Medical leave (a Mirandy fanfic)

Chapter 16: out

Thursday morning arrived. Miranda woke up short after six and promptly and quietly left for Runway, not without earlier kissing her lover and bidding her girls goodbye. That day the December issue was supposed to go printing and the editor wanted to make sure it'd be perfect to submit it by noon. Since the "incident" with the previous edition, Miranda made sure to keep the closest eye ever on the draft. Only people deemed reliable had access to it and the submissions from each department were delivered to Miranda herself.

The silver-haired editor had soon started to put two and two together and through a very discreet investigation, followed the clues up to a new employee in the technical support team at Elias-Clarke. After a brief record investigation, she found that shortly before being hired at Runway, the man had been fired from pretty renowned lawyers buffet for disclosing private information regarding clients of the firm. Coincidentally, Irv's nephew was part of said buffet, how convenient. Miranda of course wondered how on earth could such man land on Runway, considering the zealous discretion Elias-Clarke held towards their publications. After a short visit to HR, she kicked herself for asking stupid questions. Andrea's ally and Irv's most fervient enemy, Giselle,  told Miranda that the man had been hired on Irv's insistence. The board hadn't been informed of such decision, which was required given the dubious circumstances that led to Joshua's unemployment, and Giselle confessed not having the slightest idea when he was hired. He just popped up in the system over night.

Trust Irv to be a complete and utter imbecile.

Miranda went through the book for the umpteenth time. It would be the last check before sending it to printing when Nigel barged into her office. Miranda only looked at him over the rim of her glasses.

-"I don't recall having asked for you, Nigel. Do we have not enough to do that you fancy loitering around my office?"

-"Save the snarky remarks, you'll need them for the press" - Nigel continued unscathed and placed a stack of magazines on her desk. Miranda arched a brow.

-"Yes, that's pretty much what we do here, Nigel. Magazines, this is a fashion magazine" - Nigel was unable to refrain from rolling his eyes.

-"Oh for God's... just take a look at them, would you?" - he said, signaling the pile and Miranda complied grudgingly.

Her eyes widened and she looked at Nigel for answers.

-"I see you've remained blissfully ignorant up until now" - he wiped her glasses-

-"When?"  - was all Miranda managed to utter, without tearing her eyes from the paper - 

-"Those are fresh news, just landed on the magazine stalls. On the internet, though, two hours ago"

-"Wh-how?" -she flicked furiously through the pages-

-"I think we both know the answer" - he retorted, devoid of any sarcasm. Miranda took off her glasses and pinched her nose - "I'll tell Janette to put the PR head of department on the line" - he said already on his way out - 

At the townhouse, Andrea had taken up Miranda's study as a base for her "let's get a job or die trying" campaign. She had been e-mailing cv's left and right since Tuesday morning, so she was almost done with the list Janette had sent her, which comprised the generous amount of twenty renowned editorial houses, some other twenty journals and a dozen of minor publications with a promising horizon in the market. The editorial and publishing industry was merciless and the brunette couldn't wait to build a name for herself. 

She was quite happy when the day before the New York Mirror Editor's  secretary called her to appoint an interview. Well, after almost fifty cv's sent someone had to show interest, hadn't they? Andrea knew it was a medium-size newspaper, not quite renowned, but Miranda had told her that the editor-in-chief, Greg, was an encouraging man with an eye for new talents.