A Place To Call My Home

Chapter 3

If I had to touch feelings

I would lose my soul

The way I do

Piper woke up just after 10am Saturday morning, still holding Alex's arm against her chest. The overwhelming warmth she felt the night before was gone, and she was left feeling sleepy, but surprisingly calm. She carefully untangled herself from Alex, picked up her clothes from the night before and went into the bathroom. Standing in the cold bathroom, the tiles below her feet, Piper stood in front of the mirror and just looked at herself. She wasn't sure how to describe the previous night. It should have been weird, but it wasn't. It shouldn't have happened at all, but she was glad it did.

She peeked into the bedroom and saw that Alex was still asleep, her arms outstretched over Piper's side of the bed, the sheet pulled up over her shoulders. Even looking at Alex, she still couldn't describe her feelings about last night. So Piper decided to let it go for the moment, and had a quick shower before Alex woke up. If Alex wasn't still in her bed, she would have stayed in the shower all morning. The warm water running down her face and chest, it felt just like the warm feelings running through her body last night next to Alex on the couch.

Piper ended her shower and pulled on her clothes from last night, before getting back into bed. She lay on her side and watched Alex sleep, she wanted to reach out and touch her but didn't. The freedom and courage she felt the night before had disappeared, so she kept her hands to herself and had to be satisfied with looking. The digital clock on her bedside table clicked past 11am, and Alex's phone had rang twice, but the brunette still kept sleeping. Piper decided it was time to wake her up, otherwise she looked like she would keep sleeping all afternoon.

Piper leaned a bit closer and started talking, "Alex....Alex, it's almost noon." The brunette started to stir but kept her eyes closed. Piper leaned in closer again, "Your phone keeps ringing, I wasn't sure if you were late for something?"

The mention of ringing made Alex open her eyes immediately and turn over to grab her phone from the bedside table. She seemed relieved when she looked at the screen to see who the calls had come from, "Shit, you scared me kid."

"You're scared of missed phone calls?" Piper smirked and kept her eyes trained on Alex, who kept the sheet pulled up over her chest.

"You remember who I work for right?"

Piper just looked back at Alex, reality hitting her after her drug fuelled happiness of the night before. Alex didn't work for the local newspaper, she was a drug dealer. Missing a meeting or annoying her boss meant something different for her than most people. "So who's so desperate to talk to you on a Saturday morning?"

"My mum actually, I've been travelling a lot lately, I haven't gotten around to talking to her since I've been back."

Piper almost felt bad for asking, her own mother was certainly never overly concerned about how often they spoke. Piper's mind then started to wander, thinking about whether Alex's mum knew what her daughter did for a living, maybe that's why she was so anxious to speak to her. Or maybe she just wanted to speak to her daughter for no other reason than love. That was a foreign concept to Piper. At least she had another day until Jack got home, she just hoped he'd come back to her in a good mood.

*******

Alex got dressed quickly and said her goodbyes to Piper, giving the blonde her number for when she wanted to make another purchase. Alex walked out the front door and started walking down the street, she started walking quickly for no particular reason, she just felt like she needed to exert some energy. She enjoyed her night with Piper, but knew she couldn't let it happen again. This was business, this was a new responsibility she'd be given, and she couldn't afford to fuck it up. From here on in, she had to be more careful around Piper, even if she really did feel like there was something special about her.