab then come join me."

Alex knew she needed to keep control of the situation to keep the upper hand in any argument that may occur but also to hide any trace that simply looking at Piper caused her heart rate to increase. She was gorgeous!

Sitting back down Alex returned her gaze to Piper, watching how she interacted with Larry, the gentle touches on his arm to steer him in the right direction, the sideways looks she gave him when he changed his drink order at the last minute and crucially the fleeting glances she kept giving her whenever she glanced over her shoulder. An ex-girlfriend had once described Alex as a Predatory Lesbian who's only thrill in life was to convert straight girls to get the most 'first time' notches on her bed post. There may have been an element of truth behind her ex Sylvia's bitter words but not enough to cause any hurt. After all Alex's first rule was to never fall in love with a straight girl.

"So this is a nice place Alex." Piper seemed pleasant and clearly the spokeswoman for the couple as Larry reminded tight lipped and still seething over her review. She had seen it all before, writers who had been indulged in nothing but praise by family and friends meaning that at the first trace of an honest opinion that contradicts their self-belief there is a meltdown.

"Yes I come here often. It's an easy enough walking distance from work but far enough that none of my work colleagues are here."

Alex smiled into her coffee as the lenses from her glasses briefly steamed up from the heat. There was something about this woman that made Alex curious, to the point that she has almost forgotten that Pipers fiancée was sitting next to her and the true reason they has agreed to meet. Placing her coffee down Alex locked eyes with Larry, amused to see his body tense under her gaze.

"So you wanted to talk, I believe from your Fiancée you disagree with my review."

Alex could only watch as Larry pulled out of his pocket a scrap of paper which was clearly the review that he had haphazardly ripped from the magazine. He slowly flattened out the creases as he spread it flat on the table. He then slowly started to read out a section of the review.

"This predictable and factually inaccurate story leaves the reader in no suspense as to what will happen the next time they turn a page. The book is full of tired cliques and worn out metaphors that leave the reader feeling cheated by the authors lack of original writing style and imagination."

Alex nodded her head along in agreement to the statement; she stood by what she wrote even as she sat in front of the story's author. She was not going to explain herself to Larry, so instead of using words she gestured for him to continue his piece.

"I thought you review was a scathing report that did not focus on anything positive."

"I only had three hundred words Mr Bloom, not many to get ones point across. Something you failed to do in seventy thousand."

"It was sixty-five thousand." Larry muttered under his breath to which Alex could only arch an eyebrow at.

"What Larry is trying to say is-"

But Piper was interrupted by Alex whose attention was still fixed on Larry.

"Did you even visit a woman's prison when writing this story or is it based completely on fiction because I have done time and its nothing like the fairy tale you portrayed."

Silence fell over the small table, Larry had his head bent, his eyes focused on the crumpled bit of paper. Piper however was looking directly at Alex, a weird smile dancing across her face. Maybe Alex had showed a bit too much emotion then, but the false image of life in prison and a women's prison at that had been her biggest bugbear with this book.

The silence was broken by the sound of Larry's ringtone as he hastily pulled his phone from his pocket. If there had been any colour left in his face then it had drained away completely after reading the name that had flashed up on his screen.

"Shit it is Marvin, I have to take this."

Alex did not need an explanation as she watched Larry exit the café. She knew that Marvin Plight was the bohemian editor at Plight Publishing; he was the only reason that Larry's book had been reviewed in the first place considering he was dating the daughter of the chief editor of the New York Times Book Review.

"You really don't pull your punches do you Alex."

The dark hair woman raised her eyebrow as she looked at Piper; the familiarity between the two of them already seemed so natural and Alex could not help but wonder if they had met before, but she knew she would remember that.

"I don't believe in kissing ass Piper, if a book is good, like this one." Alex pointed to the well-read book that lay on the table in front of her. "I will make every effort to rave and recommend it to everyone I meet, however your Fiancée's book does not fall into that category."

Alex looked up at the sound of approaching footsteps to see Larry returning to them, but it did not look like he was staying.

"Marvin wants to see me now. Are you coming?"

Piper paused, looking from Larry to a lingering gaze on Alex. There was a look in her blue eyes that Alex had seen before, the look of possibilities and my god she wanted to explore them. Alex knew what she had to do.

"Of course I will come with you sweetheart." Piper stood up and put on her coat leaving their half-drunk coffees still steaming on the table. "It was a pleasure to meet you Alex."

Larry didn't seem to share the feelings and was already striding out of the café, not looking back at Alex.

"Piper, please take this. You could do with a good book to read after having to put up with his trash." Alex handed over her beaten up book to the blonde with a smile that only grew bigger as Piper accepted it with thanks and headed out of the café.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

As Piper and Larry sat in the back seats of a taxi in silence Piper started to quickly thumb through the book that Alex had given her. And that was when she spotted it, tucked in a random page was a small business card for the New York Times with Alex's name and office number upon it. Curiously Piper turned the little card over and could not stop herself from smiling at the hurriedly scrawled mobile number on the back that was accompanied by an AV and a little heart.

A/N: Thank you for all your reviews, favourites and follows from just the first chapter! It means so much to hear your lovely reviews that it spurred me to get this chapter written and up as soon as possible!