Nearly a month passed since she'd seen Alex walking down the street in the rain. Piper never told Carter about Alex in general, so she certainly couldn't tell him that she'd seen her that night. She apologized profusely to him, and while things between them weren't great, they were fine. Piper had been to her therapist twice, and Dr. Burke had her convinced that she hadn't really seen Alex at all. "Sometimes we see what we want to see," he'd told her.
Nevertheless, in the back of her mind, Piper knew who she saw. She'd swear her life on it.
It took a couple of weeks to gather her closest friends for an early happy hour at the new wine bar two blocks from her apartment, but they all vowed to show up by 4 o'clock. Piper was in desperate need of time with her friends and several glasses of wine. She couldn't remember the last time she felt relaxed.
Vinoscope looked like it didn't belong in the neighborhood—there was a Laundromat on one side and an insurance company on the other. Two doors down was a bicycle repair place and across the street was an Indian spice shop. The wine bar's interior was modern and inviting. It was one long and slender room with blond-colored shelving along one wall and a row of mirrors on the other. What appeared to be hundreds of votive candles and small lamps behind the bar were the only sources of light.
"You made it," Piper's friend, Billie, announced with a big hug.
"I can't believe this place," Piper said as she skimmed the bar. "Who knew something this cool was in my neighborhood?"
"Gentrification at its finest." Yohana, Piper's co-worker at Balthazar, grew up in the area and always had a comment on hand about urban renewal.
Polly walked in and the women scored a table near the front of the bar as three guys in skinny jeans departed.
"Nature calls. Be right back." Piper made her way through the crowd to the back of the bar, and when she looked up, Alex Vause was three feet in front of her.
Piper blinked several times and stopped abruptly, while an apparently intoxicated woman slammed into her back. Her mind felt like a blender and the dull buzz between her ears was almost too much to handle.
She took a step forward and swallowed hard. "Alex?"
The dark haired woman looked up. "Piper?"
Piper noticed that a steady stream of wine missed the glass that Alex was pouring, but the ever-so-cool Alex wiped it up as if nothing happened.
"I…" Alex broke her stare and looked down, then back up at Piper. "Can you give me a minute?"
Piper's mouth became incredibly dry. "Do you work here?"
"Give me a minute." Alex raised her eyebrows.
She was stuck in her tracks; she nodded but didn't move. It wasn't until a woman asked if she was in line for the bathroom when Piper finally spun around. She hesitated to turn her back on Alex for fear that she'd disappear. She took a few steadying breaths and closed her eyes.
What was probably only seconds felt like hours as Piper waited for Alex to come to her. She felt a hand on her shoulder and heard a faint, "hey," before turning around again. Piper kept her eyes shut as she melted into the woman across from her. In that moment, she didn't need to see Alex. Her other senses kicked in and she could feel and smell her; there was no mistaking who she was holding.
Alex was the first to withdraw. "I wasn't expecting to run into you, like ever."
"Neither was I." Piper smiled feebly. "I saw you…I've seen you around New York…at least I thought it was you."
"Probably was." She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "I live in Queens, but I spend a lot of time on the Westside."
"You live here?" Piper raised her brow.
Alex nodded. "A little over a year now."
"But you never…"
"…Piper, I can't talk now," Alex interrupted and stood a bit taller. "And no, I don't work here. I work for a wine distributor, and Zack is one of our clients. I'm in the middle of a sales call." She reached in her pocket and pulled out a business card. "Ever thought you'd see me with something like this?"
Piper glanced at the maroon card with Alex's name printed on the front. "No."
"Call me." Alex squeezed her forearm and walked back to the end of the bar and apologized for her absence. She picked up a bottle of wine and poured a small amount into two glasses and gave one a good swirl before sniffing and drinking it.
Piper forgot all about her need to use the restroom, and after getting shoved several times, decided to make her way back to her friends in the front of the bar. She was thankful that Polly had stepped outside to answer a call when she got back to the table.
"Long line?" Yohana asked.
"I just saw someone I haven't seen in years." Piper sat on a stool, facing the back of the bar. She could occasionally see Alex when one of the patrons stepped out of the way.
"You look like you just saw a ghost," Billie commented. "You ok, Piper?"
"I'm…" She gulped the entire glass of water in front of her. "I'm fine. Please don't tell Polly about this."
Her two companions gave each other a look, but it was lost on Piper. Her sights were fixed for the foreseeable future.
It wasn't until their second glass of wine when Piper finally caught Alex looking her way. Her friends were discussing politics with gusto, and Piper tuned out for a moment. (Not that she was tuned in to any part of their conversation.) Her ex-lover smiled, but Piper wasn't sure if it was directed at her or the man with whom Alex was speaking. The next time it happened, she was convinced that Alex's grin was meant for her.
Alex, Piper thought, looked good. The last time they'd seen each other was in prison, wearing khaki uniforms and bulky black shoes. It had been many years since she'd seen Alex in street clothes. She had on a fitted black dress with an open collar and a slim, gold chain that tied the front together. She looked professional and downright sexy at the same time. Piper chastised herself for thinking that Alex looked sexy—she wasn't supposed to have those thoughts. Not after everything that had happened.
"Fuck, you're hot," Alex commented as she entered the bathroom and noticed her lover bathing in the claw foot tub.
Piper smiled. "You can't even see me—I'm covered in bubbles."
"Yes, but you're reading Nietzsche and listening to Duke Ellington." She kneeled next to the oversized bathtub.
"And drinking a glass of '82 La Tache," Piper added.
Alex brushed a wet piece of hair off Piper's neck and kissed her shoulder. "I thought we were saving that bottle for a special occasion?"
"Then let's make this a special occasion." Piper dropped the book on the ground and tugged Alex closer.
"Let's," she replied, undressing before joining Piper in the bubbles.
After an hour, Alex slipped out the back door without any fanfare, and Piper felt naked the moment she left. She couldn't follow her, and she couldn't discuss this with her friends—at least not with Polly, who would go absolutely ballistic if Piper brought up Alex's name.
When Piper first got out of prison, they'd spent many nights talking about Alex and what transpired in prison. Piper thought that Polly hated her ex-girlfriend more than she herself hated the walls of prison.
She was relieved when Polly and Yohana announced that they had to leave. Billie had dinner reservations with a woman she was seeing, and Piper half-wished that she could have stayed to talk. The other part of her wanted to be alone so that she could think about what she wanted to say to Alex. She didn't know if a phone call was warranted or if a simple text message would do.
When she returned to her apartment, she kicked off her shoes and began pacing. Piper poured another glass of wine, because the three glasses at the bar weren't enough to give her the courage to contact Alex. She turned Alex's business card over in her hand and was baffled by what she saw: Alex Vause, Sales Representative, Titan Wine & Spirits. Piper didn't think for one minute that Alex had what it took to hold a "normal" job. She wondered if it suited her well or if Alex was cringing inside.
She decided that texting Alex would be the most efficient, unemotional way to go, so she pulled out her phone and tried six or seven messages before settling on one: "Hi, it's Piper. Would love to catch up." She hit the send button, but then had second thoughts about typing "catch up." Is that what they'd do—catch up? She certainly couldn't write what she figured would happen, "Hey, let's get together and hash out some old shit and dredge up some serious emotions."
She decided to take a bath to try to relax, and just as she settled into the hot water, a text popped up on her phone. "Are you free tomorrow night?"
"Are you free tomorrow night?" Alex asked, folding Piper's resume in half.
"Are you asking me out?" Piper felt bold with three margaritas under her belt.
"Not yet." Alex smirked.
"Yes, I'm free." She bit her lower lip.
"Then let me take you out." Alex grinned and rubbed the back of Piper's hand with her thumb. "We'll drink the best margaritas in town, not this shitty, watered down, sorry excuse for a cocktail."
"I like a woman who appreciates good tequila." Piper smiled.
Alex huffed. "Maybe I'll take you to Mexico some day and show you what good tequila actually tastes like."
It was just like Alex, she thought, to skip the preamble. Piper needed to work at Balthazar on Saturday, but she refused to let this moment pass. It wouldn't be hard for her to get coverage at the restaurant.
"Yes. Where?"
Alex texted back immediately. "Not in public."
Piper felt her stomach sink. She knew this conversation would be difficult, but Alex was making it very clear that she thought the same. She hoped that they could meet in a café or a coffee shop precisely to avoid raised voices, but Alex had apparently nixed that idea.
If they were going to hash out old feelings and get to the bottom of what happened at Litchfield and beyond, Piper wanted to be on her turf. "My place, 234 Lafayette Street, Unit D. 7:30."
"Will bring booze," was Alex's response.
Piper sank deeper into the tub and didn't know whether to smile or frown. She was overjoyed to have seen Alex in the wine bar, but the inevitable conversation would be painful for both of them.
End Part 2