Just a second, third, fourth time
The next day Miranda completely ignored Andy. Only when she needed something she called her. Not that Andy minded it that much. She was still pissed at Miranda for making her feel so blue. It had been Miranda that had started the kiss, not Andy. Came to think of it, all the times it had been Miranda who had started the kiss and coincidently it also had been Miranda who every time had stopped it before it could go any further.
Andy’s phone rang and she looked at the caller-ID, but she didn’t know the number.
‘This is Andy.’
‘Hey Andy, it’s Cassidy. We just called to say thank you!’
‘Cassidy? How did you get this number?’
‘We looked it up in our mom’s phone after she and Stephen went to bed.’
‘Oh, okay.’
The thought that Miranda and Stephen had gone to bed together twisted her stomach.
‘Anyway, we just wanted to say thank you. It must have been very hard to get that book.’
‘Yeah, well. I knew you two really wanted it, so I pulled some strings.’
‘We think it’s really cool. Except for mom, no one has ever done anything like that for us. So thanks, but I have to go now. Do you want to speak to Caro?’
‘Sure.’
‘Hey Andy. Thank you! I can’t believe you got that for us. It’s a really good book. You can borrow it when I have finished it.
‘Thanks, Caroline.’
‘We have to go, otherwise our teacher will get suspicious. So bye!’
‘Bye.’
Andy smiled. She was glad the twins liked her gift, seeing that she went through enough trouble to get it. Her mood considerably dropped when Miranda walked in and said she needed to speak with her. Andy followed her into her office and wrote down all of Miranda’s demands, but halfway she noticed something, a small mouth shaped bruise where Miranda’s neck met her shoulders. Normally Andy wouldn’t have seen it, but Miranda’s top had shifted slightly from her shoulder and the hickey was clearly visible. Andy felt nauseated, not really by the fact that Miranda had slept with her husband, but that Miranda had slept with her husband after she had kissed Andy. What had Andy been to Miranda, a way to excite herself before diving into bed with another person?
‘Is something wrong, Andrea?’
Andy shifted her gaze from the little blue spot to Miranda’s eyes and back to the bruise. Very slowly Miranda lifted her hand and touched the spot. She winced a little and then quickly adjusted her top, so that it was covering the hickey again.
‘That’s all,’ she whispered.
Andy quickly left and seated herself behind her desk. She let her head fall on the cold surface and took a deep breath. She could think only one thing: ‘Shit.’ She lifted her head when she heard a door opening.
‘What’s the matter, Six?’ Nigel asked.
‘Nothing, I’m just tired and I miss my friends. I haven’t seen them for a long time.’
‘Well, that’s what happens when your boss likes you. I think you’re closing in a promotion and that equals having no personal life.’
‘Gee, thanks Nigel,’ Andy replied sarcastically.
Nigel winked and then entered Miranda’s office. One sentence kept going around in Andy’s head. ‘That’s what happens when you’re boss likes you.’ Miranda liked her? She had an odd way of showing it. Andy shook her head and started to work on the list of tasks Miranda had given her. She couldn’t lose her attention now.
A couple of weeks passed and nothing happened. Andy was angry with Miranda for pushing her away all the time and Miranda seemed to ignore Andy as much as possible. Andy still had a lot of questions for Miranda, but she was too proud to ask them and she didn’t want to risk her career. That was also the only reason she was still working at Runway. Leaving there would have been a suicide for her career. She only had to last one year and then she could what she wanted to do, write.
Because Emily was not well, Miranda demanded that Andy would accompany her too at the benefit. Andy didn’t want to be near Miranda all night, but she didn’t have a choice. So with Nigel’s help she stood in a beautiful, black gown with Emily in the grand hall waiting for Miranda. When Miranda finally descended, she knocked the breath out of Andy. Andy couldn’t take her eyes of the creamy skin that begged to be touched and kissed. She couldn’t deny it any longer, she had to kiss Miranda again, whether she liked it or not.
She stayed close to Miranda all night, intoxicated by her perfume and appearance. That did not stop her to help not Miranda not once, but twice. First when Emily forgot a name, Andy had leaned forward and whispered it into Miranda’s ear. It had taken all her strength to not kiss the soft skin so close to her mouth. The second time was when Stephen turned up drunk and insulted Irv Ravitz. Andy managed to pull Irv away with a stupid question and when she looked up she saw that Miranda mouthed a ‘thank you’ to her. Andy got a warm feeling in her stomach. Miranda never said thank you.
After Irv had answered her question, which had already forgotten, she left. Or she tried to leave, because before she could, someone pulled her into a small room. It came as no surprise to Andy that Miranda once again kissed her. Andy knew that if she started anything now, she couldn’t finish it, because Miranda would pull away before she could end it, but she wanted to show Miranda that she would do anything for her.
She pushed Miranda backwards against a wall, still kissing her. Very slow she moved one hand down Miranda’s body over her breast, her stomach to her hip. There she started to pull the black fabric of Miranda’s gown up inch by inch until she could slip her hand underneath it. Miranda gasped when Andy caressed the soft thigh she found under the dress. When she moved her hand upwards she heard Miranda’s breathing become quicker. She kissed at the base of Miranda’s neck and then suddenly cupped her through the lace of her panties. Miranda moaned and pushed her hips hard onto Andy’s hand.
It seemed that only then it dawned upon her what she was doing. She pushed Andy away and shook her head.
‘I’m…no, I can’t. Stephen is here and…’
Andy silenced her with a very chaste kiss.
‘That’s okay,’ she said, ‘I’ll see you on Monday.’
Then she left the little room. She didn’t mind that Miranda had pushed her away again, because she would be back. Somehow Miranda always had to kiss her again and now Andy had given her something to think about. Maybe next time Andy could give Miranda what she wanted. Smiling Andy stepped into the car.
Paris, Miranda wanted Andy to come with her to Paris at the cost of Emily. That was last week. Now they were in Paris, the city of blinding lights. It was crazy, but in a good and beautiful way. Andy of course never really was into fashion, but she enjoyed all the beauty she saw on the runway and was speechless when she met Valentino.
That beauty and that joy all disappeared when she walked into Miranda’s room and found her boss stripped from all fashion and make-up with red-rimmed eyes. It was like seeing the Ice Queen without her crown, scepter and kingdom, only worse. Miranda talked and announced her third divorce and the things that troubled her mind, while Andy listened.
When Miranda stopped talking and went to sit beside her and wrapped an arm around her body and pulled her against her own body. Miranda didn’t cry, but she rested her head against Andy’s collarbone.
‘After I come back from dinner, will you stay here with me?’ Miranda asked after a couple of minutes.
‘Of course,’ Andy replied.
‘I have to get dressed,’ Miranda whispered against Andy’s chest, ‘but I don’t want you to leave.’
Andy placed her fingers under Miranda’s chin and lifted her head until she could look into Miranda’s sad eyes.
‘I won’t leave you, unless you want me to, but you have a dinner and so do I. I will come to your room as soon as it is over. Okay?’
‘That’s seems suitable,’ Miranda said, sounding a little more like her old self again.
Andy returned to her room and was told by Nigel that he would work with James Holt soon. After they toasted his new job and her size four ass, she went to dinner with Christian Thompson. He, of course, made a pass at her, which she kindly rejected. She returned to the hotel and immediately went to Miranda’s room.
Miranda stood in front of her window in a silk nightgown looking over the city. Andy wrapped her arms around Miranda’ waist and put her head on Miranda’s shoulder.
‘Hey,’ she said.
Miranda turned her head and gave Andy a soft kiss.
‘Hi,’ Miranda replied with a sad voice.
‘How are you feeling?’
‘Utterly terrible.’
‘I guess I can understand that. I would be crying my eyes out if my marriage would end.’
Miranda gave a fake chuckle.
‘That’s precisely the point, Andrea. It isn’t over, the trouble is just beginning.’
‘What do you mean?’ Andy asked, raising her eyebrows.
‘Go and look on the counter in the bathroom,’ Miranda simply replied.
Andy let go of Miranda and walked into the bathroom. She couldn’t believe what she saw on the counter.
‘You’re pregnant?!’ Andy exclaimed, while walking out of the bathroom holding the stick between two fingers.
Miranda hadn’t moved from her spot and was still looking at the Eiffel tower, but she nodded.
‘How, when?’ Andy blurted out.
‘Do I need to explain how? I don’t think you want to hear that, Andrea. As to when. I’m sure you remember when you saw the mark on my shoulder Stephen had left there. The night before, after you left, I felt guilty and tried to save my marriage. Not that it made any difference, seeing that Stephen already had another woman at that time.’
‘And now?’
Miranda turned away from the window and looked in Andy’s eyes.
‘For God’s sake, Andrea, will you throw that thing away,’ she snapped and pointed at the stick between Andy’s fingers.
When Andy returned from the bathroom, after throwing the stick away, Miranda had seated herself on the sofa.
‘And now?’ Andy repeated when she sat down next to Miranda.
Miranda sighed and shrugged.
‘I don’t know and I don’t want to think about it until after Fashion Week.’
‘But…’ Andy started.
‘Andrea, we will talk about tomorrow, but right now I’m tired and I want to sleep.
To argue with Miranda probably wasn’t the best idea, so Andy shut up. She lay down next to Miranda and wrapped her arms around the thin body and instinctively placed one hand on Miranda’s stomach. To her surprise Miranda didn’t snap at her.
‘Promise to never leave me,’ Miranda whispered after a couple of minutes.
‘I won’t leave you unless you want me to,’ Andy said firmly.
After that there was silence until the alarm went of the next morning. Andy first didn’t remember where she was, but it came back to her very quickly when she saw Miranda’s silver hair.
‘Good morning,’ Andy said.
‘I’m going to keep it, I think,’ Miranda said.
Keep it? Andy was clueless for a second and then she remembered. Miranda was pregnant.
‘You will?’
‘I think so. Despite what everyone might think about me, I’m not a heartless monster. I don’t think I could live with myself if I killed a child.’
‘Whatever you do, I will support you.’
After their talk they got up and Andy sneaked back to her room and got dressed for the luncheon. Her good mood vanished when Miranda made her announcement. Not Nigel, but Jaqueline got the James Holt job. She could not believe that Miranda, her Miranda, had done that.
‘Why did you do that?’ Andy asked the second they got in the car.
‘Why did I do what?’
‘Screw over Nigel like that! He was going to get the James Holt job.’
‘Perhaps it has gone unnoticed by you, but Irv Ravitz was out to get me replaced by Jaqueline Follet. I couldn’t lose Runway. Not now, not ever. No one can do what I do.’
‘But Nigel, I couldn’t do that to my friend.’
‘You already have, to Emily.’
‘What? That’s not the same. You didn’t give me a choice,’ Andy said barely able to contain her anger.
‘You had a choice. You chose to get ahead.’
‘No, Miranda, I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t leave you. I love you.’
It was out before Andy could stop herself. Very slowly Miranda turned her head towards Andy. Her expression was unreadable.
‘You love me?’
‘Uh, yes. I guess since you first kissed me.’
Miranda leaned forward and kissed Andy, not caring that the driver could see everything. When she pulled away for air, she whispered:
‘I love you too.’
‘You do?’ Andy asked.
‘Yes. Don’t be angry anymore and act normal, because I need you to do your job and when we get back to New York I’ll help you look for another job.’
‘Okay, wait, what?’
‘You can’t work for me and sleep with me. You’ll have to choose.’
Andy grinned, leaned forward and kissed Miranda again.
‘I think I pick the second.’
‘That’s what I thought, but mind you, it won’t be easy. The press will have a field day with the divorce and the baby and if you come into the picture as well, you’re private life will be over.’
‘I don’t care. I want to be with you and Caroline, Cassidy and your baby.’
Miranda smiled and it was a real smile for once.
‘Okay then that’s settled.’
‘That’s all,’ Andy joked, knowing that it wouldn’t piss off Miranda.