Two days later, Piper was back on night shift and not looking forward to it. After a day kicking ass in guided field extraction training, going back to IT felt like a step back. Okay, so maybe kicking ass was a bit of an overstatement but she hadn't failed so that had to count for something. Agent Lahiri, a senior agent working in Field Ops, had actually said that Piper had some of the best instincts that she had seen. Piper was thinking of getting that written on a mug and dropping it off on Samson's desk.
Was she looking forward to a twelve hour shift in the deserted T branch, all alone? Not really. But it did give her a lot more time to think about Two – correction, Harry. To be totally honest, she had spent way too much time thinking about him over the last couple of days. It seemed that every time she closed her eyes, his face popped into her mind. His striking green eyes, his gorgeous head of hair, and that smile that could light up the city.
If he could see into her mind, just glimpse for one moment how much she actually thought about him, she'd never see him again. She'd scare him off that fast.
Maybe a night shift would be good for her. It would give her the chance to set her mind on other things. If she focused and dedicated her time, she could probably finish that code she had been working on to block the program on the computer that tracked internet usage. Then she'd be able to entertain herself on these long nights – facebook, twitter, youtube, or maybe even the holy grail of distraction, Netflix.
Obviously she had her priorities set out.
Straightening the smart coat she had purchased the other day to celebrate being promoted, Piper locked up her flat behind her. She lived in a three story walk-up above a pub. Her flat was the middle floor which meant she was able to enjoy the sounds of both the rowdy drunks below her and her neighbour's dog above her. She loved Bertie to death but he could be so loud sometimes.
"Speak of the devil and he shall appear," Piper muttered when she heard the familiar tinkle of Bertie's name tag on his collar. Within seconds, the big setter had appeared at the top of the stairs through the open door of his master's apartment. When he caught sight of her, his tail began to wag ferociously behind him and he took the stairs two at a time until he was sitting before her.
"Hello lovely," Piper muttered to him. "Who's a good boy? Sit, Bertie."
Bertie wiggled his tail a couple more times before plopping down on his bum. He looked up at her with his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. From this angle, it almost looked like he was smiling.
"Good boy, Bertie," Piper said, scratching him behind the ear quickly before holding out her hand. "How's about a handshake?"
Bertie lifted his left paw and placed it in her right hand. Piper frowned over-dramatically, playing a role for the puppy. "That's not how you give a handshake, mister."
Bertie, probably the most brilliant dog on the planet, took his left paw back and replaced it with his right. Piper shook it emphatically, using her other hand to scratch his head. "A proper gentleman, you are."
"Excuse me." Piper looked up from where she was crouched over and groaned. Standing at the top of the stairs was her upstairs neighbour, Clive. Like usual, he was dressed entirely inappropriately in a velvet dressing gown and suede loafers. Piper was almost 100% sure that Clive was naked under that dressing gown. She had been flashed one too many times to assume the man was wearing pants.
"Evening Clive," Piper said in a monotone, droning the common drivel that was expected when one greeted their mostly mad, extremely nosy upstairs neighbour.
"Yes, evening Piper," he replied shortly, storming down the steps. Piper averted her eyes as the bottom of his robe began to flap open, preventing herself from being scarred for life. "I hate to be a bother but I have to remind you once more not to play with my dog."
He didn't hate to be a bother – he loved to be a bother. They both knew it. Clive found whatever excuse he could to rag on Piper about something. The recycling bin can't be more than three feet from the building or it won't get picked up. You can't leave your umbrella in our stairway to dry, you must bring it into your apartment. You aren't allowed to prop the door open for any reason according to the rental agreement. Sometimes, Piper wondered if he did it just for a chance to chat with someone because she highly doubted that Clive had real life friends with his personality.
"Aw, how can you say that Clive?" Piper reached down to give Bertie a scratch on the head. "He's just such a good dog, yes he is."
"I ask that you do not speak to him in... that voice."
"It's not a big deal, Clive. And anyways, I don't force myself on him. Bertie comes down to see me because he likes me."
"His name is Albert."
Piper resisted the urge to roll her eyes dramatically. Come on. Who names a dog Albert? Anyways, the nickname hadn't been intentional. She had called him that accidentally one time and it had made him perk up like she was dangling a steak in front of him. She liked to think he preferred it.
"I'm so sorry, Albert," Piper said, addressing the dog. He whined, reaching up to scratch his paw over his ear as he did. If that wasn't a sign, Piper didn't know what was.
"I'll have you know, Piper, that I've enrolled Albert in obedience classes," Clive continued, his nasally voice starting to give her a headache behind her right eye. "He's been doing very poorly with it and the instructor believes it's because someone is giving him mixed messages and using incorrect commands."
"I don't believe it," Piper cooed at Bertie as she bent over, rubbing his shoulder blades with her hands soothingly. He leaned up and placed a wet kiss on her cheek. "Bertie is much too smart to be doing poorly with his obedience training. Isn't that right lovely? You know lots of things. Now sit up straight and proper."
Bertie sat up, his front paws coming off the floor so he was sitting back on his bum. "Now cover your eyes because this is the scary part," she told him, laughing when he brought his paws up to cover his eyes for a moment. "Get down! Someone's in the flat." Bertie crouched and then pressed himself flat to the ground. "Evasive maneuvers, Bertie!" He began to wiggle forward on his belly, before rolling over and back onto his feet. "Oh no! Here they come!" Piper held up her right hand so it was shaped like a gun. She pointed it at Bertie and made gunshot sounds. Bertie jolted back with each shot and then sunk down, playing dead.
"And scene," Piper called out and Bertie rolled over and back onto his feet. He was panting, his tongue hanging from the side of his mouth. He looked utterly joyful. Piper clapped enthusiastically. "Take a bow, Bertie."
Bertie leaned his bum back in the air until he was flat, his upper body close to the ground and his tail wagging in the air. He stretched back forward and Piper reached down to give him a pet and a hearty pat on the shoulder. "That's my good boy, Bertie."
When Piper glanced up, she had to try her hardest not to laugh at the stunned and slightly horrified expression on Clive's face. He was gaping at the two of them, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. "You," he said finally, almost in a growl, as he waggled a finger in Piper's direction. "You're ruining everything!"
"It's just some innocent fun Clive."
"I want you to stay away from my dog!"
"Fine," Piper said, raising her hands in innocence and stepping away from Bertie. Thinking it was another part of the act, Bertie sat back and raised his paws in the air, mimicking her pose. Piper snorted and then burst out laughing.
"I'm serious, Piper," Clive hollered as he stormed down the last few steps, taking Bertie by the collar and using it to pull him away from Piper and toward the stairs. "If you don't stop teaching Bertie – damn it, Albert! – if you keep teaching him these foolish tricks, I'm going to call the police."
"You're going to call the police because I'm training your dog behind your back?"
"Exactly!"
"Good luck with that, Clive." Piper chuckled under her breath, turning away from Clive and stepping down the first few steps leading to the ground floor. She glanced over her shoulder, waving her fingers in Bertie's direction. "Goodnight Bertie."
Bertie barked once before sticking his tongue back out of his mouth. His tail was wagging back and forth steadily and he yanked on Clive's hold on his collar. Piper blew him a kiss before skipping down the rest of the steps. She could hear Clive muttering behind her but she paid him little mind. She never gave Clive too much of her time or her thoughts.
Piper stepped out onto the street, sidestepping before she was run over by a family trying to get past her to the little restaurant three doors down. Most of the time, Piper loved her flat in the heart of Whitechapel. Sure, living above a pub could be a real pain and the people were interesting but it was also close to lots of shops that she liked and it was a quick walk to the tube. Plus, something entertaining always seemed to be going on.
Piper heard a bark and glanced up. Sure enough, there was Bertie, standing near the window up on the second floor of the building. His tail was wagging back and forth, his gaze directed at Piper. It made her smile, keeping her in a positive mood as she started her journey to work.
She honestly loved that dog. Sometimes, it felt like he was her dog anyway. Clive often left his door open (for whatever reason – he did some truly strange things) so Bertie made his way down to Piper's door. At night, every so often, she would hear scratching at the door and when she opened it, Bertie would be sitting innocently on the other side. She always invited him in to curl up on her bed with her. She just made sure to get up in the morning to make sure he got back upstairs before Clive woke up.
She had trained him without thinking about it. It started out as simple commands just to get him to cooperate when he ended up in her flat and then transitioned into the fun tricks she had been showing off to Clive earlier. She highly doubted that Bertie was failing his obedience course because he was bad at following directions. She suspected that it was because Clive insisted on calling him Albert. At heart, he was really a Bertie.
Piper was thinking that she should get Bertie a treat for his excellent performance earlier, maybe a bone or a new squeaky toy. Yes, that was it. A squeaky toy would drive Clive crazy. She made a mental note to pick one up on the way home tomorrow morning.
She was almost to the tube station and on the corner, she could see her first stop of the evening. The familiar Starbucks sign glowed in the dimming light of the evening and Piper made a beeline for it. Usually she wasn't much of a coffee drinker but on nights when she worked the overnight shift in T branch, which was just about the dullest job possible, she needed the pick me up or she was likely to fall asleep at her desk and wakeup the next morning in a puddle of her own drool with a pink slip taped to her forehead.
Stepping into the Starbucks was like stepping into a warm oven (in a good way, not a wicked witch gingerbread house way). It was delightfully warm and smelled like fresh coffee and cinnamon. The tables were filled with twenty-somethings typing away on Mac computers. The line wasn't too long so she joined it quickly, rubbing her hands a little to warm them up. It was nearing December and it was starting to get quite cold by now.
Piper let her eyes roam as the line moved slowly ahead of her. Mrs. Brixby, a sweet old lady that lived down the street from her flat and ran the convenience store on the corner, waved from where she was sitting near the back. Piper waved back and gave her a kind smile.
"What can I get you?"
Piper turned around at the voice right in front of her and laid eyes on the most handsome barista she had ever seen. His caramel coloured eyes were warm and seemed to have a twinkle of a laugh in them despite the fact that we wasn't laughing. He had messy brown hair and a day's worth of scruff on his jaw, and the most gorgeous cheekbones that Piper had ever seen on a man. When it took a moment for Piper to gain her composure, he smiled gently at her, his lips tugging sideways just a bit.
"Um, right," Piper muttered, not even blinking, unable to get her thoughts together. "Um, a drink, yeah. Order something already, right?"
The man laughed, crossing his arms on top of the display case holding all of the baked goods. "No rush," he assured her, his northern accent colouring his words. "I don't have anywhere to be."
Piper chuckled, feeling just a tad less awkward. She put a hand on her cheek, grimacing when she felt how warm it was. It was a curse of being redheaded – everyone knew how you were feeling all the time. "Unfortunately I do," Piper informed him with a shrug. "So I think I'll just get a pumpkin spice latte, a grande please."
"Coming right up," the man said as he jotted the code for the drink on the side of the cup. "And what's your name, love?"
"Piper," she told him with a smile.
"Piper," he repeated as he scrawled it down. "That's lovely."
"Thanks."
"Just go on and give Kelsey your money," he told her as he walked away from the counter toward the espresso machine. Piper smiled to herself at his mannerisms and his words. He seemed like the kind of guy she would like. Heck, he seemed like the kind of guy anyone would like.
She stepped up and handed her money over to the girl working the till and then meandered over to the bar to wait for her drink. The man was working smoothly behind the machine like he was well practiced at it. He had his tongue poking out between his lips as he concentrated. After a moment of working on something, he handed the cup over to Piper across the counter.
"There you are, love," he said with a small smile. "Hope you enjoy it."
Piper glanced down at the mug and noticed that he had made a design in the foam. It took her a moment but she realized it was a beautiful swan etched into the top of her drink. "That's gorgeous," she said a little breathlessly, looking up at the man. He had been cleaning the machine but gave her a broad grin at her compliment.
"Thanks. I like to think of myself as a bit of an amateur artist."
"Not an amateur, that's for sure." Piper stared down at the design. "I almost don't want to drink it."
"Nah, don't worry about it," the man said, waving it off. "It's like snapchat. You look at it for a few seconds and then it's gone. Go on and drink it."
Piper lifted the cup and took a sip, revelling in the taste of the pumpkin spice on her tongue. She sighed, satisfied, and then thumbed the foam from her lip carefully. "Perfect," she told him. "Thanks so much for this."
"It's nothing, just my job."
"It made my day," Piper said honestly, feeling a little embarrassed that it was true. Her life was pretty pathetic when the most exciting thing was coffee. Then again, she hadn't seen Harry today so what could really compare?
"Have a good one, love," he told her with an affirmative head nod. "I hope I'll see you again."
"Me too."
An order was called and the man shrugged apologetically before taking the cup from his coworker. Piper took that as her time to leave. Walking across the store, Piper took another sip of her latte, probably the best one she'd ever had.
She was definitely hoping she would see him again.
Stepping out on the street, Piper reached into her coat pocket, fishing for her oyster card. When she didn't find it, she juggled the cup into her other hand and dove into her other pocket. She came up empty handed again and she glanced down, pulling her pocket open to see if she could see it.
She collided hard with a body in front of her, jolting backwards and nearly losing her footing. The cup in her hand slammed into her body and the lid flipped right off, dowsing her brand new coat in pumpkin spice latte. She hissed as the hot liquid soaked through, dripping down and landing on her boots.
"Fucking hell," Piper swore, her eyes shooting up, prepared to give the person who hit her a piece of her mind.
That was until she saw him. As her eyes drifted from his feet up to his face, she gulped.
He was tall and big and damn, he was hot. He was wearing a polished suit with a black overcoat on top, a navy scarf wound around his neck. His brown hair was combed back from his forehead, displaying his brown eyes that were hard as he stared her down. His jaw was tense and he was scowling at her. She thought it might actually make him sexier.
"Watch where you're going," he barked at her, his voice smooth.
"Sorry? You ran into me," Piper corrected. "And, I'm not sure if you noticed, but I am covered in coffee while you're standing here clean. I think the apology should be the other way around."
"It's not my fault you can't manage walking in a straight line. Or keeping an eye in front of you."
"Hold on a minute. This isn't my fault. I looked down for a moment. And you should have noticed me coming too. You could have stepped out of my way."
"You were in my way," he retorted. Piper's blood began to boil and she tried her hardest to keep the rage from slipping out of her. It wouldn't do to get into an altercation in the middle of the street.
"Fine," Piper said tersely, speaking through gritted teeth as she attempted not to yell at this ignorant man. "Let's both agree to say sorry. I'm sorry I wasn't looking. Your turn."
The man smirked infuriatingly and Piper felt her palm twitch with the urge to reach up and smack it right off his face. "Nice try princess," the man said coolly, leaning in a little closer. "Next time, watch your step."
Piper's jaw dropped open, her brow narrowing in outrage. Why the smarmy git! These were the days she wished she were taller and had a little more power behind her martial arts training because there was nothing she would love more than to toss this arse to the ground with a well-placed roundhouse kick. Unfortunately, he was quite a deal bigger and she was almost sure that he could squash her like a bug.
He stepped around her before she could say anything, walking off at a relaxed pace. And the worst part? He didn't look like he had a care in the fucking world. Like he hadn't just milled down an innocent woman in the street.
"Twat," Piper hissed under her breath, startling an elderly man who was walking by. She smiled apologetically at him but he continued to scowl at her. Rolling her eyes, Piper turned back toward the Starbucks. She really needed that coffee now.
There wasn't a line up when she came back in and the man was standing behind the counter, leaning against the back as he waited for something to do. When he caught sight of her, he smiled at first. It fell from his face when he saw the coffee stain covering the front of her coat.
"That doesn't look good," he commented as Piper approached the counter. "What happened?"
"Some arsehole just plowed me down on the sidewalk and made me spill my coffee," Piper explained getting worked up all over again. "The worst part was he tried to make it off as my fault and just waltzed off. Not a single drop got on him but it's my fault somehow?"
"Sorry, love," the man said with a sympathetic shrug. "Some people are just awful. Can't do anything about it really except ignore them and try not to let it bother you." Piper must have looked awfully pathetic because he reached for the cups and walked over to the espresso machine. "Let me make you a new one, yeah?"
"That would be amazing," Piper said honestly. "What do I owe you? 3 quid?"
"Nah, it's on me."
"I couldn't," Piper tried to insist but he was shaking his head, already halfway through making the drink.
"After all this? I'm sure you could use the coffee."
Piper walked over to the bar slowly, resting her arm on it while she watched the man make her a new drink. "Thanks so much for doing this."
"It's no problem, love."
"Well, at least let me get your name so I can write you a fabulous review on the website and the company can give you like, a free drink or a pen or something."
The man laughed quietly as he poured the hot milk into the cup, giving it a stir to mix in the pumpkin spices. "It's Zayn."
"Zayn," Piper echoed. "That's an interesting name. I like it."
"Thanks. Didn't pick it or anything but I'll still take the credit."
Piper snickered and then tried to cover up the embarrassing sound with a cough. "You know," Piper said offhand, trying desperately to change the subject, "I come here almost every time I work the night shift, which is actually a lot, and I don't think I've seen you working here before."
Zayn froze for a moment. At first Piper thought she had said something wrong but she hadn't really. He must have been concentrating on her latte art again. "I'm new," he told her eventually, lifting the cup over to her. A flower stretched across the top of her foam and Piper smiled at the gesture.
"Ta," she muttered before sipping the coffee. "Ah, that's good. You seem awfully good at this to just be new."
Zayn gave her a funny look, almost like he was impressed. It unsettled Piper a little bit so she shook it off, taking another sip of her coffee. "I'm a transfer. Used to work as a barista back home and I needed some extra cash so I came back to it."
"What else do you do?" she questioned.
"This and that," he answered vaguely with what was supposed to be a nonchalant shrug. "Mostly I work in information."
"IT?" Piper asked surprised. "I work IT as well. More the technology though. What kind of information do you work with?"
"It's more information retrieval," Zayn told her. "I work as a headhunter."
"Really?" Piper had lots of experience with employee recruiters, having been actively recruited to the SIS. Zayn didn't seem the type. Also, headhunters made a lot more money than a barista would. "I didn't think headhunters usually worked second jobs."
Zayn grimaced a little, crossing his arms in what extensive body language training had taught Piper was a defensive, protective pose. "I'm actually between jobs right now."
"Oh, I'm sorry." She felt guilty for prying now. "I'm sure things will turn around soon."
"They already have," he said with a little smile. "I've met you, haven't I?"
Piper must have been bright red because her cheeks felt very hot all of a sudden. She had been begging for a boyfriend for years now and within a week, she had met three very handsome men, one of whom was a rude tosser and two of whom seemed to be interested in her. What was going on with this world?
"Forgive me if I'm being a little bit forward," Zayn said, leaning his hip against the counter and making the conversation a little more private, "but I really like you Piper. Do you think you might want to go out sometime? Maybe Friday? I know a great band playing."
Piper bit her lip, thinking of the best way to proceed. Sure, Zayn was cute and he was such a sweet guy but she had a date with Harry on Thursday. And if that went well, she wanted very much for there to be a date number two. It wouldn't be right for her to make plans with Zayn knowing all that.
"Listen, you're a really great guy and I'm sure we'd have a great time," Piper said gently, trying to let him down easy, "but I've got a date with someone on Thursday."
"So?" Zayn asked with a casual shrug of his shoulders. "Thursday and Friday are two different days."
"To be honest?" Piper paused and Zayn nodded for her to continue. "I really like the bloke I'm seeing on Thursday. I'm hoping it goes well and this date turns into more. It wouldn't feel right for me to agree to anything with you with that in mind."
Zayn looked thoughtful for a moment and then a smile spread across his lips. "You, Piper, are an exemplary woman. A real class act." Piper flushed at the compliment. "I hope everything goes well with you and this bloke on Thursday."
"Thanks," Piper said shyly, smiling into the lid of her cup. "So do I." Taking one more sip of the drink before she went on her way gave Piper the chance to get a good look at Zayn one more time. "I really do hope I'll see you around more. It's been nice chatting with you."
"You as well," Zayn agreed. "And you will be seeing more of me. I'm almost sure of it."
There was something cryptic in his tone that gave Piper pause but she brushed it off as her crazy imagination. SIS training had given her an even worse case of paranoia than she already had. "Well, it's been nice and – fuck, is that the time? Oh bollocks, I'm so bloody late. Sorry Zayn," Piper called as she made a dash for the door, "I'll be seeing you, yeah?"
Before Zayn had a chance to answer, Piper bolted, yanking the door open and making a run for the tube.
The train was actually on her side today so she made it to Vauxhall station without too many problems, other than the usual overcrowding at this time of day plus a smelly man who had sat next to her almost the entire trip. Piper didn't even care because she made it into the building at five minutes to 8 o'clock which gave her enough time to catch her breath so it didn't look like she had been running late.
Agent Lahiri, her new direct superior, was waiting to greet her in her office in O branch. O branch was where Piper desperately wanted to be. Agents working in O branch were involved in operations, working closely with agents overseas in anything from intelligence gathering to target acquisition. Piper had gotten a taste for it with Two and now she was hooked. It was all she wanted to do.
O branch was certainly nicer than T branch. The techs that worked in T branch were all stuck in one big room with desks shoved together. No privacy and no quiet. It was so infuriating, especially when something needed to get done and the person at the next desk was playing Minecraft with the sound on. People could at least have the common decency to break the company rules silently, like Piper did when she shopped online from Vauxhall Cross servers.
Piper had thought that people in S and Q branch (scientific and technical/R&D branches, respectively) had it made. S branch was filled with peaceful labs where the only thing interrupting the thought process was the occasional biohazard alarm or minor explosion. If Piper was more into chemistry or biology, she'd probably be pounding at the door begging for entrance.
Alas, Piper was like most of the other boys working their way up through T branch and would much rather have the chance to play around in Q branch. It was like an engineer's wet dream – work space everywhere, all the high-end technical machinery that one could need, state of the art mathematical computers, and even a robot competition arena (for testing purposes, of course). While Piper was more inclined to the computer development aspect of Q branch, she couldn't deny that some of the little gadgets they spent their time making were pretty damn cool. Also the guns. She liked the guns.
O branch, though, was the real Shangri-La for someone like Piper, who was interested in technological applications rather than development. She wanted to be designing and running software for field operations, doing guided field missions, and developing strategies for missions overseas. Plus, everyone in O branch had an actual, honest to god office. In Piper's eyes, nothing could beat the office.
Agent Lahiri was happy to see her which was nice. It felt nice to be appreciated once in a while, something she had never really gotten in T branch from her colleagues. She was just one of the crowd with them, fiddling around on her computer all day. Up here in O branch, she was an up-in-comer, one to watch out for.
Her superior agent gave Piper her instructions for the night – basically, answer the phone and don't cause trouble – plus some additional online training modules in preparation for her next shift in O branch on Thursday morning. At least she would have something to keep her busy for the next twelve hours instead of her just twiddling her thumbs.
Piper used a nearby phone to direct incoming IT calls to her headset and then took her time on her way down to T branch, stopping in at the lounge in Q branch. Thankfully, there were no agents lurking around this time (the last thing Piper needed after the coffee debacle was having to see Samson's face) and she was able to reheat her latte in peace. She checked the fridge while the microwave was going and perked up when she saw a container sitting near the back. She dragged it out quickly, depositing the big box on the counter top.
Property of Sandra W. the top read. And then, scrawled below that to the person who ate my brownies – DO NOT TOUCH. Well, that was rude. Sure, Piper had finished Sandra W.'s brownies, but she had at least left a note of apology which included a very nice compliment of Sandra W.'s baking style. Okay, so maybe the note was anonymous because Piper had been afraid that Sandra W. was going to bake arsenic into her next treat and leave it out on Piper's desk, but at least she had made the effort.
"Well, Sandra W.," Piper grumbled to herself as she ripped the top off of the box, "if you don't trust anyone to not eat your things, don't leave them in the fridge."
Piper couldn't be mad at Sandra W. for long because inside the box was a fresh loaf of zucchini bread, which was one of Piper's absolute favourites. Her mum was not an accomplished cook – in fact, Piper's father had always joked that her mum's cooking was a weapon of mass destruction. But she did make a good loaf which cycled depending on the season: zucchini bread in the summer, pumpkin bread in the autumn, clementine pistachio loaf in the winter, and banana blueberry bread in the spring. While Piper loved pumpkin more than she probably should (it was a source of ginger hair jokes all through school), zucchini bread had always brought about more excitement when she saw it cooling in the kitchen.
Of course, since Piper was just a little bit bitter and also because she couldn't resist zucchini bread, she cut herself a good sized slice from the loaf, wrapping it in a napkin so she could take it back to her desk with her coffee. She put the box back in the fridge, shoving it right in the back where she had found it. Take that Sandra W.
She wandered down to T branch, flicking on a couple lights to brighten the way. Technically, they were supposed to be turned off since she was the only one down here but it sort of freaked her out being down here alone, despite the fact that it was one of the most secure places in London. One too many horror films as a child had ruined her for life.
She picked at the zucchini bread as she went, moaning in appreciation as the rich taste touched her tongue. Hot damn, Sandra W. was in the wrong career. Not that Piper was going to tell her anytime soon. She was still sour about the snarky attitude of that note.
She had a big chunk of zucchini bread in her mouth when she stepped into the large main room of T branch, stopping short when she realized that she wasn't alone. Two people were sitting at a desk in the corner, illuminated by the desk light lit up beside them. One was tapping away at the computer while the other sat propped on the end, swinging his legs beneath him. Neither of them looked familiar.
Piper took cautious steps forward into the room, being as quiet as she could. It wasn't until she was about halfway toward them that she realized they were sitting at her desk. Her fear quickly transitioned into anger. Who the hell was invading her privacy, fucking around on her computer? This was not on. Totally. Not. On.
Piper shoved the zucchini bread into her mouth in one go so she would have at least one free hand to fight with, her coffee being held by the other. The bread was a mistake though because there was too much of it and she sort of choked on it, coughing a little which made both of the men look up from where they had been doing God knows what.
"There she is," the one sitting on the desk said with a wide grin. Piper stopped in her tracks, her eyes widening like a deer in headlights as she tried to process what was going on. Who was this blond fellow and how did he know her? "Hello gorgeous," he continued as his legs swung beneath him. "We were wondering when you'd show up."
"Here we are waiting for you," the brunet said with a put upon scowl as he glanced up from her computer screen, "and you didn't even bring us any of your snack."
Piper was silent for a moment, her brain trying to catch up and failing miserably at it. "S'not mine," she said finally around the zucchini bread still in her mouth. She chewed and swallowed hard, nearly choking again. "It's Sandra W's."
"Ah, Sandra W.," the blond said wistfully as he placed his hand to his chest, "a girl after me own heart."
"You know Sandra W.?"
"Sure I do," he said with a shrug. "Lovely lass, works up in Q branch as a resource manager. She's just caught her husband sneaking around with her younger sister. Such a shame. But she does bake a lot more now so that's a plus. She always manages to get me new walkie talkies when I break mine too. Lovely lass."
"They're not called walkie talkies anymore," the other man said as he rolled his eyes hard, shaking his head disdainfully. "And if you stopped putting them in your back pocket, you'd stop sitting on them and breaking them."
The blond responded to this by kicking the back of the brunet's chair, causing him to jolt forward and hit his ribs on the desk. The brunet reached back and swatted at the blond's leg.
"Sorry, but could we step back for a moment," Piper interrupted. Both of the men stopped and looked back at her with varying degrees of interest. "Who the hell are you and why are you at my desk?"
"Me name's Niall," the blond said proudly, touching his hand gently to his chest as if they were Tarzan and Jane, her being Tarzan in this situation, "and this is Louis."
"Charmed," Louis said, sounding sarcastic as he crossed his arms across his chest and just studied her for a moment. Piper felt her skin getting hot around her collar and hoped beyond all hopes that she hadn't turned bright red as she was so prone to doing.
Louis's blue eyes were piercing and powerful. She honestly felt like he could see right into her very soul every time he looked at her. It didn't help that he wasn't bad looking either. In fact, these two added to the other three men she had been introduced to this week made up five attractive men that had dropped into her life in one week. Coincidence? She thought not.
Louis's hair was a brighter brown than Harry's but was just about as wild. It was messy, brushed forward over his forehead a bit and was the kind of hair that you just wanted to run your hands through. Not curly like Harry's but it certainly had body. He needed a shave but Piper thought it actually accentuated his face being a little rough like that. He seemed a bit smaller than his friend, based on how he looked in the chair, but his arms bulged with muscle when he crossed them.
She had to tear her eyes away and they unfortunately just landed on Niall, who had a boyish sort of attractiveness to him. His blond hair was swept up and off to the side, showing his face better. He had the brightest eyes Piper had ever seen, a pale blue colour that reminded her of the sea right off. His smile, which was stretched across his face even now, was wide and showed off a set of perfect white teeth.
Piper cleared her throat, dropping her eyes back to her cup as she tried to get some semblance over her raging hormones. Stop it Piper.
"Niall and Louis," she repeated, nodding to herself before glancing up at the two of them once more. "Still not sure who you are and what you're doing at my desk."
"Maybe it would help if we introduced ourselves differently. I'm Three," Louis said pointing back to himself with his thumb. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder in Niall's direction. "And that idiot is Five."
"Oi, 'm not an idiot," Niall called out, kicking his leg out and missing Louis's chair by a hair's width.
Piper on the other hand gasped quite dramatically before she could stop herself. "Oh my gosh," she muttered as she covered her mouth with her free hand, "you two are part of," she leaned forward to whisper, "One Direction?"
"No need to whisper, love," Louis said, smiling. He was laughing at her. Well, fuck him. Just because she was trying to be discrete didn't mean she deserved to be laughed at. "No one's down here. I would know."
He tapped her computer monitor and Piper leaned over to get a look. Louis had somehow hacked onto her personal computer, bypassed all of the security that she had set up, then bypassed all of the R branch (security branch, that is) computer firewalls, and had opened up the internal security cameras on the screen. They were showing different entrances to T branch which guaranteed that if someone was coming in, Louis would see it.
"How did you get into my computer?" Piper muttered, staring with wide, horrified eyes at the screen. She had been under the impression that those firewalls were impenetrable.
"Louis's a bit of a computer genius," Niall said from behind her somewhere. "He does all that code mumbo jumbo, just like you do."
"Although I have to admit," Louis said as he leaned back casually in her chair, "this was the trickiest hack I've done in a while. You've got quite the way with code."
"Thanks," Piper mumbled, not sure whether she should be happy that an expert hacker had broken her system or horrified by it. "But why?"
"Ah, we just wanted to know a little bit about you," Louis answered as if that justified a complete invasion of her privacy. "Get an idea of what kind of person you were."
"Because?"
"Because if you're going to be sticking around, we want to know that we can trust you," Niall answered for him. "We're big on trust."
"I'm still lost." Piper was very confused and also starting to feel a little faint. If Louis had access to her computer, he had access to her browser history which was filled with Sherlock fanfiction, an online version of Pokémon Yellow, her Spotify playlist of S Club 7 songs, and links to the Step Up films. These were the kinds of things that could not be easily explained away.
"Why don't you sit, Pips?" Niall suggested, using his foot to drag over the chair from the desk beside hers. She sunk into it once it was close enough and sagged down, letting out a long sigh. She took a sip from her latte, trying to focus on the soothing pumpkin spice and not get totally freaked out that she was sitting with two more members of One Direction.
She froze after a moment, finally realizing what Niall had just said. "Did you – did you just call me Pips?" Niall nodded brightly. "But only my mum calls me Pips. How did you know that name?"
"Funny story really," Louis said in a strange voice, spinning the chair so he was facing away from her and focused back on the computer. "While I was doing a little snooping, your mum called?"
"She what!"
"I picked it up not realizing it would be her. That was not fun. I had to run through all your personnel files in about a half a second so I didn't blow your cover. I ended up telling her I was your secretary and she seemed surprised to know you had been promoted. You didn't tell her?"
"Tell her what!" Piper shouted, leaning forward so quickly that some of her coffee sloshed out of the cup and burned her hand a bit. "That I became an agent at the fucking SIS? How do you think she would have taken that?"
"No, I meant tell her about your promotion but under the guise of your cover," Louis corrected, giving her a funny look over his shoulder, as if he couldn't believe how thick she was. Dick. "I told her you were promoted to sales manager because you've had the highest sign-up rate for the last three months. Naturally, she was thrilled."
Thrilled was not the right word. Piper groaned, knowing that now she was never going to hear the end of this. Her mother, who had always hated Piper's cover job, was going to gush and tell everyone how proud she was of Piper because now she was a manager. Now her mom was going to ask to see her office and she was going to try and throw dinner parties for her "new work colleagues". All because Louis couldn't keep his mouth shut.
"Thanks a lot, wanker."
"Hey now," Louis said defensively as he swung back around in his chair. "I was only trying to be nice to her. Honestly, she is just lovely. Invited me and my bird over for dinner on Sunday."
"You are not going to my mum's house," Piper said sternly, pointing a finger into Louis's face aggressively.
"I don't know," Louis said with a shrug. "Sounded like it could be fun. I'd have to ask El what she thought –"
"No. No. Absolutely no. You are not going to my mum's for dinner. You are not speaking to my mum ever again. Frankly, I would prefer it if you didn't speak to me again."
"Oh come on," Louis whined, "I haven't even done anything."
"Except break into my work computer, invade my privacy, and tell my mum stories about me that aren't true! I could kill you right now, I really could. What gives you the right to go through my things and talk to my mother? We don't even know each other!"
"Well, that's the point, ain't it? I'm trying to get to know you."
"Why!" Piper yelled, getting to her feet because she couldn't stay sitting any longer when she was this worked up. "Why do you want to know me? Because of Harry?"
"Yes," Niall interrupted, surprising Piper a bit. She immediately lost her steam, letting her arms, which had been waving around erratically in the air, drop to her side. "This is about Harry."
"I don't get it."
"You know about us, Piper," Niall said slowly, pointing with his hand toward the chair she had just vacated. He waited until she sunk back down into it before continuing. "It is imperative that we can trust you with our secret. I'm sure you've figured out by now who we are and what kind of work we do."
Piper nodded, the solemn tone of the conversation making her hold her tongue. There were a billion things she wanted to say (well, that she wanted to yell) but she just kept quiet and waited for Niall to finish.
"No one in these offices can know who we are. The second our group stops being a secret we stop being affective. Unfortunately, because of some internal problems, our guy who usually does field extractions is no longer with us which is why C called you. You were a last resort, one that we wish we hadn't had to use."
Well, that felt like shit, basically being told that they wished Piper had never helped Harry out overseas. Was she that terrible? Or was it just because they thought she was unworthy of knowing about their stupid black ops group? Did they think she was going to blab? Because she wasn't. She had some of the highest scores in torture resistance training and she had the certificates to prove it (although now that she thought about it, she had no idea where she had put them).
"I'm not some bumbling idiot from F branch," Piper said disdainfully, referring to the finance branch who always seemed to fuck up everything. "I've been trained and certified just like any other agent in this building. I'm not stupid enough to expose you guys."
"Ugh, no, you daft lass," Niall said with a hint of admonishment in his voice though it was gentle, as if scolding a little sister who's trying to play with the big boys. "You're missing my point."
"What Niall is trying to say is that now that you know about us and you've worked with us, you're one of us." Piper stared over at Louis like he had two heads.
"One of you?" she squeaked out because she was pretty sure she had misheard or had a minor stroke or something because he did not just say those three words in that order and actually mean it.
"We have a lot of enemies." Louis looked grave and he took a pause to rub a hand over his stubble, pondering his next words carefully. "We try to keep our operation as small as possible to protect others from our work, and more importantly from the people who work against us. That's why no one here at MI6 knows about who we really are. The problem is that now you know about us."
"The second you have any information about us," Niall cut in, "is the second your life goes from mundane to dangerous. Living with the knowledge of what we do is like living on the knife's edge."
"The only way we can protect you is if we tell you more about us and bring you into the circle." Louis leaned forward and let his voice drop a bit, sounding gentler. "The more we tell you about us, the farther into this thing you get. We need to be able to trust you with some seriously important information and not worry it will get us or, more importantly, you into trouble. Do you get us now?"
Piper nodded her head slowly, unable to say anything just yet. The words were finally starting to set in a bit. They weren't accusing her of being untrustworthy or irresponsible. They were actually trying to look out for her. It was sort of nice but also a little horrifying. She had never imagined that helping Harry out of danger would put her into it.
"The thing is," Niall said after letting her digest that for a moment, "Harry's keen on doing more than just telling you about us."
"Harry?" Piper queried, wondering how he came into all this. She hadn't spoken to him about it much, just him telling her about being discrete the other day.
"I don't know what you said to him on the radio Saturday night," Louis said with a smarmy smirk, "but you've got him under your spell."
"I resent that," Piper said with a frown. "And also I have no idea what you mean."
"He's got his eye on you to take over from where our last incompetent field operations analyst left off. He wants you trained by MI6 so that you can come work for us and do Harry's field missions."
"I'm sorry," Piper stuttered, absolutely sure she had misheard, "say that again?"
"Harry wants you on the team," Louis reiterated.
That was certainly not where she had thought this was going. She was still convinced that Harry had only recommended her to C because he felt sorry for how absolutely awful she had been. After all, he had nearly been shot at and blown to bits because she had no idea what she was doing. She found it hard to believe that Harry wanted her to do that all over again the next time his life was in danger.
"Are you sure?" she questioned. "Me?"
"Yes," Louis nodded slowly as if she was the slow one, and Niall chuckled in the background. "You. He really likes you."
"So he's taking me out on Thursday night to get me to join you guys? It's some sort of recruitment dinner?"
"Nah, I'm pretty sure he's taking you out 'cause he wants to fuck you."
"Jesus Christ, Louis," Niall scolded as he smacked Louis hard on the shoulder. "Have some fucking class."
"Me?" Piper said again, really sounding stupid this time.
"You are proper fit," Niall agreed, letting his eyes drift quickly down her body and then back up to her face. Piper made sure that he knew she was unimpressed by this. "And wonderfully charming when you aren't swearing up a mean streak and threatening to kill us."
Piper gave him a sarcastic smile before rounding her gaze on Louis. "Okay, so I get why you've come 'round to chat with me about all this and I do appreciate that you're trying to keep me from being kidnapped and maimed because I know who you are, but that still doesn't give you permission to break into my computer."
"Are you still on about this?" Louis whined, letting his body flop back into the chair dramatically before he sat up. "Listen. We just wanted to get to know more about who you were."
"And that meant breaking into my computer? You could have just asked me."
"No, see, this is how I do things." Louis pointed back at the computer over his shoulder. "This is my domain."
"I don't understand."
"See, the thing about One Direction that you have to know is that the five of us work together because we all have our specialties," Niall explained, using his hands to illustrate his point, moving them around dramatically. "Harry's, as you could probably already tell, is field work, specifically covert operations and undercover work. He's sort of gifted at becoming who he needs to be to get a job done and he is just as good with hand to hand combat as he is in seducing information out of someone. On the other hand, Louis is best behind the scenes. He is sort of a mastermind with technology. He can break any code and hack any system you put in front of him."
"So why don't you be Harry's analyst then," Piper shot at Louis in a snarky voice.
"I'm rubbish at the strategy," he admitted honestly. "I'd get him blown up within a second of him putting me in charge."
"The point is," Niall said, drawing them back by raising his voice, "that Louis broke into your computer because that's how he knows to get information."
Piper could understand that. Computers were her safe zone too and if there was a way to get everything she needed in life from a computer, she would never leave it alone. To be honest, if someone asked her to get information on someone else, her computer would be the first place she went for answers. "Okay, I guess that makes sense," she conceded, though not happily. "But it would have been a lot easier to just talk to me."
"Somebody has already tried that way," Louis grumbled, eyeing her coffee mug suspiciously. "I'd recognize Zayn's writing anywhere."
"Z-Zayn? Wait a moment – you know Zayn, from Starbucks?"
"Trust me, Pips," Niall said with a bright laugh, "he's definitely not from Starbucks."
"But he made my coffee this evening."
"Thinks he's so clever," Louis continued to grumble, crossing his arms like a child. "Dresses himself up like a barista and pretends to be your best friend and coaxes a couple sentences out of you. Well I'll show him. I know everything about you and I bet all he knows is your name. I got invited to Sunday dinner at your mum's house. Let's see him beat that."
"What the hell is he going on about?" Piper asked Niall as Louis continued to scowl and talk to himself.
"The boss asked us to find out more about you," Niall explained, "so Louis and Zayn turned it into a bet. They both think they're the best at information collection so they bet the other that they could find out more about you. I'm pretty sure the loser has to be the target at the shooting range next week."
"Are you all bloody mad?" Piper hissed. "My life is not a game for you lot to bet on."
"It's all good fun." Niall was smiling but Piper was doing anything but. She was not amused at all with how this had turned out.
"I can't believe Zayn is one of you. He actually seemed like a nice guy."
"Zayn's Four," Niall told her. "He's our intel guy. He's got his nose into everything and he hears every word from the street. He manages to get his hands on even the most top secret information. He's got tons of ways to do it but his favourite is getting into a character and befriending people. He's so easy to talk to."
Now that Piper thought about it, he was easy to talk to. Had she said anything incriminating to him? She didn't think so but she wasn't really sure. She was pretty sure that if they had talked long enough, she would have told Zayn her life story. He just seemed like such a good listener.
"I'm sure if Zayn had some plot of him working in a coffee shop, then Liam was in on it too," Louis muttered, tapping his chin as he thought it through. "Let's see, coffee shop. What could his act be in a coffee shop? He was the barista?"
"Yes."
"Did you chat for a long time?"
"Not the first time 'round but the second time, yeah."
"Second time," Louis repeated before he sat up, a eureka look on his face. "That's it. Let me guess, you ran into someone outside of the coffee shop."
"Yeah."
"Because you couldn't find your, hmm, your wallet, maybe?"
"My oyster card," Piper said breathlessly, staring at Louis in disbelief. "How could you possibly have known that?"
"We've done that one before. It's one of Liam's favourites."
"Liam – you mean that big guy who nearly crushed me on the sidewalk was one of you?"
"Yeah, Liam, he's One," Niall confirmed.
"That bloody wanker owes me a new coat!"
Louis snickered. "He would hate to hear you call him a wanker. He's such a gentle giant, Liam. I'm sure that he hated whatever he did to you."
"I highly doubt it." Piper remembered the look on his face as he leaned in and called her 'princess' and she was angry all over again. "The next time I see that twat I'm going to punch him right in the throat."
Niall leaned back and practically erupted with laughter, a hand wrapping around his middle as if he needed to hold himself together. When he finally caught his breath, he had to wipe a tear from his eye. "Oh, she's brilliant. I want to keep her."
Piper bristled at that, crossing her arms unhappily. "Let me guess. Liam is the muscle of the group."
"Close," Louis answered. "He's the weapons specialist."
"Bloody typical."
"You'll get to know him better," Louis said with a shrug, "and then he'll be your best mate. Everyone likes Liam."
"Well, not me. I've never met anyone so rude, arrogant or selfish in my entire –"
The gentle ring of the phone interrupted what was sure to be an astounding tirade. Piper saw Louis reach for the receiver and leaned over to smack his hand away before he could. He hissed, retracting his hand immediately and narrowing his eyes at her. Piper ignored him, reaching up to tap the button on the side of her headset.
"Hello, IT."
"Good evening, Agent Stone." Piper perked up at the voice she heard on the other end, trying to place it. It sounded so familiar, a soft soprano voice that was almost melodic in its gentle lilt. "I hope you are doing well."
It hit Piper and she sat back in her chair with a huff of laughter. "You're that woman," she said. "The one from C's office the other day."
"Yes, I am," the woman said with a little chuckle that sounded like music. "I'm Eleanor Calder. Lovely to make your acquaintance."
"Er, sure, you too."
"If it's not too much trouble, could I please speak to Louis Tomlinson?"
Piper frowned, wondering who the hell she was talking about, until her eyes lighted on Louis. She covered the mouthpiece of the headset with her hand and squinted at Louis. "You Tomlinson?" she asked him, keeping her voice quiet so Miss. Calder didn't hear.
Louis nodded, holding out a hand for the headset. Piper grumbled to herself as she fumbled with it, trying to yank it off her head without also pulling out half of her hair. These things always seemed to get stuck.
Louis took it and placed it gingerly over his own head, spinning around in Piper's desk chair with a stupid grin on his face. "Hello, El, love. Just having a chat with –"
Louis cut off, cringing when the voice on the other end increased in volume loud enough that both Piper and Niall could hear it. Niall grimaced sympathetically.
"Please don't yell, love," Louis said when Eleanor seemed to lose steam. "We haven't done anything wrong."
"That's a lie," Piper said loud enough the mouthpiece on the headset could pick her up. Louis covered it with his hand and gave Piper a stern look, shushing her.
"Alright, I may have hacked her computer," Louis acquiesced with a heavy sigh. "But it was all in good faith and I didn't go snooping around too much." Louis rolled his eyes when the yelling started up again. "I know you said just MI6 files but their files are terrible. They don't ever include the important stuff."
Piper's jaw dropped, furious. Louis hadn't been instructed to break into her computer. He'd just been asked to review files? She wasn't sure what Eleanor had planned as punishment but Piper was sure as hell going to give Louis a piece of her mind.
"Hang on a second," Louis defended, sitting up proper in his chair and crossing his arms indignantly. "I'm not the only one. Niall is here too. And Zayn and Liam had some stupid plot at the coffee shop. Liam even ruined her coat." Louis sat frowning while Eleanor talked and then looked a little guilty. "Okay, so maybe none of us should have interfered, but can you blame us? We just want to know who she is."
Louis chewed on his fingernail as Eleanor started up once more. She said something and he scoffed. "Harry is bloody useless. He never does his homework." Talk, talk, talk. Piper sank back in her chair, frustrated that this entire conversation was one sided, especially when it was about her. "What do you mean Harry gave you shit? What's got his knickers in a bunch?"
Piper's ears perked up at the mention of Harry. He had given Eleanor shit? About the rest of his team interrogating her and playing tricks on her? Good riddance. It made Piper feel a little warm and fuzzy, just thinking that Harry had come to her defence.
"He can't be mad at you for wanting to dig a little into her history," Louis retorted with a dramatic roll of his eyes. "How did he even find out anyway?" Louis looked off to the side for a moment and then sighed heavily, shaking his head. "Why is Liam completely incapable of keeping a secret? I can't believe he blabbed to Harry – I don't care if he felt guilty."
"This is ridiculous," Piper muttered to Niall as she watched Louis spin in his chair – her chair – murmuring to Eleanor under his breath. "You're all so wrapped up in your secret spy league that you've forgotten how to have a proper conversation. Could you lot not have just invited me to lunch and asked me about myself?"
"Nah," Niall said with a shake of his head, an amused grin spread across his lips, "there's no fun in that, is there?"
"Fine, El," Louis said shortly as he stopped spinning. "We're leaving now. And tell Liam that I'm going to kill him the next time I see him." Louis looked angry for a moment but then a stupid grin spread across his face. "Love you too, darling."
He hung up, ripping the headset off and flinging it carelessly onto Piper's desk. She narrowed her eyes at him and his rude treatment of her equipment. She was going to call him a bad name and maybe kick him in the shin but he got to his feet before she could, grabbing Niall by the elbow and hoisting him up. "We've got to go," he told Niall. "El says if we're not out the front doors in three minutes, she's cutting our food budget."
Niall's eyes widened as horror took over his whole face. "No," he muttered gravely, brushing past Piper faster than she was expecting. "Hurry up Louis."
Louis rolled his eyes before setting them on Piper. "Lovely meeting you, Pips," he said, surprising Piper by leaning in to kiss each of her cheeks lightly. "I look forward to getting to know you better." He stepped around Piper as well, following Niall's path toward the door. "I'll see you on Sunday."
"You are not coming to my mother's house for Sunday dinner!"
Louis ignored her, chuckling to himself as he stepped out of T branch and disappeared. Piper had a feeling that they were going to be having two extra visitors to Sunday dinner this week.
Once she knew they were gone for good, Piper got out of the neighbouring chair and sunk into her own, spinning toward her desk and letting her body flop down onto the surface. God, she was exhausted and all she had done was talk to two agents. Well, technically four if she counted Zayn and Liam. One would have been too much for her.
Apparently Harry wanted to offer her a job with them. Piper was pretty sure accepting would kill her, just from trying to deal with the lot of them. They were certainly a handful, and a mystery.
Piper tried to shake off the whole evening, throwing herself into work instead. She plowed right through the training modules, breezing easily through lessons on surveillance programs and CCTV networks. This was stuff she already knew how to do. She had done her Masters thesis on identification programs used in CCTV networks all over Europe, linked to Interpol. Compared to that, these modules were child's play.
Once the modules were done, she was able to finish her browser code to block history tracking. With that completed, she put it to the test by tracking her own usage as she browsed Instagram. When the MI6 servers didn't pick up the activity, she felt safe enough to log into Netflix and spent the next six hours of her shift watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and drinking an unhealthy amount of tea. She was forced to stop around 0600 when people started arriving for the early shift.
By the time her shift was over, Piper was beat and ready to go home and fall into her bed. She cleaned up her things, locked her computer in six different ways, as usual, and then walked through the populated T branch towards the locker rooms. People greeted her on her way in as they walked out and she smiled half-heartedly at the friends she had made in T branch. Honestly, conversation was so beyond her at this point and she was glad when she made it to her locker without having to speak.
She was shocked to find her damaged coat hanging in a plastic bag, a dry-cleaning tag stuck to the top. She ripped the tag off and studied it. It was from a dry-cleaners she had never used before. It was a rush job and spot clean, and it hadn't been cheap. In the customer line, the cleaner had written Mr. Payne.
There was writing on the back that pressed through to the front of the tag so she flipped it over. In neat handwriting, there was a succinct note.
Dear Miss. Stone,
I am terribly sorry for the damage done to your coat earlier this evening. It was not my intention to cause you undue distress. I hope that the cleaning job is sufficient.
Additionally, I apologize for also taking your wallet. I hope it wasn't required.
Sincerely,
Liam Payne
"What?" Piper muttered to herself as she frowned at the last line. "What's he talking about? My wallet?"
Piper reached up into the locker, pulling her bag down so she could check it. She riffled through the contents and discovered that it was indeed missing. How had she not noticed? She had paid for the coffee –
No, Zayn had insisted on offering the second coffee for free. That bastard had known that Liam had taken her wallet and didn't want to get caught. "Of all the scummy, lowdown people, these two take the cake," Piper muttered as she ripped the plastic bag from her coat, slipping her arms into it and pulling it closed in front of her. There was an appreciable weight in the right front pocket and when she slipped her hand in, it curled around her wallet.
She pulled it out immediately, checking to make sure all of her cards and money were in place. They were, of course. It had never been Liam's intention to steal her money. He just wanted information which he had obviously gotten.
She wanted to be angry at Liam and Zayn for playing her like they had. It made her feel dirty for thinking that Zayn was a nice bloke, knowing that he had been laying it on thick for her, probably even lying to her. And Liam could have seriously hurt her, not that he seemed to care. For all she cared, they could both just fuck off.
But, she had to admit that it was pretty classy that Liam had come back to fix his errors. He could have left her with a damaged coat and just slipped her wallet back to her some other time. He had paid out of pocket to get her coat cleaned, though, which at least showed some remorse for his actions.
"Fuck this is exhausting," Piper muttered, rubbing her temple where it was starting to radiate pain. She needed to go home, drink something strong and knock herself out until she needed to be at work tomorrow morning.
After all, her date with Harry was tomorrow and she needed all her wits about her for that.
Piper let her head drop to her locker with a thud, reveling in the cool metal against her hot forehead. She was in over her head. She was up the creek without a paddle.
She was utterly fucked.
"What have I gotten myself into?"