CHAPTER SIX
It was 8AM on Sunday and Alex Vause was already awake. In fact, she has had a restless weekend ever since the encounter with Piper and her dumb looking fiancé Barry... Garry... Larry... or whatever his ugly face was on Friday night. Alex had left the bar with the blonde named Sarah intending to have some fun with her but once she saw icy blue eyes boring into her head, she could not help but feel guilty. Sure, they haven't been together for over eight years and Piper was engaged, but Alex just couldn't bring herself to have meaningless sex with the blonde from the bar with a certain blonde on her mind. Actually, ever since she saw the only woman she has ever loved again, Alex has not wanted to have sex with anyone but her. Fuck. So much for the whole friends thing especially on Alex's part since all Alex wanted to do was to fuck her friend into oblivion. She knew she had to stop these feelings because Piper was going to get married. Married. With someone that was not her. With a sigh, Alex tried to mentally push her issue (Piper) out of her thoughts. But as luck would have it, her cell phone dinged with a text message from none other than Piper Chapman.
"Hey, Al. Do you want to get together this week? I'm free for the week since Larry is out of state." Piper could not wait to spend some time with Alex. Larry had unexpectedly had to fly to Chicago that morning for a week for a freelancing job.
Alex's emerald eyes scanned over the text over and over again. She knew that it would be a bad idea, but she couldn't help but say yes.
"Sure, Pipes. We can do whatever you want to do."
"You are going to regret saying that ;)
On Monday, Piper happily strode into Blue after taking some care of some things at PoPi to ask Alex if she wanted to grab dinner. The brunette happily followed the blonde as Piper was yapping about the rave reviews some restaurant called Green has received.
"Where are you taking me? Why is it called "Green?" Don't tell me all of their food is that color.
Piper snickered, "Don't be silly. It is because everything is organic and vegetarian."
"What? Since when are you a vegetarian and now, I do regret saying we can do whatever you want."
"I'm not vegetarian but I just wanted to eat something healthy and apparently delicious," Piper pouted. "We can go somewhere else if you want."
"No, I'm just pulling your leg, Pipes. We can eat at "Green." Alex said with a roll of her eyes.
The blonde broke into a wide grin and excitedly grabbed onto Alex's hand to drag Alex there before she really did change her mind.
Alex tried not to think about how her hand felt like it was on fire from Piper's touch and Piper tried to keep the butterflies in her stomach at bay with how good it felt to be holding Alex's hand. When they got to the restaurant, Piper reluctantly let go of Alex's hand and Alex tried not to dwell on the fact that her hand felt like it was meant to be in Piper's.
"This is delicious!" Alex moaned. Piper found herself having to clamp her legs due to the arousal she felt surge straight to her core at hearing Alex's moan.
"I'm very glad you approve. Maybe we can have some lunch or dinner dates here whenever you're at Blue doing things."
"Sure thing, kid"
Piper smile lit up her whole face. The two discussed books, movies, TV, and random things for over two hours. It was easy for them to fall back into their comfortable rapport with one another.
When the bill came, they both fought to pay for it.
"I asked you to come here and made you eat vegetarian food so I'm paying."
"No, I'm paying." Alex grabbed the bill from Piper.
Piper reached across the table and tried to yank the bill back. "Please, Alex, you used to pay for everything. Let me treat you to something."
"Fine, but next one is on me, kid."
The waitress chuckled at the two squabble over the bill. "You two are the most beautiful and hilarious couple I have ever seen.
The two beauties got quiet and thanked the waitress instead of correcting her.
"Which way is home for you, Pipes?"
"I'm just four blocks from here on 5th."
"I will walk you home. I'm only six blocks away from here."
"You don't have to, Al."
"I'm heading home anyway and you are on the way. Unless you would rather me walk ahead of you the whole time so you can stare at my ass?"
"God, you are such an ass!" Piper laughed before walking alongside the taller woman.
They both walked in silence but it was a comfortable silence.
"This is me." Piper pointed at an apartment building.
Alex wanted to grab the blonde and kiss her good night. Instead she settled for putting her hands into leather jacket's pockets and told Piper, "I had fun, Piper. I will see you around."
Piper headed up to her apartment trying not to dwell on the fact that all she wanted Alex to do was kiss her in front of her apartment building.
Shit.
Piper woke up with a smile on her face. She may have had a very nice dream involving a certain brunette. It wasn't cheating if it was in her dream. Piper knew she was playing with fire but she figured she wouldn't get burnt because she felt that her and Alex could be friends. Being just friends worked last night at dinner even though she felt butterflies and certain other things when she was with Alex but naive Piper figured it was just because of nerves because they were once lovers and Alex just has that effect on people. Piper checked her phone and saw that she got some text messages from Larry about Chicago and the job he was working on. Scrolling down, she saw that she got a text from Alex and tried to ignore the fact that her heart skipped a beat.
"Hey, Pipes. How about dinner on me tonight? It's only fair since you paid last night. Anything in particular that you want. How does 7pm sound?"
Piper quickly responded. "Of course, I would love to have dinner with you! Italian sounds wonderful if that's good with you. 7pm works for me. Text me the address you want me to meet you at later."
Piper happily got into the shower before heading to PoPi to take care of some business.
Alex was still in bed when she received the text from Piper that she was free for dinner. Italian sounded delicious to Alex especially since she ate healthy vegetarian food last night. Alex mentally went through a list of Italian places in her head and decided to call for reservations.
Piper finished up at PoPi and headed home to get ready for dinner. She didn't know how nice she should dress so she just settled on a nice pair of jeans, a nice sweater, and a pair of black knee high boots. She had put on some light makeup and left her hair down. She didn't get a chance to look up the address Alex had sent to her since she was so busy and was cutting it close with the time getting ready for dinner. Piper decided to catch a cab since it was already close to 7pm.
"Here you are," the cab driver said. Piper looked out in confusion because it was a residential area. It appeared to be luxurious condos. Piper looked back at Alex's text message. It had said "84 Main Street." Piper figured that Alex just wanted her to meet her at her place and go to the restaurant together. Piper looked up in awe at the beautiful homes. She found "84" and it was a beautiful three story condo that was white with dark blue window panes. Piper knocked on the door and when the door opened, she was shocked at the sight in front of her.
Standing at the doorway, was Alex with her beautiful hair cascading down in loose curls, with a black sweater and dark blue jeans that accentuated her curves, wearing a red apron.
"Uh, come in Pipes, it's freezing." Piper quickly blinked back to reality and was hit was a delicious aroma.
" Are we eating here? Your home?"
"Yes, I hope that's ok with you. I'm sorry I should've told you. The best Italian places were booked or closed so I figured I would just make us dinner-"
"Wait, you made us dinner? You cook? Since when?"
"Yeah, I learned how to cook a couple of years ago. I actually enjoy it. I got sick of eating out all the time. We can go eat somewhere if you want-"
"NO, Alex. I'm just surprised that you cook and took the time to make me dinner. I can't wait to see what you made."
"Don't be too excited, Pipes. It probably tastes like trash."
Piper laughed and couldn't help her eyes from scanning Alex's living space. It was elegantly decorated with dark colors and had a comfortable ambience to it. There was a huge bookcase covering a whole wall and Piper couldn't help but smile at their common interest in reading everything.
"Feel free to look around. I'm just about done with dinner." Alex said while walking towards her large, open kitchen.
Piper ran her fingers across the vast amount of books on Alex's shelves before stopping at the framed pictures that adorned her other shelves. The majority of the pictures were of Alex and her mom, which made Piper's heart constrict thinking about the day Diane passed away. There were a couple of pictures of Alex with a shorter, attractive woman that had an interesting mane of hair that seemed to work for her. Blue eyes narrowed at the pictures of Alex and the mystery woman studying them with intent. Piper couldn't help but feel jealous. Who is this woman? Girlfriend? Ex-girlfriend? There weren't any pictures of Piper which made her even more jealous and her heart to sink to her feet.
"Dinner is ready!"
Piper tried to swallow down the jealousy that was constricting her airway and walked to a nicely set up table with flowers in the middle of the table. On the table was garlic bread, caprese salad, and penne with pesto sauce , chicken, and sun-dried tomatoes. Piper was stunned.
"Oh my god, Alex. This is amazing. This is so good." Piper couldn't help the praises while taking bites out of the delicious food.
Alex had a shy smile on her face instead of her usual cocky smirk.
"Your girlfriend is lucky that you can cook like this."
"My girlfriend?" Alex asked with one perfectly sculpted eyebrow.
"Yeah, the girl in your pictures." Piper tried to say nonchalantly.
"Are you jealous?" Alex smirked.
"No, I'm not jealous, Piper lied. I'm engaged remember."
"Yes, how can I forget that you're engaged" Alex said trying to hide the hurt in her voice.
"And that's Nicky. She's not my girlfriend. She is my best friend."
Piper couldn't help but feel relief at hearing that the woman in the pictures wasn't her girlfriend. "I didn't mean to pry or upset you-"
"I'm not upset, Piper. Do you want dessert?"
"You made dessert too?'
Alex went to the oven and pulled out two ramekins of chocolate soufflé.
Piper was in heaven. Alex laughed at the moaning sounds Piper was making while eating. "Glad you like my cooking, kid."
"You're cooking from now on."
"Whatever you want, kid."
Piper couldn't help the smile that lit up her whole face at Alex's words. Alex loved that Piper enjoyed dinner and she couldn't help but regret not learning how to cook for Piper when they were together.
Piper was so full that she could barely move. She definitely could not walk home yet. "I think you have to roll me home at this point."
Alex laughed at Piper, "Let's sit on the couch and watch TV or a movie until you feel better and want to leave."
They settled on some "I Love Lucy" episodes. They were sitting close to each other on the large couch and Alex couldn't help but look at the blonde and smile whenever the younger woman cackled at the TV. God, she missed her laugh. An hour later, Alex was startled when she felt Piper's head on her shoulder. Looking down at the blonde, Alex realized that Piper had fallen asleep. Alex called Piper's name to wake her but she was met with silence. Alex started to get up so that the blonde could stretch out on the couch but the blonde put her arms around the brunette's waist in her sleep and held her in place. Instead of trying to leave again, Alex reached for the blanket on the love seat and draped it around their bodies. Alex continued watching TV until the soft breaths of the beautiful woman that stole her heart all those years ago lulled her into sleep.
Blue eyes fluttered open. Her face was on something warm and smooth and it smelled like something that she could never bottle to sell at PoPi even if she experimented for decades due to its uniquely wonderful scent. It smelled like Alex. Piper realized that her head was in the crook of Alex's neck and her leg was in between two jean clad legs that belonged to the brunette. Both of Piper's arms were around Alex's warm body.
Piper was embarrassed that she fell asleep at Alex's and on Alex, but she did not want to move at the moment. She did not want to move from Alex's warmth. It just felt so right so she settled her face into the crook of Alex's neck some more and listened to the breathing of the woman whose heart she broke all those years ago. Piper missed this feeling. She realized that it felt like home. Without thinking, Piper kissed Alex's neck. It made Alex stir in her sleep and her hand which was already close to Piper's center brushed against Piper making the blonde gasp at the pleasure. The noise from the blonde startled the brunette awake. Emerald eyes met blue eyes and the blonde shifted away from Alex apologizing for falling asleep and making her sit in an uncomfortable position all night. The brunette laughed and apologized for being a bad hostess since her guest fell asleep. Piper assured her that she was the best hostess and that she fell asleep from all the delicious food she consumed.
Piper reluctantly stood up and told the brunette that she should probably leave.
Alex walked Piper to the door and they were met with rain when Alex opened the door. Piper went to take a step into the rain, but the brunette grabbed her arm and pulled her back inside the house, closing the door.
"Let me drive you, kid. But first let me freshen up. Follow me, I will get you some stuff so you can freshen up too."
Piper followed Alex into Alex's spacious room. Like Blue, there were beautiful hues of blue and white with a large walk in closet and a large, comfortable looking King sized bed. A smaller bookcase was also in Alex's room along with a lounge chair near the window that had a beautiful view of the city. Alex's bathroom was large as well, with a spacious shower and a jacuzzi tub. Piper tried not to think about Alex taking showers or jacuzzi baths with another person. Alex handed Piper a toothbrush, toothpaste, towel, and some facial products. She told the blonde she was welcome to use the guest bathroom to get ready. When they were both ready to leave, Alex handed Piper a black leather jacket. "Take it kid, it's raining outside and you only have that thin sweater."
Piper put it on, trying not to close her eyes at the scent of Alex enveloping her.
They headed to Alex's car which was a black Audi sports car. "Still got nice rides, I see." Piper quipped. The brunette chuckled in response as she started the engine to drive the blonde home.