The Reign Of Vause

Piper's Christmas present

(Alex's POV)

Finally I had managed to form a club in Paris to be ready in 2 weeks notice. I had called staff from other branches of the club and asked them to fly out to Paris to set everything up for me. I had asked senior staff that I trusted to hire an interior designer and to make it look as close to the rest of my clubs as possible. Each club looked different in their own way because no building was the same in different locations. However, Piper and I wanted the club franchise to have consistency so 2 hours of sitting in my office later, I had finally bought and rebranded the club in Paris Piper and I used to spend so much time in together.
Our staff had reported back to me and said that we should expect it to be ready for us by the time we got there in 2 weeks for New Year's.

Smiling, I shut down my laptop and went to Piper's office, ready to pick her up so we could go home and get ready for our trip to Connecticut to spend Christmas with her family. She wasn't there. I frowned, confused.
I walked down to the conference room just to check if she was in a meeting that I didn't know about but it was empty and in darkness. My confusion grew. Where had my wife gone? I walked back up to our offices and knocked on Polly's door, she let me in.
"Hi Polly, I don't suppose you know where Piper has gone do you?" I ask her.
"Oh, yes, she told me to tell you that your friend Nicky called her, wanting her help with Christmas shopping. She left an hour and a half ago." She told me smiling as she herself was getting ready to leave.
"Why didn't she just tell me herself?" I ask her puzzled.
"She didn't want to disturb you again. You seemed pretty busy." She told me putting her coat on, grabbing her phone and keys.
"Oh. Okay. Thank you." I smiled and walked to the elevator. It dinged and I got in to go home alone. I wondered to myself why Nicky had called Piper, why not me or both of us? Was Piper planning on getting my Christmas gift? I looked at my cell phone, sure enough, there was a text from Piper and a missed call from Nicky. Piper's text read,

"Hi Al, sorry I left you in the office, Nicky called and asked if I could help her pick out a Christmas gift for Lorna. I told her yes and told Polly to tell you where I am. I'll see you back at home. I'm bringing home Chinese food for dinner so you can't steal mine this time. Love you xxx - P"

I cleared Nicky's missed call and answered Piper's text.

"That's fine. Also, the different cuisine won't help you there, why do you think they make chop sticks so long babe? See you at home. Love you too xxx- A"

Bzz bzz. Piper had replied instantly. She simply stated,

"Thief. But you're my thief. xxx"

I laughed and slid the phone back into my pocket. Smiling. This was the perfect opportunity for Piper's gift actually. I had asked for all of our guests' footage of our wedding, it didn't matter how long or short the clips were. Everyone had got back to me with their footage so I was planning on putting them together into one movie for Piper. I was also going to record myself at the start with a small message from me to her.
Once out of the building, I got into my Porsche and drove back to our apartment. I changed into more comfortable clothes and took out a camera, set it up opposite one of the couches and hit record. I then proceeded to sit on the couch and record myself.

"Hey Pipes baby. Well, this is our first Christmas together as a married couple soooo, my gift to you is a reminder of our wedding and it's shenanigans that we can watch together every year if you want. It can be our Vause family tradition. I love you, so much, enjoy and Merry Christmas babe." I say and blow a kiss into the camera.

I got up and stopped recording, putting the camera away, pleased with myself. I took the SIM card out and put it into my laptop.
Opening my laptop again, I placed every video file onto a USB pen. Once that was done, I shut down my laptop once more, grabbed the USB pen and headed out once more.
I got to an upmarket store that specialised in making personal DVDs. I didn't want to go to a cheap store that would have only fucked it up on me. I had already sent them copies of everyone's wedding footage so all they needed was my message to Piper and it would be ready tonight. I gave them the video file.
"Ok thanks Mrs Vause. Give us a sec and we'll have it ready for you within the hour." The manager told me so I left and got coffee from the nearest Starbucks.
An hour later, I came back and they handed me the DVD for $50 which I gave them.
"Thank you." I smile and leave.

Back home, I wrapped it in shiny red wrapping paper and tied it up in a neat, gold ribbon. To top it off, I taped a card to it which I then wrote on,

"To my beautiful wife,
Merry Christmas.
I love you.
xxxxxx
Al"

I kissed the card so I would leave a deliberate red lipstick stain. I put the pen and wrapping items away and hid Piper's gift in the drawer of my nightstand. I opened a bottle of wine from our wine cooler, poured myself a glass, put the lid back on the bottle and put it back in the cooler. I brought the glass over to the couch facing the TV and flopped down on it, flicking on the TV, taking my shoes off and putting my feet up on the coffee table. Waiting for Piper and dinner to come home.