Medical leave (a Mirandy fanfic)

Chapter 8: Coming to terms

As week went on, both women seemed to  gravitate ever more strongly towards each other. A furtive glance, the grazing of fingers, coy smiles, flattering remarks or stepping closer than necessary, way into personal space.

The twins didn't remain ignorant to the fact that their mom looked more relaxed, even when it was one of the busiests times of the year, or that she tried to be home for dinner, or that she smiled and laugh on a daily basis, and one time even cackled at one of Andy's antics. Miranda Priestly was a serious woman and not a single soul would have believed that her assistant had managed to make her cackle.

Nigel and Emily were also privy that something must have been going on. Miranda hadn't ratcheted to Dragon Mode in a while. Even when the photograph team made the same mistake twice she didn't fire them, of course she had breathed fire and threatened with not only fire them but blacklist them, but things didn't escalate further. Nigel was surprised that Miranda was actually excited (in her own Miranda way) when  it was time to return home, and Emily could have sworn that she had heard a whispered "thank you" from the editor. The head of the art department and his assistant were sure something was going on in the Priestly household, and that "something" most certainly had to do with a particular brunette dwelling there. 

Firday came and November ended. Next friday the December issue would be released in all its wondrous glory and that would give Miranda time to ultimate details and explore the new edition thoroughly. Once, a few years ago, the twins had decided that Friday night should be pizza night, much to Miranda's dismay. After harsh negotiations, both parties reached an agreement: pizza night would be once every fortnight, as long as they could have ice cream for dessert. When Andrea was informed that tonight would be pizza night she smiled widely and an enthusiastic whoop escaped her mouth. Andy really loved pizza and Miranda felt the unwise need to turn every night into pizza night if that made the young woman happy.

Miranda discovered a few interesting things that night. First, Andrea loved the pepperoni topping; second, Andrea loved white chocolate and creamy cherry ice cream;  and third, she made the most sensual noises when moaning in delight at the food.

As they went through the last spoonfuls of ice cream, Cassidy spoke:

-"Umh, Andy?"

-"Yes, Cass?" - Andrea's smile was almost instantaneous when it came to the girls-

-"We were wondering if you, uhm, we..."

-"Would you like to go to the Museum with us tomorrow?" - Caroline summed up- "If you feel like going, that is"

-"Oh, right. The butterflies exhibition, sure. Of course, let's go" 

-"Yes! Told you she would agree, scaredy-cat" - Caroline whispered to her sister and Cassidy elbowed her ribs - 

-"Girls..." - Miranda warned to her over-energetic twins - 

-"Will you come with us, mom?" - Cassidy intervened before she could continue-

-"Pleeeeease" - Caroline chimed- 

-"Preety, preety pleeeeeease" - both pleaded and Andrea joined the chorus-

-"Really, Andrea? Don't think you'll be able to apply these techniques at Runway" - Miranda reminded her rolling her eyes in feigned annoyance - 

-"Not at all, but I'll make good use of them as long as I can" - Andy replied, smugness exuding from her. 

Cheeky, Miranda thought, a very daring kitten.

-"Girls, is not that I don't want to go to the Museum but this weekend is your father's birthday. I thought you'd spend it with him" - Miranda reminded- 

-"Uuuugh, mooooom" - Cassidy protested - "We'd much rather stay this weekend"

-"Yeah, besides since he got a new girlfriend they've been all lovey-dovey. He won't even notice we're not there" - Caroline added, shrugging- 

-"Caroline, your father loves you both just as much as I do"

-"We're not saying he doesn't love us, mom" - Cassidy corrected- " But he's got certain... priorities issues. You don't, you have Andy and we have fun anyway"  

Andrea choked on her ice cream and Miranda went deathly pale.

-"Anyway, we could go to the exhibition early in the morning and take the afternoon train to Dad's" - Cassidy observed as her sister assented. 

-"Uh... ah, of course. You do that" -Miranda agreed absentmindedly, sipping her glass. Andrea was still trying to recover from her coughing bout-

-"Great, then. The Museum opens at 8 am, we don't need a guided visit so anytime afterwards will be fine" - trust Cassidy to organise a suitable schedule - 

-"We can have luch together and Roy can drive us to the station later" -Caroline pointed-

-"You have everything solved then" - Miranda remarked and both girls smiled - "What do you think... Andrea?" -  after she had been exposed so blatantly, Miranda didn't trust her tongue and decided to double-check her manners - 

-"I, uh, uhm...fine. It's good, it's a good plan, I like the plan. Let's go with that" - the brunette rambled thourgh the sentence, looking anywhere but Miranda. The girls only smiled wider -