CHAPTER THREE
It has been two weeks since she saw her drug smuggling ex-girlfriend. Piper hasn't been able to get adequate rest since the night she ran into Alex. Seeing Alex brought back so many memories and emotions. She was still a cocky asshole and still the most beautiful thing she has ever laid eyes on.
"Snap out of it. Piper!" she told herself.
She looked over at Larry who was snoring and decided to get out of bed and start her day. Today was the grand opening of PoPi. Piper was so excited since Polly and her have worked so hard and she was praying that today would be a success. Piper walked the couple of blocks to her store and started getting everything set up.
The grand opening was a major success. There were plenty of customers and they made a great deal of money their opening day. The best friends closed the store with Polly heading home for a romantic dinner celebration with Pete. Piper decided to go next door to Blue to grab a celebratory drink. She prayed that she wouldn't run into a certain brunette since she didn't want her successful day to end on a sour note. Piper hopped onto a barstool and ordered her margarita.
She was sipping on the delicious concoction when she heard, "Hey, sexy thing. Why are you sitting all alone? How about I keep you company?"
Piper turned to face a slime ball looking man in a business suit. Rolling her eyes at him, Piper pointed at her ring finger certain that it would cease any attempts from the man.
However, she was wrong because the sketchy man said conceitedly, "Playing hard to get. How about I buy you a drink and you can thank me back at my place."
"Ew, no thanks."
"Come on, you know you want this," as he motioned to his genitals. The man put his hand on Piper's thigh and she tried to push his hand off while sternly saying, "Do not touch me."
"I will make it worth your while."
"Leave me alone!" Piper shouted.
"I will if you blow me." He went to grab Piper's thigh again but was stopped when a strong arm grabbed his arm.
"Get the fuck off me!" the man shouted.
Piper sighed in relief that someone had intervened because she was becoming really frightened.
"She told you to leave her the fuck alone. Now get out of here."
Piper froze at the voice of her savior. It was Alex. She told herself that her heart was just racing because of the asshole and not because Alex had jumped to her defense.
"Who the fuck are you to tell me what to do? This bitch wants it bad. Look at the slut."
The man's choice words infuriated Alex causing the brunette to snap. She could not stop herself from grabbing the asshole by the neck. "I'm the fucking owner of this place so shut the fuck up and if I ever see your face in here again I will make sure you leave in a stretcher." Alex motioned to her male employees to get rid of the jerk.
Piper was in shock. She was certain that Alex hated her and would be the last person to jump to her defense. Yet, Alex was the first person in the busy bar to come to her aid. Piper couldn't help the fluttering in her heart when she saw the anger flash across those emerald eyes before threatening the creep. Alex was still protective of her.
With a million thoughts swarming through her head, all Piper managed to choke out was, "Wait. This is yours? This bar?"
Alex nodded.
Piper shakily said, "My store is right next door to yours. PoPi, have you heard of it? Polly and I make artisanal bath products."
"Ugh, Holly. Does this mean I will have to see her around here?"
Piper chuckled, " Unfortunately for you, yes, and you will be seeing me around a lot too."
"Alex, I love this place. It's beautiful (like you she wanted to add). Why did you name it Blue?"
Alex couldn't help the smile that formed on her lips at the blonde's approval of her business. "It's my favorite color."
"Since when? Everything you owned was basically black besides the blue tips that used to be in your hair. It was always black," Piper chuckled.
"Well, people change."
"Eh, I don't think so. I think that a person's preferences may change, but at his or her core, he or she is the same person that he or she has always been."
"Oh, so it is kind of like you liking dick now and you're saying you're still a Park Slope narcissist?"
Piper narrowed her eyes at her. "Very funny. And I'm sure you're still the manipulative, power hungry person that you've always been."
Alex hid the hurt she felt at how those blue eyes see her. "As much as I love debating with you, I have somewhere to be."
"Is she still smuggling drugs?! Is the bar just a place for her to run her drug deals?!" Piper thought. She knew it was wrong but she decided to follow Alex anyway. She kept a distance from her ex-lover and followed into the business Alex just went into. Piper didn't even pay attention to the name of the place since she was trying to be stealthy. There were rows of seats in the room and Piper sat in a seat in the very back and far from Alex. When a young man went up to the podium and started sharing his story, Piper realized it was a narcotics anonymous meeting.
Alex is an addict? Oh my god! Piper's mind was going a mile a minute and it stopped when she heard the voice that has forever been ingrained in her head and heart.
Piper slumped down in the chair more to make sure she was hidden. Her heart was racing, afraid of what Alex may say. She did not want to envision her strong Alex succumbing to drugs.
"My name is Alex and I have been sober for seven years. I started using heroin because I just wanted the pain to stop. My mom had just died unexpectedly and my girlfriend left me. I lost the two people that mattered most in my life on the same day and I just wanted the pain to stop and wanted to stop the thoughts in my head. I had been using for almost 6 months when I had overdosed, went into respiratory arrest, intubated, and was in a coma on a mechanical ventilator for a week."
Piper could not stop the gasp that came from her mouth or the tears that were spilling down her face. She never thought Alex would ever use the product that she distributed. Piper knew that she was terrible for leaving the day Diane died, but she did not think that her own abandonment would affect Alex so much. More tears streamed from her sad, blue eyes when she realized she was that close to living in a world without Alex Vause.
"When I woke up, I was disappointed because I was at a point where I thought death would be better than just existing. But then I thought of my mom and how hard she had worked all of her life to give me a future and I was carelessly throwing it away. So from then on, I have never wanted to use again. It's not like the heroin made me feel better. It just helped me feel nothing, but living means you feel a spectrum of emotions and I have learned that I have to find healthy ways of dealing with them instead of turning to a drug to help me feel void. Thank you for listening."
As Alex was leaving the podium, a cell phone started ringing.
Shit! Shit! Piper was digging for her phone to turn it off. She finally found it, but Alex's eyes met her wide ones. Fuck, she got caught.
Piper followed behind Alex's angry steps to a secluded area of the business.
"Seriously Piper, you followed me here?!"
"I'm sorry, I just wanted to see where you were going and I wasn't paying attention and then I sat down and when I realized what this place was, you started talking and-"
Alex cut Piper's rambling off, "It's fine. Just don't do it again."
"Really? You're not going to scream at me?"
"Do you really see me as a monster?"
"No, no not at all, Alex. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for following you. I'm sorry for leaving you when your mom died. I'm sorry that you had to turn to heroin. It's all my fault," Piper cried.
"Piper, it is not your fault I turned to heroin. That was my own stupid choice. But yeah I'm not going to lie, when you left, you broke my fucking heart." Alex could barely keep the tears from forming in her eyes or her voice from cracking when she let the blonde know that she broke her heart all those years ago.
Piper thought that her own heart was being crushed from hearing the pain coming from Alex's voice. She looked up into those beautiful green eyes, "I'm sorry. Can we just try to be friends again?"
"We were never friends. Piper."
"We weren't?" Piper admonished.
" No. Not for a second. I loved you. Piper couldn't help the sadness she felt at hearing Alex use the past tense. "I loved having sex with you, Alex shared." However, Alex was cut off by the ringing coming from Piper's cell phone.
"Better get that, your fiancé is probably worried. I guess I will see you around." Alex said while walking away.
Before Piper could tell Alex to wait for her and that she wanted to fully hash things out with her, her phone started ringing again.
"Gah, fucking Larry!" Piper mumbled to herself.
Reviews are greatly appreciated :)