3 Piper called at the supermarket on her way home as she couldn't stand another night without eating fresh food. Cooking meals for one meant she tended to cook enough for two and eat it over two days, so the menu wasn't exactly thrilling. It gave her enough ingredients for a bean salad when she got in and she managed to find the strength to return her mother's call from the previous night. She dialled the numbers and crossed her fingers that she would get the answer phone.

As the recorded message clicked in, Piper Chapman thanked her lucky stars that she had once again managed to avoid an interrogation with her mother about when she was going to agree to a match making date with the sons of her bridge club ladies. Perhaps it was because she had chosen the precise hour that she knew her mother would be at the aforementioned bridge club...High five yourself there Chapman, nice work indeed. "Hi Mom, sorry I missed you again. I'll need to check Polly is OK to take care of the store on her own on Saturday afternoon, but I should be at Joe's party for about 7. See you there."

She ran a bath and took the rest of the bottle of red wine with her as she took a long soak to soothe her tired limbs. She kept her phone with her in case Polly called, but the date must have been going well because there was still no message when she finally got into bed at 11pm.

The next morning, Piper got up later than usual after sleeping through her alarm clock. There was no time for a shower or breakfast today as she quickly dressed and caught a cab to the store. One day she had been left in charge and it was as though the 24 hour limit had passed and she slipped back into the unreliable half of the partnership. She ran through the front door as Polly was already there and opened up on time.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry! I had a really good sleep last night and-. Wait. Why are you grinning like that? You're not going to rip my head off for being late? Where is Polly and what have you done with her?"

Polly continued to smile and simply shrugged her shoulders. "It's OK. No problemo."

Realisation dawned on Piper. "Noooo way. What kind of an Adonis turned up for your date last night? Did you sleep with him on the first date, you whore?"

"Put the kettle on and I'll tell you all the deets."

A good couple of hours later and the full story of the amazing Aussie Pete was told. Piper could barely get chance to ask any questions since Polly was so excited to spill every little detail of their night. It was good to see Polly have some success in the dating game since Piper's attempts had been so downright awful recently. It was difficult to go out on blind dates since coming out of prison and she didn't want to hide that part of her life for the sake of making people feel comfortable. Of course, as soon it was mentioned, the date either became far too engrossed in asking how you picked up the soap in the showers with all those lesbians around or they were already making their excuses to leave early. Telling someone about prison always opened up old wounds for Piper because it always leads to how she ended up in prison in the first place. Which then meant she had to talk about her. Talking about Alex has never been easy for Piper. She was either hiding her invisible girlfriend from her WASPy family and friends, who would not react well to the news their daughter was dating a drug smuggling lesbian. Or she was trying to pretend to herself that Alex didn't exist anymore because at one time she was the love of her life and Alex used that to get Piper to do things that ultimately sent her to prison. Piper left Alex in pretty dire circumstances 4 years ago now and hadn't seen or heard from her since.

Heading into the store room to refill the shelves, Piper was reminded of the soggy boxes and the unfinished business with the logistics company and the message the red-head gave her as she was closing up. Maybe the manager was trying to call the store while she was on the phone to Polly yesterday? She carried a box from the store room and started to refill the shelves while telling Polly about the strange visit she had.

"...and you know, she made it sound like I'd been avoiding the manager's calls all day! I'm not going to put up with that you know. We might be small business for them now, but with time, our contract could be worth a lot and they should really try and-"

"Pipes, I really think it's best to just leave it alone. It was only a few labels and some soaps that we could use as free samples. You made your point with them and I think they will remember that when they next do a delivery. Let's focus on improving sales and marketing yeah?"

"Right, well fine. As long as they know we won't be bossed around."

They finished up on time for once and headed to the bar over the road for a drink since it was Friday night. Piper was ready to let her hair down for the night, but soon realised it was going to be a night out that consisted of only one drink as she caught Polly smiling at her phone every few minutes. The Aussie was texting, so Piper wasn't surprised when Polly was making her excuses to abandon her when she found out Pete was out in the same area. "Fine, you can leave me and not feel guilty, so long as you let me leave early tomorrow so I can head over to my Grandmother's place for a family party. Do we have a deal?" Polly's answer was a quick squeeze before she dashed out of the bar in search of Pete. Piper headed out for a cab and an early night, a little depressed that this was an all too regular Friday night for her these days. Well at least she could get a good start on packing her things for the weekend and make her to- do list.

The alarm went off at 6am and Piper jumped up and put her running gear on. She skipped down the steps at the front of her apartment and put her ear buds in for the warm up. The playlist was a mix of old 80's pop songs that was perfect for forgetting everything outside of the park. She clocked up 6k before heading back home for a shower and some breakfast. It felt good to feel the burn in her legs for a while this morning and made her mind sharp for getting organised.

By 8:30, Piper was rounding the corner to the back door of the store with coffees for her and Polly when she was nearly hit by the delivery truck departing, the driver honking his horn as he wheeled away. "What the fuck ? I don't remember scheduling a delivery for this morning?" Getting to the back door, Piper found that everything was still locked up and there was no sign of Polly yet. No sign of a delivery order either. As she walked around clicking the lights on and unlocking the doors, Polly slumped into a chair by the counter and put her head on the desk. "Well, good morning sunshine. I'm guessing only one of us was in bed by 9pm last night?"

"Can I smell coffee? Is there some for me?" Polly mumbled into the desk.

"There's one right in front of you if you can lift your head up long enough to pour it into your mouth. Good night was it? I can see you weren't drinking cocoa til the early hours already."

"I just need to be very still for a while, then I'll be good to go."

"Yeah, well don't forget I'm leaving at lunch time to drive to Boston so you might have to move at that point. Also, did you book a delivery for this morning? I saw the delivery driver leaving just as I arrived, but he didn't leave anything."

"Yes, I know you are leaving me and no I didn't book a delivery. Can you stop talking for a while now? I need to not think. At all."

Piper rolled her eyes and walked to the back of the store to double check the orders book. There was nothing due for a few days yet, so there must have been a mistake. Probably best to make sure they haven't missed anything though, so she dialled the number for NY Logistics from the back office.

"Hello, NY Logistics. How may I help you?" It was the same thick accent as last time, sounding a little bored on this occasion.

"Hi, yes it's the PoPi store here. Well, I own the PoPi store actually. Anyway, I'm calling about your delivery driver who called this morning and didn't leave anything."

Silence.

"So I checked the order books and we aren't expecting any deliveries today."

Silence.

"Are you noting this down?"

"Nope. You weren't expecting a delivery, you didn't get anything delivered and what? You're calling to complain again are ya lady? Sounds to me like you got a vendetta against this poor guy."

"No, No! Of course not! Well, no. I'm not complaining. I'm just checking you have your paperwork in order is all."

"You called me at 9am on a Saturday morning to ask if my paperwork is OK and accuse my driver for the second time this week of not doing his job properly. What part of that is not complaining?"

"Listen here. I'm the customer. Aren't you supposed to listen with a sympathetic ear to my concerns and complaints - if I were making any, which I'm not?"

"Geez. Look, there's a note here to say we were replacing the damaged stock you reported last week. Looks like the boss has bought your precious supplies again and we tried to deliver the replacements this morning. You weren't in, so he came away for his next job. Happy?"

"Oh, well that was very kind of him. Er, you should really notify us when you want to make a delivery though, so your driver doesn't have a wasted trip."

"Her."

"I'm sorry?"

"The boss is a her, you said him. I will be sure to pass on your feedback Ma'am. "

As the line went dead, Piper thought that maybe they weren't quite as bad as she thought. Their customer service skills are a bit rough, but they at least accepted when they went wrong. She tidied up the stock room and checked the delivery plans for next week before heading out to see if it was worth waking Polly up yet at the counter. As she walked from the back offices, she could hear Polly was talking to someone.

"... I said I would sort it and I have alright."

Polly was still at the counter, but was sitting up with her back to the doorway Piper was lurking in.

"...Jesus, what do you want me to do here? I can't be here 24/7 you know. You wanted to take care of this contract, so you have to take some responsibility here too."

By 'here' she must be talking about the store. Piper walked forward so she was in Polly's line of sight, mouthing "Who is it?" when she caught her eye. Polly rolled her eyes and waived her hand dismissively before responding to the person on the other side of the call. "Yeah, well you'd better get your house in order or we will be taking our logistics business elsewhere-." Piper was mortified that Polly might be undoing the kind of productive conversation she had and she frantically started waving at Polly to stop talking, gesturing that she wanted to take over the call.

Polly tried to turn away so Piper was behind her, but she was too slow and Piper managed to snatch the phone away from her. "Hey, this is Piper Chapman, the co-owner and I just wanted to say I'm sorry for any misunderstanding. I already spoke to one of your customer services team this morning and she explained that you were replacing the stock we got damaged, so we have no hard feelings you know. Oh and please don't fire the driver. I totally was not complaining about him the first or the second time I called this week. I mean, he's a bit of an ass when he doesn't wait for me to count the boxes out and he drives like a maniac when he's running a little late, but he probably has a family and stuff so you know, like he should keep his job to put food on the table for them and all..." Piper stopped when she caught sight of Polly staring at her with wide eyes and both hands over her mouth as though she had just dropped a major bombshell on the supplier.

"Um...did you catch any of that?...Hello?"

There was a click on the end of the line as the other person hung up. That's something else this company needed to improve on, people saying goodbye at the end of a conversation. She looked back at Polly, who seemed to be holding her breath. "What?"

"What did she say Piper?"

"Who was that Polly?"

"They didn't tell you?"

"No. They didn't say anything actually. Not a word come to think of it."

"Oh.. OK. It was the logistics company. The manager called me to say they tried to deliver some replacement stock today and they will reschedule for next week."

"Right. Well I already talked to them just before, so you don't need to worry about it Pol."

"Well, OK. But you should probably just leave all the logistics stuff to me now, so we don't end up confusing them. I can take care of them, you can talk to the other suppliers. It just makes it simpler if they only talk to me from now on I think."

Before Piper could put together a word of protest, Polly reminded her that she needed to be leaving if she was going to get to Boston before sunset.