Diane entered the house three hours later, and Alex was buried in grading underclassmen papers as part of her teacher's assistant job. She stopped what she was doing and helped her mom unpack groceries.
"You still feel like going to that fancy dinner tonight?" Alex asked as she put a bottle of syrup on the top shelf.
"Hell, yeah!" Diane smiled at her. "I made reservations for the two of us at 6 o'clock."
"Were you counting on my joining you?" She grinned.
"It was either you or Betsy," she replied.
"If you'd prefer to go with your friend…"
"Nonsense!" She interrupted. "I want to go with you. And if you're up for it, you can tell me about Piper's letters."
"Mom!" Alex complained. "Some things are meant to be private."
Diane patted her daughter on the back. "Ok, hon. Ok."
Alex had trouble remembering the last time that she and her mom went to dinner at a sit-down restaurant. They'd eaten takeout plenty of times, but the last time they'd gone to a place that had white linen table clothes and servers dressed in bowties was her high school graduation. The brunette remembered that night not for the ambiance or the food, but because she watched her mom drop $75 on dinner for two. She'd never seen her mother spend that kind of money, unless it was on two weeks' worth of groceries.
It was the dead of winter, so Alex opted to wear a long sleeved black wool dress with a frayed hem, black tights and her favorite heeled, leather boots. She spent more time doing her hair than she had in months, and it felt good to put some effort into her appearance.
The valets didn't comment on the condition of their 1985 Corolla, but when Alex looked at the other cars in the parking lot, she was sure there would be some snickering once the women went inside.
She watched her mom proudly give her name to the hostess, and her smile grew when they were escorted to a table near the window.
"Would you look at this view, hon?"
"It's lovely," Alex commented as she peered out the window and saw a row of Douglas Firs, complete with white twinkle lights.
"My name is Candace, and I'll be your server this evening," a young waitress with dark brown hair and bright red lipstick announced. "Can I get you something to drink besides water?"
"I'll have a Mai Tai," her mother ordered proudly. "Al?"
"Tanqueray and tonic, please."
The waitress departed, and Alex enjoyed watching her mother take in the grandeur of the fine dining restaurant. She herself was not one to go out to fancy dinners very often, so she appreciated the experience almost as much.
The dark haired woman found it odd that Anthony's was half-empty, but then a limousine pulled up and at least five couples came into the restaurant. The guys were in tuxedos and the girls were in gowns.
"Would you look at them," Diane commented. "It's the Gateway winter ball tonight, and those are some of the students."
Before it dawned on Alex who might be there, she saw Piper out of the corner of her eye.
"Fuck," she muttered. She'd swear she heard her mom say the same thing.
Diane put a hand on her daughter's arm. "Al, if you want to leave..."
"No, it's fine." She took a deep breath. "I'll be fine."
"Look, it's Alex!" One of the guys pointed. He and another student approached the table. "Remember us?"
"Of course I do," Alex said with a forced smile. "Will, Caitlin…How are you?"
"Good," Caitlin answered. "It's winter ball tonight."
"I can see that."
"Hey, kiddos, what about me?" Diane chimed in.
The students looked surprised to see her mom all dressed up and out on the town. Alex could tell that they shared genuine excitement at seeing 'the lunch lady,' and had no doubt that everyone at Gateway loved her mom. They made small talk while the brunette tried to keep her eyes off of Piper. She was unsuccessful to say the least.
The waitress approached with their drinks, and Alex immediately downed half of hers. "Would you excuse me?" She walked towards the entrance and said hello to six of the ten students whom she recognized. When her eyes landed on Piper, she could see that the girl didn't know how to react. "Hi, Piper. How've you been?"
She swallowed hard. "Fine, thanks."
She was wearing a light blue, laced and beaded dress that hit just above the knee. Her hair was slightly curled and she had on a dab of pink lip gloss.
Alex eyed the blonde up and down, and before she could take the words back, she commented, "You are exquisite."
"Thank you." Piper blushed. "I've been meaning to ask you something about a book I'm reading. Would you mind if we stepped outside?"
As the rest of the high school seniors took their seats, Alex escorted the blonde outside. They went around the corner of the restaurant to a patio that looked like it saw a lot of use during the warmer months, but for now, it was abandoned.
"You really are beautiful," the dark haired woman commented, purposely keeping her distance.
"So are you," she replied. "I never thought I'd run into you here…or anywhere for that matter."
"It's a pretty small town," Alex said with a shrug. "We were bound to run into each other somewhere."
She looked down for a beat, and then back up at Alex. "I came with Carter. Obviously we're just friends."
She raised one eyebrow. "Obviously?"
"Have you seen him?" It was Piper's first genuine smile of the evening. "Not my type."
Alex chuckled. "Even if he was, it's not my place to comment…or be jealous."
"Not even a little jealous?" The blonde walked closer, and her lavender perfume assaulted Alex's senses.
"Maybe a little," she whispered as Piper invaded her personal space.
Before she knew it, their lips were locked in a fierce kiss. Alex backed her lover up against the wall and ran her hands over her breasts. Piper managed to snag her hand under the hem of Alex's dress, but due to the angle, she couldn't reach higher than the brunette's upper thigh.
"God, I want you," the blonde breathed heavily between kisses.
"I want you, too. So fucking much." She didn't stop kissing the girl on the mouth, then the cheek, then the neck.
A door opened and the dishwasher came outside and lit a cigarette. "Oh, sorry!"
The women pulled away from each other and straightened their dresses.
"Fuck," Alex said. "That's too close of a call."
"I don't care," the blonde replied, reaching out to rub a lip gloss smudge off the side of Alex's mouth.
"Yes, you do," Alex admitted for the both of them. "We have to care."
The blonde sighed.
"It's so good to see you, Piper." She touched her cheek. "It's been way too long."
"I know." She covered her lover's wrist with her hand.
"We need to go back inside and pretend this never happened."
Piper nodded. "It's getting harder and harder to stay away."
The dark haired woman turned her head to place a small kiss on the inside of Piper's wrist. She heard Piper sigh and was tempted to continue her ministrations, when another person came out of the back door.
"Excuse me, sir," Alex began, pulling away from the blonde once more. "My friend really has to use the bathroom. Would you mind if she cut through the kitchen?"
"Sure, sure." He held the door open. "Right this way."
They kissed on the lips again, and then Piper disappeared through the back of the kitchen. Alex took a moment to straighten her hair with her fingertips and ensure that her dress wasn't hitched in the back. She took a deep breath before returning to her mother at the dinner table. She swore she wouldn't let her antics ruin her mom's fine dining experience.
"Sorry about that," she said when she approached their table.
Diane glanced at her daughter with a knowing smirk. "Your lips are swollen."
Her fingers immediately went to her mouth and she rubbed her lips lightly as if that would help. "Fuck."
"What am I going to do with the two of you?" Her mother shook her head.
"Lock me in my room for another five months," Alex demanded. "That's the only way I can promise to keep my hands off of her."
Diane giggled and then gave her daughter a solemn look. "You've been smart for five months; only five more to go."
The brunette raised her glass and clinked it against her mom's as if it were a toast.
Piper and Alex made eyes at each other throughout dinner, and Diane only had to slap her daughter's knee under the table once for being too obvious.
If anyone had asked Alex what she ordered at Anthony's that evening, she wouldn't have been able to recall. Meat of some kind. Her attention was solely focused on Piper, a fact that wasn't lost on her mother.
As they made their way out of the restaurant after dessert, Alex looked back at Piper. The blonde gave her a small smile and mouthed, "Bye, Alex."
Alex's heart broke a little more at that moment, and part of her wanted to run back inside and declare her love for the student in front of everyone. She wasn't that stupid; instead, she got into the car with her mom and left her lover at the restaurant, hoping that hers was the only evening that was partially ruined.
"Did I ruin your evening?" she asked her mom.
"Of course not," Diane replied. "The food and service were terrific. So was the scenery. I think you might've enjoyed the scenery a little more than I did though."
Alex huffed. "That was Dante's version of hell."
"I don't know what that means, but I assume you're saying it was hard to see Piper there and not be with her."
"Bingo," she sighed.
"I'm proud of you, kid," Diane offered. "It would be so easy for you to throw caution to the breeze, and say, 'fuck the law.'"
"It's throw caution to the 'wind,' mom." Alex chuckled. "And thank you. It has definitely not been easy."
The women arrived at home, and Alex excused herself to her room. She took off her dress, slipped on her favorite t-shirt, and then crawled into bed. The only time she didn't think about Piper was when she was sleeping, but she wasn't the type of person who remembered her dreams, so even then, she most likely had her potential lover on her mind.