16
Alex hopped on one foot, as she finished zipping up her boot, toward the ringing house line, "hello?"
"Hi, is this James' mom?," said a small proper voice "Yes?," the brunette answered confusedly.
"I was just calling to RSVP to James' party," the voice continued, "did I make the VIP list?," Nicky's tone questioned sarcastically.
"Why the hell are you calling the house line? No one ever uses this number, I almost broke my neck." All that came from the other end was wild cackling.
"You didn't need to actually RSVP and besides I'd kick your ass if you ever dared to have anything more important to do on his day," Alex ranted.
"Just calling the number that was listed on my invitation, thank you very much, and why the hell did I get an invite with all this confetti shit pouring out over my damn floor if I didn't need to RSVP?"
"Piper insisted on sending them out for keepsakes and thought it would be easier to keep track of people and that we shouldn't just assume people could make it."
"I can't believe your squirt is going to be one already." "You're telling me."
"You guys need me to bring anything?"
"Nah, just yourself we should have it covered. I might need you to pick up some stuff the day of."
Alex glances around their table at their family and friends who are singing Happy Birthday to their baby. She snaps a photo of Piper and James until Polly takes it from her and tells her to get near her family. Jamie stands on a chair supported by Piper's arm that's around his torso, preventing him from touching the flame that he keeps pointing to. He reaches for the cake, Piper leans in with him and blows out his candle, while Alex takes the "1" candle out of the cake. Jamie's eyes track the candle and watches Alex rub the frosting off with her index finger and wipe it onto his nose. He smiles at the contact, he doesn't notice the frosting on the tip of his nose, he turns back to his cake and grabs the edge with both hands and takes away two fistfuls of crumbly birthday cake.
Later into the night, the party is over, most of the apartment is cleaned up and Piper sits on the couch with her eyes closed, a one year old Jamie lies fast sleep on her chest. Alex kneels onto the arm of the couch and watches her family for a moment before rubbing Piper's shoulder, "he's still sticky," the blonde sleepily whispers, despite their numerous attempts to keep him clean throughout the day. "We'll hose him down tomorrow," Alex responds taking James from her embrace; she brings him to his room and sets him down to sleep in his crib. She returns with a flat black velvet box. Piper looks at her with shifty eyes as Alex holds it out to her.
"What's this?"
"I didn't want you to get all jealous when the apartment was filled with presents and none of them were for you," she says poking Piper in her side with an open mouthed smile.
"Haha," she says before she opens the box to reveal dangly pearl earrings and a matching necklace.
"Al...,"
"Too traditional?"
"No," is all the blonde can muster still taken aback by Alex's never ending successful gestures to keep her wooed.
"I figured you could wear it on our night out," she says with a genuine soft smile.
Piper traces a finger over her new necklace and tries to fight her smile, "where are we going?"
"The River Café...," Piper's eyes bug out of her head as her mouth drops ready to suggest something more modest; Alex raises her hands to halt the blonde's attempt at a rebuttal, "I figured if it's not too freezing we could walk across the Brooklyn Bridge like we used to."
"Al it's too expensive," she said nibbling at the skin on her thumb. "We can go somewhere else like La Lanterna de Vittorio. It's romantic and a lot more reasonable."
"It's already done," she says as she pinches Piper's lips together with both of her hands, "not another word. We deserve this okay?"
Piper nodded, closed the box and pulled Alex on top of her lap, kissing her deeply. "Do we have a reservation for a specific date? I could ask Polly if she could watch him."
"Already," she kisses the blonde, "done."
"She's gonna watch him?"
"Mmm, hmm," she continues planting kisses along Piper's jawline, lingering close to her neck allowing the hot air from behind her lips to tease the nerves along the blondes skin, "all-night- long." Piper hums out a naughty laugh. "I cannot wait to have an entire night of just us, I need to make this good." Piper runs her hands underneath her shirt and rubs her back, "good how? Tell me what you want to do to me."
"Oh I've had my eye on something, but have been waiting for the right time. Now we'll have time. An entire night," she kisses her, "of uninterrupted," she kisses her again, "time," she grunts.
"Well then I get to go shopping for something too," Piper tells her while both her hands are tangled in the dark raven hair; she pulls her close so that Alex's forehead is pressed against hers.
"Get whatever you want," the brunette tells her as she grinds her hips lower into the thighs she's seated upon and sucks on the pulse point along Piper's neck. Alex's phone buzzes across the end table, she turns her head away from Piper's neck and sees a photo on her phone. She leans away and checks her phone.
"Um, turn off!," Piper says frustrated as Alex broke away from the spot on her neck that made her toes curl in favor of her cell.
"Well, fuck," the brunette says with a humbled expression as she places the phone back on the table beside them, "sorry."
"What's up?"
Alex bit down on her bottom lip and sighed adjusting her glasses, "I may have hurt Nicky's feelings earlier."
"What'd you do?"
"I was just discussing, well confirming really, our plans with Polly to make sure we were all set and Nicky asked me why she hadn't been asked to look after him," Alex states curling her lips off to the side in a slight frown.
"Aww, I wouldn't mind her watching him, she always seems more comfortable hanging out with him while we're in the room though and Polly just has more experience, especially overnight? What did you tell her?"
"Pretty much that, but I may not have been as nice about it. I kind of made fun of her and said she would call an ambulance if he sneezed or coughed," Alex winced at the irony of how Piper and she had overreacted to similar symptoms in the past.
Piper slapped Alex's thigh, "like were such hot shots!"
"I know, I'm a jerk alright! She asked me how she was supposed to have more experience if we never call her to watch him for us."
"Al, she was being completely heartfelt! And its true," she said biting her lip, "maybe we could let her take him for an afternoon or something. I mean I kind of feel bad calling my parents or leaving him with Polly all the time, especially if she wants to stay with him- she wouldn't let anything happen to him."
"I told her to take a CPR course and we'd talk," Alex admitted and shielded her head with her arms ready for Piper's attack.
"Alex! You really can be so heartless! She's one of our best friends! It must have really bothered her to have even said anything in the first place."
Alex reached over for her phone, punched in her code on her keypad and showed her the infant/child CPR confirmation photo from Nicky.
"Oh God, I hope you're happy." "Well I feel like an asshole now."
"Serves you right for saying that to her. Polly's not even CPR certified, at least I don't think she is."
"Yeah but she has life experience of whacking her kids back to dislodge swallowed pennies and junk. You'd really have been okay with leaving him with Nicky without any experience or anything?"
Piper hung her head slightly sneaking a glare at Alex ashamed, "I guess not, I'd actually feel a lot better with the certification."
"So I just took the asshole title for both of us, it's cool." Her shoulders shook as she chuckled looking at her phone again, "I can't believe her though."
"She's pretty amazing," Piper said as she shook her head in disbelief. "She really loves him babe, and probably already felt nervous and slightly incompetent, so saying she needed to take a course first was kind of like twisting the knife she already stabbed herself with."
"I know, I'm the shittiest friend ever, thanks!," Alex said standing up as she tucked her hair behind her ear. "I need to make it up to her," she said as she locked eyes with Piper's velvet box and beckoned for it, "gimme that back."
"No way, you just gave this to me, Indian giver! Figure out another way to make it up to her without involving my pearls."
"You want to see if she wants to watch him that night?"
"You could ask her, especially if she'll have this under her belt? She can have him all weekend!" Alex shot a hungry glance at her wife, "don't tease me Chapman."
"Dead serious Vause."
Alex sent Nicky a text apologizing and Nicky turned her down in revenge, hoping her decline would withhold Alex from receiving sex of any kind for a longer duration of time.
"Thank you so much Pol, we'll call you in the morning before we head over. Or just call us if anything comes up and you need us earlier for anything."
"Goodbye Piper," Polly says with Jamie sitting on her hip, "we'll be fine, I have watched a baby once or twice before."
"Thanks Polly, Finn show him the ropes okay?," Alex said with a thumbs up to Finn. He nodded with a thumbs up and punched her fist, they opened and wiggled their fingers. Piper and Polly exchanged glances and rolled their eyes, "anyway, have fun you guys, no worrying about us."
Alex unlocked the passenger door and shut the door behind Piper, she unlocked the trunk, took out a small gift bag and got in on the drivers side. She dangled the bag from her index finger toward Piper, "para mi amor."
"Now what did you get me?," Piper asked taking the bag and hitting the light above their heads, "black panties, thanks, but unlike you, I'm already wearing some."
"Just swap em."
"In the car? I look relatively classy tonight, could I try to uphold the vibe?" Alex snickered at this, "put-them-on."
"You're so bossy," she said as she lifted up from the seat and snaked her already fancy panties that she'd picked out for tonight, down her legs and slipped the new ones on, "bossy Vausey."
"Thank you," she said pecking her on the mouth while pulling the blondes bottom lip out just slightly.
Midway through the city on their way downtown, Alex rummaged through her bag with one hand, careful to keep her eye on the road. She pulled out a slim pink and black object and handed it to Piper, "slip it in."
"Slip it in where?!," she shockingly asked while dipping her head towards Alex.
"In the panties, there's a pocket," she said shooting her a wicked smirk and threw her a wink.
"Are you serious?," she said raising her dress slightly, she felt around, located the pocket and slipped in the vibrator, "because talking in the car on the way to dinner would've been too ordinary?"
Alex raised the cuff of her sleeve to her mouth and said "yes."
Piper's legs tensed straight in front of her as the vibrator started to pulse. "Okay, what the hell, you control it?"
Alex turned her head slightly and raised her thin eyebrow. She turned her gaze to the road and brought her wrist up to her mouth again and said, "yes," and started laughing causing Piper to readjust her hips at the constant pulsing. "I have a remote but it's also sound controlled."
Alex flipped through some radio stations and found one that played a song with a strong base, cackling wickedly as Piper gripped the door handle while using her other hand to blindly try to find the dial to lower the volume.
Alex relented by turning the music off and turned the toggle to off on the remote in her pocket. She started to circle looking for parking on the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Piper readjusted herself in the seat, fanning her face, trying to cool herself down from her build up without release, "why are you parking here?"
"So we can walk across the bridge. I know its a little cold but it's doable," Alex continued down the street slowly looking back and forth for an open spot.
"Fuck the bridge, can we just drive to the restaurant so we can get home faster?," Piper asked with a slight whine, while she ran her hand behind Alex's neck and raked her hands through her hair.
"That's my girl," she responded amused and drove across the bridge towards the restaurant.
They arrived, had their coats checked and were escorted to a table by the window overlooking the downtown Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty.
"This is gorgeous baby, thanks for arranging everything," she said reaching over to grasp Alex's hand.
"Pardon me ladies, would you like to start with something to drink?"
"We'll start with...two glasses of Krug?," she looks over at Piper for approval.
Piper gives a reluctant nod now being well versed in various wines and champagnes. She cringes at the thought of the effect this will have on their wallet.
"We only live once kid," she says squeezing Piper's hand knowing that face all too well.
"Yeah mortgage, schmortgage."
The waiter returned with their champagne and took down their order. Alex raised her hand to let Piper order first. The blonde read out her appetizer and continued, "i'll have the L-ahhhhh-bster," she tried holding herself together as the vibrations sent a shock to her core.
Alex held herself together for her order, the waiter left and she felt Piper pinch her under the table. Alex set her bent elbows on the table and let her chin rest on her wrists, "wanna take a walk outside?," she asked Piper while discreetly speaking into her sleeve. Piper moved Alex's hands away from her face.
"Alex! This is a nice place, stop it."
The brunette reached into her pocket and turned on the lowest setting while standing up and pulling Piper's chair out to go walk outside. She was amused as she watched Piper try to walk normally toward the glass doors toward the patio and gardens. She bumped up the pulse by two beats. Piper walked faster and gripped her hands tightly on the rail that looked out onto the East River. Alex stood next to her, placing a hand over the blonde's and hit the off button in her pocket, "no more nonsense," she tries to reassure Piper that she's safe but cant help but smirk.
"Mmm, hmm just wait," Piper tells her with just a smidge of spunk. They walk hand in hand around the garden and catch up on each others lives, uninterrupted for the first time in a long while. They're re-seated inside and remark over dinner how their year has been one of the most challenging but one of the most fulfilling as well.
Alex kept her promise to keep her hand off the remote until they were waiting for the valet to bring their car around. Piper hastily got in and Alex drove them home. Alex played around with the different levels of the vibrator getting Piper close to her release but then always turning it off with frustration from the blonde. As they walked in their door, Piper swiftly removed the panties and pulled Alex toward their bedroom and started to tear her clothes off. She ran her hands over Alex's body and guided Alex's hand toward her center, "holy shit babe you're soaking wet."
"No talking, you teased me all night, fuck me."
"Uhhh you always sound so hot when you demand things from me," she coated her fingers as she traced her fingers from the soft curls to her opening and slid her fingers into Piper, moving them in and out rapidly until the blonde moaned out loudly everything she'd managed to hold in throughout the night.
She laid underneath Alex while her heart rate slowed and the sweat along her body cooled. She crawled toward her side of the bed and reached underneath it and pulled out a black toy that looked like their harness but they didn't keep it there. Piper slipped Alex's feet one at a time through each loop and brought it up to her thighs. "Turn around," she said while dragging her nails up her wife's legs. Alex turned over while Piper lightly traced her fingertips over her sweat coated back and caressed her way lower, cupping the brunette's behind.
"Bend over."
Alex looks over her shoulder and comes up to her knees while leaning forward and resting her head on her arms.
"Uh uh, arm," Piper reaches for one of her arms and velcro's it into the strap attached to the brunette's thigh. Alex wiggles her bound wrist, "shit this is really tough, where'd you get this?"
"Other arm," Piper ignores her and binds her remaining wrist to her other thigh and slaps her lightly on the ass.
She goes over to the drawer where they keep their intimate objects, pulls out a vibrator and turns it on, "my turn."