Alex and McCullough found more excuses to run into one another as the week went by. Their favorite part of the day was when they met in the closet. They started hiding a blanket under the shelving units, which made things a tad cozier whenever they had sex. At night, they spoke on the phone so long Alex would run out of battery power. McCullough would bring her portable chargers just to be sure they could speak longer at night.
The next afternoon, Alex and McCullough were in their closet, naked and tangled up in one another atop their blanket. Alex checked the time and let out a grunt, sitting upright. "We should get moving. Count is in fifteen minutes" Alex said softly.
"Five more minutes," McCullough said.
"Do you want to risk getting caught? It's a miracle no one has found us yet. We're really pushing our luck," Alex replied.
McCullough frowned and put on a playful pout . "One more minute?" she asked.
"Okay," Alex chuckled lightly. She spread out on the blanket and gathered McCullough into her grasp. "One more minute." McCullough pecked Alex on the forehead and grazed her hand across Alex's cheek. "I wish we had more time." McCullough said softly.
"I know. I do too." Alex replied.
McCullough: "You do?"
Alex nodded. "I do. I fucking hate prison."
"That makes two of us," McCullough seconded.
"If you could be anywhere else, where would you be?" Alex asked.
McCullough looked at Alex with huge smirk. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now…because you wouldn't be there."
"All right, where would you want us to be?" Alex asked more specifically.
McCullough: "Somewhere cold. Where we could stay inside by a fireplace and watch snow fall through the window."
Alex grinned at the thought. "Like Sweden or Norway. Two steaming cups of coffee. Nowhere to be but on a bearskin rug, lit by the firelight. I definitely could go for that."
They kissed for several more minutes before reluctantly letting one another go. Once their blanket was hidden, they left the closet a few moments apart. Alex barely made it to her cell by count. After count, she sat on her bed with the book she got from McCullough. She had finished reading it, but she liked to flip through and look at McCullough's handwriting from her childhood. Soon, her cellphone vibrated against her ankle. She snuck a look and saw Piper was calling.
Alex slipped off to the showers to answer the call. Piper was on the line and sounded dejected as Alex was. "Hey. It's me. I'm back in New York." Piper said
"Okay," Alex replied.
"I thought I'd come visit tomorrow. Talk about things," Piper said.
Alex felt dread pool in her gut. "Right. We need to do that."
"So…tomorrow?" Piper asked.
"Tomorrow," Alex agreed.
Piper let out a low breath as she replied back. "Okay. I'll see you then."
Alex: "Bye, Pipes."
Alex ended their call. A torrent of emotions crashed down upon her. There was Piper, her beautiful wife, the woman she had loved for over a decade. That love was still there. Part of her had missed Piper while she away. There was just something about her that she could never shake. Piper was in her soul, and that wasn't never going to change.
Yet, she had spent a full month with McCullough. McCullough made her feel things she just didn't feel with Piper. She looked so forward to her time with McCullough that the thought of being apart made her ache. Not even Piper had made her feel this way.
"You're in a fucking mess, Vause," Alex thought to herself. "A fucking mess."
YOU ARE READING
A HEALTHY LOVE
Storie d'AmoreAU - McCullough narrowly avoids confronting Piper after her breakup with Alex. The next day their conversation takes a slightly different turn, one that leaves things between them in a much better place. As Alex and Piper's marriage starts to fall a...
