A/N: I'm glad you like reading the banter because I like writing it, so here's a little shake out from all the angst we've had. You know Piper has to open those envelopes and Alex is going to get stressed with the new contracts at some point, so let's enjoy the good times!
I'm really feeling the love this week on the last couple of chapters, so thanks for all your reviews and PMs! Looking forward to hearing what parts you liked most in this one. JessTerr reminded me about Kissingville and Whatthefuckisgoingonville earlier, which made me smile. izzielg - I'm not as organised as FaeCym, so I have no number in mind for chapters. It just feels like there's a way to go yet with our ladies.
"Hi! Yes….yes, we could make an appointment this week." Piper stared at Polly, looking for some direction on their availability. Polly stared back with an equally panicked expression, running her hands over her forehead as she sought some inspiration.
"Great, what day is going to work for you guys? I've got some space on Wednesday morning if you want to start early or….lunchtime if that's better for you?"
"Um…yes. That's great. Thanks." Piper nodded and gesticulated at Polly to confirm whether that was actually going to be OK to close the store. Polly shrugged and stared back at Piper. There was a whole frantic silent movie happening behind the counter that John Peters wasn't privy to as he sat at the end of the line, waiting for a decision between the two options he had offered. None seemed to be forthcoming and he chuckled before prompting Piper for a decision.
"Good, so Wednesday suits. What time do you want to go for? Early morning or lunch time? I'm guessing you don't want to close PoPi for any longer than you have to, so you pick."
"Can we do lunchtime on Wednesday please? We could be there for say 12:30 if that's OK with you?" Piper held her palms out and glared at Polly for not helping.
"Sure, I'll book you in. If you've got any websites, online marketing or promotional stuff already, it would be great to see what you guys have done so far. Maybe bring some example of your product line too if that's not too much trouble? Alex has said great things about what you guys have achieved so I can't wait to see it."
"Wow, thank you so much! We look forward to it and we'll bring as much as we can carry."
"See you on Wednesday Piper, I look forward to meeting you guys."
Piper put her phone down and stared at it for a second, as though everything was about to go wavy and the dream would turn into the reality of a meeting with someone on work placement.
"Oh my God Piper! This is awesome! I can't believe we're meeting one of the biggest names in brand development in the country! Little us, with our home made soap."
"I know! This could be huge for us Pol!" Polly wrapped her arms around Piper in a bear hug and they jumped up and down like teenagers who got roomed together on the school trip. After a few minutes of excitement, Piper released her grip and stood back.
"OK, we should make a list of what we need to prepare. We don't want to look like amateurs now we got through the door…" Piper opened her notepad and clicked her pen before Polly grabbed them off her.
"Screw that, we should go out tonight and celebrate."
"Celebrate what? We haven't achieved anything yet." Piper crossed her brows, perplexed.
"Sure we have. We got an appointment!" Polly grinned back.
"No. ALEX got us an appointment. We didn't make it past the introductory phone call remember?"
"Yeah, how DID SuperCunt get that appointment anyway? Does she know this guy?"
"I wouldn't think so. She doesn't hang out in those kinds of circles normally. It's a bit pretentious and fake for her I'd think. Do you think she paid him to see us?" Piper looked shocked at the prospect of that being true.
"Nah. She's probably promised him a threesome. It'll explain why he's so keen to get a date booked."
"Polly! That's gross!" Piper wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"Oh please. You'll be having your cake and eating-. Nevermind. Let's not talk semantics before I see how far we have to go to seal the deal. Just to be clear though, I will NOT call you 'Mommy'."
Piper's face creased into giggles as she let out a snort at Polly's last comment.
"I bet you would if he promised you a slot in Barneys." Piper winked as Polly pretended to consider it for a moment.
"Everyone has a price Piper. Don't judge me. And don't ever tell Pete I wore a nappy." She shook a stern looking finger at Piper before they both broke into a fit of giggles.
XXXXX
Alex had a meeting with Nicky and Lorna to explain the recent progress with the various European companies they were negotiating with. They had been involved in helping to scan and send various paperwork through for her, but they weren't aware of just how close any of these were to being signed and what kind of a difference that would make to their business. Alex didn't want to raise hopes before anything was signed and sealed, but she also couldn't carry on keeping the details under wraps if she was going to properly prepare to take on this extra work. They needed bigger premises, more transport and additional staff to cope with the volume of work they would be dealing with. Not everything would need to travel from their depot, but the organisation needed to start there and the little office for the three of them wouldn't squeeze in the extra staff they needed to deal with the customers. She didn't reveal the numbers she was working on as they'd all be lining up for a pay rise before she could take a breath, but the workload was important to talk about.
"Fucking Hell Vause, this is some serious deal you're pulling off here. I mean, Christ, this is way bigger than anything we've dealt with before…" Alex's reflex was to brag about a big drug deal she pulled off in Chile once with a guy she got stoned from the Russian Mafia, but she caught herself in time and nodded her agreement to the two grinning women sitting in front of her.
"So, the main one to worry about right now is this Italian company with the hair products. The show's not far away and they are starting to look at containers already. If this thing gets signed by the end of the week like we plan, it's going to mean some long hours and everyone chipping in to make sure this one goes smoothly. There is a lot riding on this to go well and the other Contractors will be looking at how we deal with this as new players over there. I need you two to give me a hand to keep things moving and get the extra staff we need to fulfil the contract."
"Does that mean I get a new job title then?"
"What, are you asking for a promotion?"
"Yeah."
"OK… And what sort of promotion would you be looking for?"
"Well, you're gonna need someone to manage all of the staff who are answering the customer calls…and since that's my area of expertise….I'm your girl. I'll have to think about the job title though. That's a big decision if it's going on all my business cards."
"I could always promote you from Junior Asshole to just Asshole, since you've proven how great you are at it."
"Hey, what can I say? I've had a great leader while I've been working here Vause." Nicky punched her on the shoulder.
"Well, I think it's a cause for celebration Alex. It sounds like we're not going to have a chance to cut loose if this order comes in by the weekend, so why don't we go out tonight and have some fun? It's been a while since I went out with you all too." Lorna smiled hopefully. She'd missed the New Year drinks night with them all and hadn't been out for a while.
"Normally I would, but-" Alex started, before Nicky cut in.
"You want to go and see Blondie." Nicky was already resigned to the answer being a no from her tall friend.
"No, it's not that. I was going to do some more of this paperwork. Now I can see the changes are being agreed in the Italian contract, there's no reason I couldn't put them into the others now."
"Which you can just as easily do tomorrow. You know, in actual working hours, like a normal person." Nicky leaned against the wall with her and on her hip.
"I could, but there's always other shit to deal with when I'm in the office and I never get this stuff done where I need to concentrate."
"Come on man! When this contract gets signed, and yes I did say when, you'll be pulling all kinds of hours to get things sorted. I know you Vause and you'll work yourself into the ground to make it work out. Why don't you come out and have some fun while you can? Please?" Nicky pressed her hands together, a prayer-like pose with puppy dog eyes to match.
"Are you buying Nicholls?"
"Only if you're a dead cert."
"I just need to make a call first…" Alex turned to head into her office as she pulled her phone out of her back pocket.
"You can invite Blondie too if that seals the deal." Nicky grinned as Alex moved to protest.
"Yeah, see if Piper wants to come. I haven't seen her for ages!" Lorna sensed victory and pressed home with the supporting argument.
XXXXX
Piper was locking the back door to close up when her phone started buzzing in her bag. Polly was talking incessantly about why they should open their next store somewhere on the west coast so neither of them heard it ringing amongst the stack of papers Piper had shoved in her bag as homework.
"Pol, I'd love to open a store some place new but we have no idea if we'd be heading in that direction yet. It might be better to focus on online sales, in which case we'd be looking at a warehouse or something instead I guess."
"We have to have a store presence though! Somewhere hip where all the cool people hang out."
"Did you just say 'hip'?" Piper raised her eyebrows.
"I think I did. OK, THAT is how much I need a drink."
"What time did Pete say he was picking us up?"
"He should be here any minute, I'll text him and see if he's set off yet." Polly was part way through a message when a car horn honked and a black truck pulled up next to them. Pete put the window down.
"Hey ladies, can I offer you a ride?"
"Mmmm, that depends on what you had in mind." Polly leaned in and gave him a slow kiss on the lips through the window. Piper stood behind, waiting for an opportunity to even see Pete's face at this point. After the kiss and the whispered innuendo continued for over a minute, Piper cleared her throat.
"Hi Pete. Kinda cold out today isn't it?"
"Piper! Hey, how are ya?" He grinned over Polly's shoulder.
"Freezing actually. Any chance I could get in the back?" Piper smiled before moving next to Polly to open the door "Before you're both in there half naked that is." She muttered and raised her eyebrow at Polly's eyeroll on her way in.
Polly walked around to the passenger door and jumped in, turning the radio up as Pete steered them onto the road and towards Piper's place.
XXXXX
There was no answer from Piper, but Alex was feeling like letting her hair down now that she could see the excitement from Lorna and Nicky. It had been a while since they'd all gone out for a drink and they did have a very good reason to celebrate.
"OK, looks like we're on. What's the plan then Nick, are we heading straight out or did you want to do something with the explosion in a mattress factory you've got on your head?" Alex flicked the lights off as they got their coats and Lorna headed downstairs to let the rest of the gang know it was a bar night.
"We're going now, so you don't puss out when you get home. Is Piper coming?"
"No. She didn't pick up."
"Are you guys cool now? You know, after the emergency DIY job yesterday."
"Yeah, sort of. That attack has left her with a lot going on in her head and I don't always know how to deal with that when she blows hot or turns into the ice maiden. I needed to vent instead of reacting with her. I went round there last night and she was fine." Alex shrugged before adding an afterthought. "You're not gonna…be weird with her are you?"
"Erm, just so I'm clear…Are you asking me to be normal?" Nicky grinned.
"Good point. Don't do that. That WOULD be weird." Alex pushed her friend towards the door to meet the others downstairs.
They got cabs so everyone could have a drink and Alex headed to the bar with Nicky to open a tab while the rest of the group found a table and loaded the jukebox up.
"You did say you were getting the first round in didn't you Nicky?"
"Don't remember that conversation. I thought this was a team building exercise." Nicky carried on looking down the bar as they waited for a bar tender.
"I'm sure your annual performance review said you didn't play well with others."
"I could play well with them!" Nicky grinned and nodded her head towards a couple of athletic College types who just walked in the door.
"Seriously? The only team you're interested in building is one that plays softball…." Alex grabbed the attention of the bar tender and got them a round of tequila shots and beers, nodding to Nicky to cover it as she carried them to the booth.
They toasted the new contracts they were waiting on and the overtime that was coming up for everyone who was broke after the Christmas and New Year celebrations and Poussey was telling everyone how impressed she was with her new open plan kitchen space and her plans to put a wall mounted TV up so she could watch it from any angle in the room now. Alex smiled to herself that Poussey was so pleased with what she'd done and it made her realise that she could put all of that guilt and anger she was feeling into something positive when she set her mind to it. She knew she was about to get very stressed out when the contracts were signed as they needed to rapidly increase their capacity to deliver on the promises she had made, so there was going to be plenty of opportunity for flared tempers and snappy retorts with Piper and she knew how grumpy her girlfriend could get when she wasn't getting her own way. Downing her beer, she waved the empty bottle in the air – the universal sign for 'another round?' After getting the universal nod of approval in return, Alex went to the bar and put the tab in her name for another round of the same.
She took the drinks back to their table and this time, they had two shots each before passing out the beers. Taystee pulled Lorna and Dannii on to the small dancefloor while Poussey was gathering the cues for a game of pool. The table had been free all night and Poussey had been itching to get on there and see if she could win back what she lost to Alex at their last poker night at her place.
"OK, normally we'd be playing doubles here but I've got a bit of decorating to pay for and I'll be needing that cash back now from the poker game boss. I hope you didn't go all crazy spending it on manicures and lipstick because it's coming back to Momma tonight." She slapped her hand on Alex's back.
"What if I did? Would you take payment in manicures and lipstick Poussey?" Alex pouted her lips to blow Poussey a kiss.
"Hell no! You can get your ass down to a cash machine and get me some dollar bills. I'll wait." She racked the balls up and chalked her cue dramatically as she prepared, rolling her shoulders as she eyed Alex.
Nicky got a dollar out of her pocket to call who went first. "Who's calling it?"
"I'm speechless that I've actually witnessed you with money in your pocket, so you'd better go Poussey."
"Hey, I ALWAYS have money, I'm just careful with it." Nicky called heads and Poussey settled down to break.
"Careful to never fucking spend it."
"I spend it…. just not on lipstick and manicures like you."
"I don't fucking get manicures! Where has this shit started?" Alex retorted as she bent down to break.
"Sure you do. You've always got your nails all nice and your hair all curled, walking around the place like a damned shampoo commercial you are."
Alex hit the ball with more force than necessary and scattered the balls around the table before standing again and leaning on her cue to regard Nicky. "I think you'll find that's simply the difference between washing your hair and sticking your finger in an electric socket and expecting the same result. You ought to try it."
Poussey was supposed to be looking for her shot, but was creased up laughing silently behind Alex at the way Nicky was managing to get a rise out of her.
"Well, maybe if I were having girly sleepovers with Blondie every night, I could get my hair braided too." Nicky's expression was totally deadpan and she could see Poussey shaking her head as she took a shot, listening to the pair of them.
"Your hair doesn't want braiding, it needs a freaking lawn mower over the top of it. And I'm not there EVERY night." Alex turned to regard the table again, seeing that Poussey had sunk a stripe while she hadn't been paying attention, she sensed they were tag-teaming her and gritted her teeth as she looked for an opportunity to get even. She was leaning over the table, measuring up the different shots that were open and trying to focus. Nicky moved to stand behind her.
"Well if I were at those sleepovers, Piper would struggle to do anything but hold onto my hair from where my head would be. Yes! Oh Nicky….that feels soooooo good. Yes! Fuck Nicky, nobody ever licked my pussy like that…." She finished with a dramatic interpretation of what that scene would be like and could see Alex tense up over the table.
Alex pulled the cue back and was releasing another powerful blow to the cue ball when she felt a hand stroke up the inside of her thigh between her parted legs and cup her sex with a quick squeeze. The brunette jumped a foot in the air and skewed the cue all along the green, hitting everything except the white. She whirled around with a face like thunder.
"Nicky! You fucking-"
"Hey Babe. Did I distract you?"