A Place To Call My Home

Chapter 6

Alex rolled over, "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, she's just worried. She's the only one that knows about what's going on with Jack, aside from you."

Piper felt Alex pull her in close for a quick kiss, "I meant what I said last night Piper, I'm not letting you go back there with him."

"I know, I appreciate it Alex, but I can't stay away forever."

"All I'm saying is that you need time to clear your head, and you can do that here. He doesn't know you're here."

Piper didn't want to talk about it anymore and cuddled into Alex as they stayed in bed longer still. She didn't really know what she was doing with this woman, but it felt good. At the same time she didn't want to just give up on Jack, but she didn't think she was in love with him anymore.

The two women eventually got up and had a quick shower before Nicky arrived. Piper borrowed a pair of shorts and a plain white t-shirt from Alex, which were slightly too big but she didn't mind. She actually liked wearing Alex's clothes, but again, didn't want to think too carefully about why. Just as Alex was making them coffee, there was a knock at the front door. Piper almost froze, she knew it was just Nicky, but she felt nervous about being honest with her friend about what had happened with Jack in the last two weeks. Alex walked to the door to let Nicky in, and Piper noticed how much slower she was moving compared to last night. Alex had told her she was just feeling stiff and sore, but Piper hated it, it was just a reminder about how her relationship had fallen apart and her life was a mess.

"You must be Nicky, I'm Alex," Alex extended her hand to the shorter woman, who took it before asking where Piper was.

Piper walked towards the front door, it had been a few weeks since she'd seen Nicky, she didn't realise how much she'd actually missed her best friend. Alex stepped aside and let Nicky into the apartment, and Piper didn't waste any time in giving her friend a hug, "You got some explaining to do blondie, what the hell is going on?"

0-0-0-0-0-0

Alex wanted to give Piper and Nicky some time alone, it looked like Piper would be doing a lot of talking with her friend. Alex excused herself and went into her office to catch up on emails. She still had to finalise details of her next trip to Indonesia, she would need to organise meetings with some of Kubra's key contacts there and arrange shipments over the next six months. She finalised some flight details and called Fahri to confirm drop offs in the next few days, plus she needed to give him the cash she'd collected from her own customers. Just as she was about to hang up the phone, he wanted more details on her new customers, "How much cash are you generating from the list I gave you? The newbies should be giving us a good boost, they always go hard in the first few months. Let's meet up in a couple days, see how much each of them are bringing in, we need to maximise your local cash flow."

Alex just agreed and ended the conversation. She would need to crunch some numbers before her meeting with Fahri, but she already knew she'd be topping up the cash she was meant to be collecting from Piper. Alex didn't care, she had plenty of cash, but she had to be careful. It wouldn't look good if Fahri ever found out she wasn't maximising her sales from Piper. Even though she considered Fahri a good friend, it was still about business, and he couldn't protect her from Kubra.

She went back into the lounge room to see how Piper and Nicky were going. She saw the two friends sitting close to each other on the couch, Piper was staring straight ahead while Nicky kept looking at her with a worried look on her face. Nicky looked up and saw Alex as she sat down gingerly in the armchair across from the two women, "Thanks, for being there for Piper."

Alex nodded, "Yeah, of course."

Nicky then turned her attention back to Piper, "I'll fucking kill you myself if you go back to him Piper. I know it's hard, but you need to get out, now."