A/N: I'm glad you liked the last chapter. This one is a little more fluff before we head back into angst territory. You can't say this fic has ever been too fluffy though! Hope you're going to have a great weekend you lovely people and thanks for the reviews as always.

On Thursday, Polly did exactly as she was told and stayed home for the day. Piper wasn't sure if she was awake so early because she was excited about her first unsupervised day of the New Year or if it was going out on a date with Alex last night that meant she couldn't lie still. She decided to get up far earlier than she needed to and showered, grabbing a banana before walking the few miles to the store to open up. Since she couldn't run, this could be a good opportunity to get some muscle tone back in her legs without hurting her ribs too much. She put her earbuds in and selected a playlist with Adele's earlier hits to walk to after setting her fitness app away to monitor her progress. The tempo was perfect to get her heart rate up enough to warm her up on this clear but fresh morning. It was not quite light yet and the sidewalk and parks were still fairly quiet, despite the roads already getting busy with commuters. It was really nice to be able to watch the day start from the point of the sun coming up and she inhaled as deeply as her ribs would allow to drink it in as she stepped to the beat.

Last night had gone really well. She'd been relieved to notice that Alex had seemed a bit nervous to start with as well, so it showed that she was also taking the date as a serious step. It had actually made Piper feel a little more confident in her plans on the night. When Piper had asked, it was more because she wanted to see Alex again than she wanted to make anything official between them. Calling it a date on the call was just semantics and she hadn't considered any possible underlying meaning to it until much later after the call had ended. At which point, she felt too silly to call Alex back and clarify their respective interpretations and decided instead to do it right and treat it like a date. She was pleased that she had kept the end of their date relatively chaste, with Alex asking if she'd like to go on another date on Friday night. She had agreed of course and left to get some rest before a full day at the store.

Piper timed her walking speed well and got to the back door 15 minutes before opening time with a hot coffee and bran muffin to replace the calories she just burned. She stopped her fitness app and felt satisfied with the 5 mile walk she had managed. Her first exercise of the year and her body even felt grateful for it. Walking around the store, she put the lights on and unlocked the front door, setting the sign to 'Open' in the front window before settling behind the counter to finish her coffee and bran cake. Polly had decided to start playing some low music in the store since Piper hadn't been around for company and Piper could see why. At this time in the morning, the silence was strange and she put the radio on after bringing the laptop through to the counter from the back office. She could continue with the online sales research while there wasn't anyone in the store. After only two visitors and no sales in the space of an hour, Piper got a text from Polly.

'I just woke up :D'

'I saw the sun rise this morning :P'

'Were you doing the walk of shame at sunrise Piper Chapman?!'

'No! Give me some credit will you?'

'Maybe you are confusing the sun rising with the butt cheek imprints you left on Alex's window last night then?'

'Can you get your mind out of the gutter for once? We were both very good. No sex or butt cheek imprints.'

'What the Hell did you do all night then?'

'Talked.'

'Sounds like a lame date to me.'

'That's because you're a ho. But I love you all the same.'

'Are you gonna spill then?'

'No. You're going to enjoy your day off and I'll tell you all about it when you're back tomorrow. This place is so quiet when you're here on your own. I think we should turn the music up a little more to give it some atmosphere a bit. Don't you feel like people are coming in and creeping around, trying to not disturb the silence when they are browsing? It's almost like they feel they are interrupting!'

'Maybe. It wasn't exactly like that around Christmas. OK we can talk tomorrow. I might not even get dressed today :D. x'

'Have fun. Love you. X'

Another couple of hours into the research and Piper had pages of notes next to her. She'd found craft websites that would allow you to sell through them among other companies doing the same, sophisticated websites with shopping carts and a wealth of payment options and simple static page sites that simply said 'contact us' for ordering. There were so many possibilities and it was impossible to tell how much any of these might cost to get PoPi out into the world beyond New York. She remembered Alex saying she thought she had some contacts with expertise in this area when they were out last night, maybe they could help.

'Hey Alex. Hope you slept well last night? Just wanted to ask if you could find those online marketing contact details for me please? Trying to do some research in the store today and getting confused with it all! X'

'Morning! I'm putting some boxes into storage across town at the moment. Do you want me to call by with some lunch for you or did you already make something this morning? X'

'I was going to close the store for a bit and get something, but if it's no trouble for you I would love some lunch? You sure you don't mind? X'

'Not a problem, see you in a bit. X'

Piper tried to make some order out of her notes for when Alex got there so she could pick her brains over what kind of help she might need. It was mostly a long list of questions and comments so far and she felt like she ought to be able to do more with it – or even know what it was that PoPi needed to do in terms of online sales. There had hardly been any paying custom while she'd been in the store today and Piper was concerned that their sales might not pick up.

Half an hour later, Piper heard the store door open and looked up to see Alex striding towards her wearing skinny blue jeans, knee high biker boots and a check shirt tied around her waist. Her hair was tied in a messy bun by a pencil, with a few loose tendrils spilling over a grey NY Logistics tee and Piper's stomach flipped a little in the excitement of seeing her.

"Dinner is served m'Lady." Alex bowed and placed the bag on the counter top.

"Well aren't you just the knight in shining armour? Thank you Alex." Piper peered into the bag and brought out 2 hot pulled pork rolls and a couple of cans of soda. "Mmmm, these smell like heaven."

"It's from a diner on the corner near the storage site. A good job I don't go there more often or I'd be eating these every other day." Alex opened her soda and took a long gulp while Piper moved the papers and laptop to make room for Alex to share her chair.

"How's it going today then? Have you managed on your own OK?"

"Yeah, it's been really quiet all day. Makes me worried actually. It's too quiet and nothing like it was in December."

"It's early January Pipes. Everyone's still hungover from Christmas and New Year parties and hanging out for payday at the end of the month. Everywhere is quiet right now."

"How do we know it won't carry on like this?"

"You don't. But it's too soon to be worrying and while it is quieter in here, you can spend a little time developing your research and looking for opportunities to increase sales." Alex shrugged and bit into her pork roll.

"But Alex, we can't afford to invest in more diverse ways of getting our products out there if we can't make more from the store."

Alex rolled her eyes and carried on chewing.

"Alex! I'm serious!"

"And I brought you a hot lunch that is fast becoming a cold one. Come on, it tastes better warm." She nodded towards the unopened packaging nearest Piper.

Having spent all morning moving heavy boxes around into their rented offsite storage space, Alex had worked up quite an appetite and finished hers in no time at all. Washing the last of it down with the last of her soda, she stood to tidy away any mess before coming back to share the seat with Piper and pulling her laptop over.

"So….this guy here is Jon Peters and he's like an expert in how to make your brand stand out for the right reasons. He'll talk to you, get to know what it is you stand for, what you want PoPi to be known for and really concentrate all of those ideas and concepts down into some sharp focus for marketing. He's based in New York anyway, so not far for you to go meet with him. Here, I'll save his website as a bookmark on here…"

"How much will he cost? His site looks expensive. There are some well-known brands on there he is citing testimonies from. Maybe we should try someone a little er, less well known just to start with and see if we need any help."

"Piper, just book an appointment with him and tell him that I've recommended you speak to him. He won't charge you for the first meeting, then you can look at what else you might need from him and look at the costs later. At least it gets you started though, right?"

"He won't charge us anything for the first meeting? Is that because he's already built it into the cost of the second meeting then?" Piper raised her eyebrows.

"Such a cynic. Just think of it as a try before you buy deal with a top guy. Do that first, then you can look at what kind of online sales you want to try." Alex rose to her feet and leaned over to kiss Piper on the cheek. "I have to go. I've been away from the office for 2 and a half days this week already. I need to go and make sure Nicky isn't trying to run the asylum. See you tomorrow night?"

"Yes, of course. Thanks Alex, I appreciate this….. Wait! I have something for you…." Piper hurried into the back office to pick up the little gift packs she'd made up for the NY Logistics team and piled them up to bring them back to Alex.

"These are for you and the guys at NY Logistics. To say thanks for getting all of our orders out on time for Santa to put them down the chimney stacks."

"Pipes, there's really no need to do that. It's what they do every day. It really wasn't special treatment you know."

"I know. We want to do it anyway. Can you take these with you and tell everyone we appreciate you working with us? Please Alex?"

"Yes, I will. But you didn't need to." Alex walked over and took the boxes from her and Piper ran ahead to hold the door open.

"OK, I'll see you tomorrow then. Can you be ready for 7 and I'll pick you up?"

"7 is perfect, thanks again."

"No worries." Alex winked as she went through the door and back to her car.

This was the Alex that Piper had fallen in love with and had even been in awe of all those years ago. The person who wasn't flustered by indecision or blinded by too many possibilities to make a choice. Alex was always able to see what needed to be done first and ignored everything else until that was under control before moving methodically onto the next task. She had only stayed for half an hour, but Piper already felt like there was a plan to be formed that made her calmer and focused about the lack of traffic through the store for the rest of the day. She organised her notes a bit more and packed everything away to clean up the store ready for tomorrow. She didn't want Polly thinking she'd been idle and surfing the internet all day while she was here alone, so Piper made sure there wasn't anything to be done before opening up again when she closed the front door and switched all the lights out before heading out of the back door and locking up for the night. She felt weary from her early start and the long walk in this morning, so opted to catch the subway back and get an early night.

XXXXX

Alex parked outside the logistics offices and looked over at the little stack of gift boxes on her passenger seat. This nice gesture from Piper was going to open the door to her getting a whole heap of shit off Poussey and Nicky if she walked in there with them after being off for half of the week. Alex hadn't told Nicky about their date as she'd already been working at home when it was arranged, so she had managed to keep it below radar so far. After a couple of minutes of considering the possible lines of questioning that would be opened up about her seeing Piper today instead of coming to the office, she opted to get into the office early in the morning and leave the boxes out as though the soap fairy left them instead. She locked the car and headed straight up to the office to see Nicky and Lorna.

"Well, I see our part time boss has decided to call in and say Hi for an hour or 2….Just as I was starting to forget we had a boss too." Nicky grinned as she whirled around in her chair.

"Oh you were? I wonder if that means I can forget you work for me too?" Alex rolled her eyes at Lorna as she watched the exchange.

"I doubt it stretch. Once you've tasted Nicky Nicholls, I'm ALL you think about."

"Really? That's a fantasy best kept in your imagination I think. Never to be shared."

"I'm getting quite the spank bank collection of you now Vause. That's the second new scenario I've got this week with you in the starring role." Nicky winked before turning around.

"I don't think I want to know what goes on in that mind of yours, so I'm not even going to ask."

"Hey, I'm not to blame! Your girlfriend has quite the creative imagination…"

Alex stopped in her tracks. "…My what?"

"Your girlfriend. Blondie. I think she told me you've been handcuffed to her bedposts wearing nothing but a feather boa for a couple a days."

"My girlfriend?"

"Interesting how the only part in that statement that concerns you is the label. What would you rather I call her? Your plaything? Sex toy? Piper of the House Chapman?"

"None of those things. Piper is just fine. Can you not put labels on things you know nothing about please? If you want to label stuff, there's a fuckload of storage space downstairs that needs keeping tidy. I'm sure Poussey would welcome your use of the Dyno label maker." Alex resisted the urge to stomp into her office and slam the door, knowing exactly how over the top it would appear, so she raised her eyebrow and folded her arms to challenge Nicky to try another word on the subject. Nicky smiled and held her palms up.

"OK. Not labelling. Keyboard typing is more my thing….Typing over here, Boss…..I'm going back to deliver more excellent customer service now."

XXXXX

Polly was in the store room already when Piper arrived at work on Friday morning, nearly knocking her over with the door as she opened it.

"Sorry Pol, I didn't see you there!"

"Good morning. It's OK. I was just trying to make sure all the Christmas stock was use or out on sale. We don't want anything left over to find it 6 months down the line when it's past it's use by date."

Piper shuffled past her and closed the door behind her. "Oh, I handed out all of the gift boxes already. Alex took the NY Logistics ones when she called in yesterday, so they are gone now."

"Oh yeah. Your date. How did it go?"

"It was nice. Really nice actually. That Asian Fusion place was really good. Tell Pete I owe him a big favour for getting me a table there."

"OK….so are you going out with SuperCunt again then?"

"Polly! Yes, Alex is taking me out tonight actually for our second date. We're taking things slowly, which is brand new for us."

"Good. She makes you crazy, so slowly is good. Keep it that way."

"She does not make me crazy Pol. It was my first time with a woman last time remember, it was always going to be a bit intense. I'm a seasoned pro now, so I'm wiser of the ways of woman love this time around." Piper winked and Polly rolled her eyes by way of an answer.

"She makes you crazy without even trying. You're either crazy obsessed with her, acting crazy because of something she's done or she's driving you crazy because you haven't heard from her. I've seen every version and it isn't just about when you were with her 4 years ago. You were like that when you argued with her the other week – every time you've argued with her since you met her again last year. Don't try and tell me she doesn't make you crazy – I see you Piper Chapman." Polly pointed her fingers from her own eyes to Piper's to illustrate her point.

"I'm going to open up the front of the store before you drive me crazy with your amateur relationship psychology. Don't give up the day job hey."

Piper showed Polly the website for the brand expert that Alex was showing her yesterday, explaining that the first meeting is meant to be free anyway.

"He's got a very polished looking website there. He looks kinda expensive Piper….maybe he has a junior we should try and speak to instead?"

"I know. That's what I said. Alex said to meet with him once and tell him she recommended we talk to him before we make any more decisions about what other help we might need. There are no prices on there to say how much his services cost and I'm a bit worried he's used to dealing with big companies instead of small start-up businesses."

"Well, if Alex is recommending him maybe we should try him out first. If the first session is free anyway, we don't have anything to lose, right?"

"Yeah. Maybe our investor might be willing to help out a little if we need some more sessions? Though I don't want to ask for more money if we can't show a good return on investment for the last marketing activities we did."

"It's difficult to put an exact figure on how much the marketing campaigns helped with the Christmas sales, but a lot of people mentioned them when they came into the store. So if you think about how much we spent on the design and print costs, I'm sure we made something on them beyond paying for the work in the first place."

They locked up the store together and Piper made her way to the subway, wondering where Alex would be taking her tonight. She liked surprises, but she also liked to know that she was properly prepared for something and having no information but a pick up time was strange to her. Piper showered and changed into some black jeans and a red (slightly see-through) blouse, putting on some natural looking make-up and leaving her hair down around her shoulders. Alex knocked on the door at exactly 7pm and she quickly pulled on her boots before grabbing her long black coat and bag to leave.

Piper opened the door ready to rush straight through it and bumped straight into Alex, who was standing on the stoop.

"Someone's keen tonight!" Alex grinned and handed her a single red rose. "For you, my little dynamo." She kissed Piper on the cheek and stepped back, offering her hand to Piper.

"Sorry, I mean thanks. It's beautiful."

Alex laughed and squeezed Piper's hand, leading her to the passenger seat of her car and opening the door for her.

Alex got into the driver seat and belted up before starting the car.

"So, I wasn't sure what to wear. Is this OK?"

Alex looked over and smiled. "Yeah, it's perfect."

"Good….so are you going to give me a hint about where we're heading tonight?"

"I can give you a hint. Or I can just tell you. We're going to my place. I'm going to cook for you."

"Oh. OK. That sounds nice."

"Yeah. I thought we could have a night in and relax a bit. No waiters interrupting us to top up drinks, no last orders and we're not working to anyone else's timings for food. That OK with you?"

"Fine with me. Sounds wonderful."

They drove to Alex's place and parked up the car before taking the elevator to the top floor. Alex took her coat at the door and went to hang it up as she asked if Piper wanted a drink.

"Em, can I have some water please?"

"Sure. We're having fillet steak for dinner. Do you want a glass of red with your meal?"

"Yes, I will thanks. Can I help you with anything?"

"It's not going to take long actually. Can you light the candles? I'll just finish these up and we can start if you're hungry now?"

"I am pretty hungry actually." Piper picked up the box of matches Alex left on the table and hit the candles on the table. Alex handed her a glass of iced water before spooning the dressing over the top of their plates and bringing over their starters as Piper took a seat.

"OK, bruschetta to start with here. I won't judge if you choose fingers over forks, I promise." Alex crossed her heart and winked at Piper, who sat at the side of the table next to her so they were close enough to talk.

"Ah, did I ever tell you that you're perfect date material? Honestly, you know me too well!" Piper laughed and picked up her bruschetta to eat it with her fingers.

"You didn't ever tell me that. But I'm happy to hear it. In fact, I think we should toast to it." Alex raised her glass and Piper lifted her water.

"To perfect date material and the right ingredients to make it." They clinked their glasses together and finished their starters.

Alex cooked perfect rare fillet steaks for them and they shared a bottle of red wine as they talked about Cal's experiments with welding artwork after Neri taught him the basics of welding. It was mostly melting metal stuff together at the moment by the sounds of it, but he was hopeful that he could make it represent something 'arty' after seeing the recycling exhibition in New York with Piper recently. They shared the clearing up work and Alex topped up their wine before they sat on the sofa. Piper looked up at the shelves lined with books behind them.

"Do you still read a lot?"

"Yeah, I try to. I don't read anywhere near as much as I used to because I don't travel like before. Long haul flights and layovers in small airports was particularly conducive to life as a bookworm. My commute these days is a little short to make much progress with Jane Austen. I guess I kind of miss it though so I try and read before I go to sleep."

"Are these the books that you had when you were travelling? I mean, have I read some of these copies when I've been on the beach waiting for you?"

"For sure there will be a few you have read in here. Tell me one you remember reading and I'll tell you if it's still there."

"OK." Piper crossed her legs on the sofa and thought for a moment. "Far from the madding crowd. I read that one rainy weekend in Berlin while you were out getting soaked trying to track a drop gone wrong."

"Um…..here it is. Looks like the same copy to me." Alex handed it to Piper, who leafed through the pages as though the memories of that weekend would fall out of them.

"Wow, well found…..OK, what about….The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand?"

"Ah, I think I kept it. Not really a book I enjoyed reading…but here it is."

"Have you got that copy of Robinson Crusoe that you read to me when I was poorly in Java?"

"Of course. Here it is." Alex handed her the well-thumbed copy.

"I used to love it when you read to me you know. It was just me, you, a good book and a bottle of wine. After some protesting, I'd eventually get you to turn your phone off before we settled down. They were my favourite nights while we were travelling. Ones where there wasn't anyone else, no distractions and nobody else vying for your attention. I could properly relax, knowing someone else wasn't trying to steal you away from me."

Alex laughed. "They could never steal me away from you. I only ever had eyes for you when we were together."

"I know, but I always felt like I had to be on my toes to remind anyone who looked like they were getting too close. It was really stressful to always feel like I was competing for your attentions and there was always a possibility that one day you'd choose someone else over me." Piper shrugged, a little embarrassed that she just admitted to that. Alex moved closer to sit next to her and put her arm around Piper's shoulders, pulling her closer and kissing the top of her head.

"Well, you have my undivided attention once again right now. Would you like me to read to you again?"

Piper grinned shyly. "I'd really like that."

"What do you fancy? Robinson Crusoe?"

"Yes!" Piper snuggled into Alex's side and the brunette reached over to pull a blanket from under the coffee table, spreading it over the blonde woman who was making her heart flutter by clinging onto her side.

Alex folded the pages back and began reading from the first chapter. Piper's cheeks started to hurt from the fact that she couldn't stop herself from smiling at the happy memories this was bringing back for her. Their date couldn't have been planned more perfectly than the two of them snuggling on the sofa with an old classic book and a bottle of wine and there was no place on earth she could be happier than she was right now next to Alex. Realising that made Piper's stomach flip with butterflies as she realised how strong her feelings for Alex still were and that she'd never had anything like these feelings for anyone before or since Alex.

After reading several chapters, Alex was aware of how even Piper's breathing had become and recognised that the blonde lying in her arms had fallen asleep. She didn't want to disturb her, but Alex knew Piper had to be at the store in the morning with Polly.

"Pipes…wake up sweetheart. Do you want to stay here tonight and I'll drop you off at work in the morning?"

"Mmmmmm time is it?" Piper didn't even open her eyes to answer.

"After midnight. I can't take you home because I've had a drink, but I can call a cab if you really want to sleep at your own place. I can lend you some things so you can stay here just as easily though. It's up to you."

"M'tired."

"I see that. Come on, let's get you into bed then and you can go back to those sweet dreams." Alex chuckled and picked her up bridal style to carry her into the spare room. Placing her softly on the bed, she quickly went to get a tee and some shorts so Piper could change, before locking up and switching the lights out. Alex changed into a tee shirt, got washed and brushed her teeth before coming back to find Piper hadn't moved.

"Come on sleepy head." Pulling Piper up by her arms, she finally got a reaction and pointed at the change of clothes. "There's a spare toothbrush in the bathroom for you. Be quick and we can snuggle before sleep." Piper grinned and took the change of clothes with her to the bathroom. A few minutes later, the blonde returned wearing one of Alex's work tees.

"Can I be little spoon tonight?" The blonde grinned sheepishly as she climbed into the bed next to Alex.

"You sure can."