Miranda's girl (DWP Story) chapter 1
Summary:
Andrea Sachs left her devilish Boss Miranda Priestly in Paris and now works for The New York Mirror. But our Andy isn't exactly very happy with her new life because something's missing.
Notes:
The Devil wears Prada belongs to Lauren Weisberger & 20th Century Fox
Pairing: Miranda/Andy
Genre: Romance/Drama
Rating: K-M
Miranda's girl
No she wasn't the Miranda-girl, like Christian Thompson had put it, anymore. She had quit, well not officially, not via email or some repentant, but reasonable letter, instead she had literally turned her back on Miranda Priestly, when she had decided to walk away from that woman during Fashion Week in Paris last fall.
Now she was working at the New York Mirror and pretended to be happy and pleased with her new job. Andrea Sachs finally worked as a journalist - a proper one - something she had always wanted to be since she was a little girl. Andy got the chance to write about serious things - not some silly stuff like fashion anyway - not to forget - because of her former boss's supportive email to her current boss and the assurance that he would be the moron of the century, if he would dare to refuse hiring Andy.
Yesterday her article about the new poor middleclass in New York City had jumped to page two and meant a great success for the youngest reporter at the Mirror. Her boss treated Andy pretty friendly and with respect; he even allowed the young woman to call for him if she needed his advice or something else to start with her fresh career. Such manners would have been impossible in the eyes of a self-centered, ignorant and vicious woman like Miranda Priestly.
To describe Andy's condition right now: she should have felt very glad and happy. She should. But she did not. As ridiculous as it seemed, something - better someone - was missing in her life. Andrea Sachs missed Miranda Priestly very much. She longed for her former boss like a sinner for salvation - like the desert for rain - like an addict for drugs - like a little kid for its chocolate at Christmas and gifts at its Birthday. She felt desperate and foolish and rather helpless - to summarize she felt like an idiot.
For quite some time Andy had even considered visiting some shrink, because this couldn't be healthy and normal by any means. After almost eight months her life still seemed to depend on some mysterious urge to get treated like shit by a woman who barely knew who her second assistant and daily shadow Andrea Sachs actually had been. She never had wanted to know Andy as a person or the opinions Andy had had about lots of stuff Miranda did and hadn't done during her time at Runway. Miranda Priestly never cared about other people's thoughts at all. It wasn't something personal it was just Miranda-ish to live that way.
Last weekend Andrea had visited Nate in Boston. They were having a great time together until her ex-boyfriend began to talk about her ex-boss. Suddenly Andy's cheerful mood left her and she wanted to whimper and cry. Seconds later she sat at Nate's brand-new kitchen-table in his new and up to date kitchen crying her heart out over a bottle of cheap red wine. Her ex-boy friend's first reaction had been to take Andy in his familiar smelling strong arms to comfort her. He had tried to calm her down until she confessed the truth to him. "I wish I could go back to her…I mean Miranda!" She was shaking with the amount of emotions this confession had provoked in her.
Suddenly she had remembered the fight between Nate and herself on the street in front of Lily's exhibition before their breakup and his exact words afterwards. And in case you're wondering the person whose calls you always take, that's the relationship you're in. I hope you two are very happy together!
A heartbeat later she had answered one of Miranda's silly calls, who only had wanted her to remember some random details about one of many appointments for the next day. Andy had never been more thankful to listen to her Boss's icy and elegant voice on the phone talking about fashion-nonsense. From that day on until the afternoon in France, Miranda had developed to some kind of substitute for Nate, Andy's on-the-way-lost friends and family in her emotional world. She never had wanted it to be that way, for crying out loud. It had just happened. And she only realized it months later when it was too late.
But too late for what exactly? Andy wondered for the hundredth time, what if she had stayed at Runway? What if she hadn't left Miranda in Paris? Now she would have been Miranda Priestly's first assistant and Emily wouldn't have been there anymore.
Maybe Miranda would have acted the way Andy thought back then. Perhaps Emily would've gotten a promotion in order to keep Andy as first assistant? Who the heck knew? Sometimes her ex-boss wasn't that cruel and vicious as Andy thought her to be. From time to time Miranda had even been capable of surprising Andy to a certain extent. At least she had been unpredictable, that was one of Miranda's most important strengths. Miranda had proven that when she had promoted Jacqueline Follet instead of Nigel back then in Paris.
Anyway Nate - at that time and in his entirely new kitchen - had looked at her with irritation and asked: "What the hell are you talking about, Andy? Are you saying, that…that you miss her or something - the fashion monster? This woman is beyond subhuman. Do you understand? She treats people like shit. Don't you get it? That's the individual you care for? You even want to work for again? You've gotta be fucking kidding me!"
Nodding had been the only motion Andrea was able to perform. Without another word Nate grabbed his half-full wine glass and flung it towards the cupboard. When it burst into pieces, Andy stood and left his apartment.
That had happened two months before Andy received the call that finally turned her life upside down again and let her stop drinking all the time.
Andy's cell phone rang, but it made no sense, because it was the same model from the Elias Clarke Company she had thrown into the fountain at the Place de la Concorde in Paris months ago. It was exactly the same nerve-wracking jingle which had announced Miranda's wants and needs almost every day to Andy. She opened her eyes and her first look went to the clock on her nightstand. It showed 6:30 in the morning. Then in a sudden the ring tone changed into her current one and Andy answered the phone, still sleepy.
"Yes?"
"Emily's speaking."
WTF! "Emily?" Andy tried to wake up now.
"I think I told you so, yeah…that's still my name, Andrea. Hello again. How are…um…you?" Emily now sounded stiffly like a robot. Miranda Priestly's first assistant obviously had a hard time to ask something nice like this.
Andy gasped. "Huh…I am fine. I have two weeks off work for the summer and they started yesterday."
"Excellent", came Emily's short reply. Then nothing happened.
Andy tried small talk. "Maybe I will visit my family back in Ohio. Will you go on holiday during the summer, Emily?"
"Not so excellent", was the only thing Emily stated.
"What is that suppose to mean?" Andy began to feel uncomfortable.
"I mean, no, I will not have even one free minute. Perhaps you remember that it will be the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week here in New York City in a little less than two weeks."
Andy knew that of course, she still had Miranda's schedule in her mind - more than her own sometimes.
"Okay, yes, I forgot. Sorry. So what can I do for you?"
Emily took a deep breath at the end of the line and suddenly blurted out "Would you consider joining us again for two weeks?"
Andy closed her eyes and stopped breathing. Ohmygodohmygodohmygo-od...that can't be true! That'd be too good to be true. Yes, yes, yes...she would see Miranda again...again and again, every day. She would no longer have to embarrass herself by stalking her ex-boss in the middle of the night in front of the Elias-Clarke building to snatch only a short glimpse of the elegant white-haired woman before she got in her black Mercedes Limousine.
"Andy? Are you still there?"
"Yep. I am."
"So what? Must I beg you to get an answer before Christmas?" Emily snorted, already annoyed.
"Of course, I mean no, what am I to do? What happened anyway?" Andy sounded very excited now.
"Fine! We need a second assistant! Miranda fired Stacy yesterday. That wasn't exactly the best timing. I won't have the time to look for someone new, so Miranda made the suggestion to bring you back for two weeks in order to save the preparations for the New York Fashion week."
"Miranda did what? " Andy croaked.
"Well, yes. What can I tell her? Are you coming or not?"
"Right now?"
Andy imagined Emily rolling her eyes when she replied. "What did you think? Of course now and don't forget to bring one Starbucks, decaf, hot on your way!"
Emily hung up and Andrea Sachs laughed for the first time in months.
tbc.