Chapter 4
The next night, Piper went on a date with Larry, but she was in a sour mood the entirety of their dinner.
"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?" Larry asked around his burger. "You're not eating your fries, and that's usually your favorite thing at Juicy's."
She popped a French fry into her mouth for show and chewed it slowly while trying to come up with the right thing to say. "Do you know any gay people?"
"What?" He chuckled. "Where'd that come from?"
She shrugged. "I'm just asking."
Larry looked deep in thought. "No, I don't think so. Do you?"
"Maybe." Piper tried leaving it at that and took a bite of her veggie burger.
"What do you mean, 'maybe'?"
She finished chewing. "There's someone I know…she might be gay."
For a split second, Piper wondered if she was referring exclusivelyto Alex.
"Do I know her?" He sipped his Coca-Cola.
"No." The blonde cursed herself for bringing it up. "How's your burger?"
"Delicious," he said with his mouth full. "Yours?"
"It's fine." She took another bite, and then swallowed. "I want to go home after this."
"What about the movie? You're the one who chose it," he whined.
"As you can tell, I'm not in the best mood, Larry." She wiped her mouth. "Maybe I'm coming down with something."
"I hope not, because then I'll be sick." Larry sounded dejected. "I better be able to get a refund on these tickets."
"I'll pay for mine." Piper dug in her purse and handed him a $10 bill, and he took it. That did not endear him to her.
On the drive back to her house, Piper kept to herself. Larry tried holding her hand, but she pretended to scratch her head. She was running out of things to do to occupy her hands so she wouldn't have to hold his as the drive seemed to take longer than usual.
He wiggled his eyebrows. "Do I get a kiss good night?"
She opened the car door. "If I'm getting sick, I wouldn't want to infect you. Good night. Thank you for the burger."
With that, Piper went inside and pretended not to search for Alex. She plopped on the sofa and said hello to Diane.
"Where is everyone?" The blonde twirled her hair, acting indifferent.
"Your father's finishing up some work in the study, and Cal is at your mom's place tonight." She muted a Law & Order rerun.
"What about Alex?" she asked as casually as she could.
Diane turned to face the young girl. "She's at work."
"Work?" Piper creased her brow. "Alex got a job?"
"She sure did," she said proudly. "She's worked since she was old enough to be legally hired. Alex likes earning her own money. I wish she'd save some of it, but if you ask me, she blows it all on cigarettes and music." Diane whispered that last part as if that was a secret the two of them could share.
"I didn't know that." Piper leaned forward, her casual stance now forgotten. "Where's she working?"
She took a sip of hot tea. "At that restaurant your dad took us to—Salvatore's."
"She was hired as a waitress?" Piper recognized the shock in her voice.
"Are you kidding me?" Diane laughed. "My kid could not serve the public! She's a valet. Alex got her Connecticut driver's license last week—she had to miss a day of school to deal with the hassle of switching out her New York one—and they hired her the very next day." She took another sip of tea. "If you ask me, she's not the best behind the wheel, so I hope they know what they're getting themselves into."
So that was why she wasn't at school last week.
Piper smiled. "Yeah, she parked next to me the other day at school, and her wheels were over the white line."
Diane gave her an I told you so look. "She can parallel park the hell out of my wide-ass Buick, but ask her to pull into in a regular parking spot and it's like she's retarded."
That caused the blonde to let out a full-blown laugh.
"I shouldn't say that word," Diane quickly recovered. "Mentally challenged is probably more politically correct." The older Vase stood. "I'm going to make some popcorn. Will you have some so I don't eat the whole damn bag on my own?"
"Sure." She followed Alex's mom into the kitchen.
Piper couldn't help but like Diane. Alex was fortunate to have such a fun, caring mother. She wished she could say the same about her own mom. Truth be told, she didn't like her mom and thought that the feeling was mutual. Carol hadn't called or texted her in two weeks. It was no skin off Piper's back—she had everything she needed at her father's house.
Alex didn't apply for the valet parking job solely to earn money. That was the primary reason, of course, but she figured once she established herself with the other valets at Salvatore's, they could cover for each other while one of them borrowed a car for the evening. She'd have her pick of Porsches, Mercedes, and Jaguars. That would surely impress her friends back in the Bronx.
It only took until the end of March for Alex to convince the entire valet staff that hers was a good idea. One of the guys, Brandon, knew how to dial back the odometer, so they could write down the mileage when the guest entered the restaurant and adjust it back to where it was supposed to be at the end of their joy ride. The brunette spent the better part of three weeks, timing the average dinner so that they could take the right car at the right time. She discovered that on weeknights, most dinners lasted about an hour and a half, unless it was a large group, but on weekends, they were closer to two hours.
The valet guys were too chicken shit to be the first to attempt the heist, so Alex coolly accepted the challenge. She'd chosen a frequent diner's Lexus, because she knew he'd spend an hour at the bar, and then have dinner with his wife for another hour.
She was too nervous to drive the car to meet Nicky and the gang in New York, but Alex saw nothing wrong with being a few miles away from Salvatore's on her first outing. One of the valets was supposed to text her as soon as he saw Mr. Henderson near the hostess stand after dinner. The brunette trained the valets how to make small talk that sounded somewhat intelligent, which would allow at least a five minute grace period in which to return the vehicle.
On that first evening out, Alex took the Lexus to a convenience store in Glenville, which was two and a half miles away from Salvatore's. She changed out of her Salvatore's monogramed polo and threw on a black Iron Maiden t-shirt before getting out of the car to buy a pack of cigarettes with her valet tips.
The brunette browsed the junk food aisle as a chocolate craving hit hard. As she was deciding between a Snickers and an Almond Joy, she heard turmoil from the entryway of the convenience store.
"Hey, you! Stop there immediately!" The Pakistani clerk darted from behind the counter and apprehended someone.
Alex stepped into the open space and locked eyes with the perpetrator, who was holding a six pack of Heineken.
"No fucking way," she mumbled with a smirk as she approached the scene. "Hey, I hadn't paid for this yet." She grabbed the beer from a very scared and shocked Piper, and then faced the sales clerk. "I'm sorry about this. I told her to pick up the beer while I got a couple of candy bars, and she didn't realize that I hadn't paid yet." Alex held out the two chocolate snacks in her hand as proof. "It won't happen again."
Piper swallowed hard, eyes darting between Alex and the clerk.
"Do you have ID?" The irritated clerk asked.
"Of course, I do." She gave Piper a look, and then proceeded to the counter. Alex pulled out her fake ID and the $16 she'd made in tips already that night. "I'm really sorry about this."
He crossed his brows. "That'll be $14.89."
She handed him the rumpled bills. "Keep the change."
Alex took the beer and candy outside to find Piper pacing in front of the ice machine. "Don't look at me, and don't say a word. Act like this didn't happen."
The blonde glanced at her. "Alex, I…"
"What did I just fucking say?" The brunette gritted her teeth.
Piper kept walking, a mere half-step behind presumably so that Alex could lead the way.
She pressed the fob to unlock the doors of the Lexus, and then walked to the driver's side. "Get in."
Piper opened the door. "Whose car is this?"
"So help me God!" She got in and started the engine. "If you say another word before we leave this parking lot, I'm going to have to find a way to shut you up."
She could see a tiny grin register on her companion's mouth and was tempted to kiss it right off her pretty little face.
Alex drove two blocks and parked in the back of a Target near a dumpster, and turned off the engine. "What the fuck were you thinking?"
"I wasn't thinking; not the way I usually do." She lowered her head, and then met Alex's eyes. "Larry and his buddies dared me to steal a six pack, and they told me about Ralph's Convenience Store where a bunch of their friends steal beer all the time, and…"
"You did this for Larry?" Her eyebrows shot up. "He's too scared to steal, so he sends his girlfriend to do the dirty work?"
"You're the one who told me I always do what's expected of me!" she complained.
"Piper, there are many ways to live on the edge," Alex sighed. "Stealing isn't one of them."
The blonde looked out of the passenger window and then back at Alex. "Then whose car is this?"
"That isn't the point…"
"The hell it isn't!" Piper began. "You can't tell me not to steal when you've clearly taken this vehicle from someone!"
She closed her eyes. "I'm borrowing it."
It didn't take long for the blonde to piece it together. "From Salvatore's?"
She pushed her glasses higher on her nose. "It's not a big deal, and we're not talking about me right now. We're talking about you."
"Alex, that's stealing. People put their trust in you as a valet, and you're abusing that trust," she replied with a knitted brow.
"There's no question I'd get fired over something like this, but the likelihood of going to jail, which you could have done if I hadn't rescued your ass, is slim." The brunette shrugged. "If you want booze, Piper, ask me."
"Seriously?"
"I won't buy it for your friends, but I'll get it for you…occasionally." She tried holding back the grin that began forming on her face.
"I haven't drank beer before," she confessed. "I mean, I've pretended to sip it, but I haven't had a full one."
Alex reached into the back seat and accidentally brushed Piper's shoulder with her hand. She ceased her movement and looked at the blonde. Their eyes met, and Piper leaned in. They were so close that Alex could feel her companion's cinnamon breath tickle her chin. There was an electric current between them for that fleeting moment, but Piper pulled away, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Alex lowered half of her body over the armrest to pull two Heineken's out of the bag.
She handed one to Piper and quickly recovered. "The first thing you need to know about beer is not to buy the expensive stuff on a teenager's budget."
She examined the label. "This is what my dad drinks, so I figured it would be good."
"Exactly." Alex used her ring to pop open the bottle. "Your dad has money. If you're paying for it, get Milwaukee's Best or Natural Light. It's cheap and goes down easy." The dark haired girl opened Piper's longneck and handed it back to her. "To your first real beer, juvy."
Piper tapped her bottle against Alex's and smiled. "I'm not a juvenile delinquent."
The brunette put her finger and thumb together as a sort of measurement. "You were this close though."
The two sat in silence for a minute, both staring out the windshield, sipping their Heinekens.
Piper swallowed and grimaced at the taste. "Can I ask you a question?"
The brunette lifted her eyebrow, keeping her eyes trained on a tall evergreen tree in the distance. "You can ask, but I can't promise to answer."
"Have you ever thought of me the way you think of other girls?" Piper's voice sounded shy—not a word Alex would use to describe the blonde under normal circumstances.
"I don't think of other girls," Alex replied around a chuckle. "I think of women."
"But you're a girl," the blonde tried, sipping her Heineken.
"I'm a young adult." Alex drained her beer and smirked. "And I've never been attracted to girls younger than me. Every person I've been with has been at least a few years older—most by, like, five or ten years."
Piper seemed to chew on that information before speaking again. "Nice try changing the focus of my question, but that won't work on me."
Alex closed her eyes and leaned her head against the headrest.
"Have you ever thought of me the way you think of other girls…or women," she repeated, her tone much more self-assured this time.
The brunette grinned, eyes still shut. "I wouldn't touch that question with a ten foot pole."
"Your lack of response makes me think you'd answer affirmatively."
"Then let me ask you a question." Head still against the back of the seat, Alex swiveled her neck to look at her companion. "Why does it matter?"
Piper averted her eyes and toyed with one of the bottle caps. "I've never thought of myself as attractive. I mean, I know Larry likes me, but he's…"
"Simple?" Alex tried.
"No, he's not the kind of guy that most girls go for. He's pretty smart and he's a good writer. I think he's cute, but I don't know…" She shrugged.
"He's an easy catch for you," Alex finished for her.
She shrugged again.
"If you're asking me if I think you're attractive, that's an entirely different question."
The blonde's chin almost touched her chest, but her eyes looked up at her like a puppy waiting for a treat. "Do you?"
Alex couldn't stop herself from reaching out and touching Piper's cheek. "Yes," she whispered. "I think you're attractive." She felt her voice hitch and didn't like it one bit, but instead of covering up, she allowed her companion to be the first to react.
Piper closed her eyes and leaned into Alex's hand, covering her wrist with her long fingers.
The brunette's phone vibrated loudly, and she was forced to pull back and pick up the device. "Fuck, I have to go."
The blonde adjusted in her seat and ran her palms against her jeans. "I should probably head back to the party."
"I'll drop you off at the convenience store to get your car." Alex started the engine. "But maybe you should just go home. Let Larry and his friends wonder if you successfully stole the beer."
"Ok," she said quietly. "Thanks for this, Alex."
"For what?" the brunette let out a short laugh.
"Just listening…oh, and for saving my ass." If she had to guess, Alex would assume that the blonde was blushing, but it was too dark to tell.
They arrived at the gas station and Alex put the car in park. "See you at home, juvy."
Piper smiled. "Yeah, see you."
The brunette made sure that Piper got into her car and drove away before she pressed the gas full throttle to make it back in time for Brandon to reset the odometer and give the Lexus back to its rightful owner. She only had time to think practically at that point, so her thoughts about what occurred between her and Piper would have to be put on hold for the time being.