Rating: Mature (Adult themes alluded to)
Pairing: Mirandy
A/N: After reading a quote prompted by silentrevyrie (2 lines about self-perceived happiness), I was haunted by it. Below is the result. As usual, I present a wry perspective - in this case, on global warming and horseback riding. Mature themes implied...
Happy New Year
02 January 2008; 9am
Runway offices; Elias-Clarke Building
Nigel pushed open the door to the conference room, carefully placed his stack of notes and sketches down, and sat in one of the uncomfortable, but visually stunning chairs. Within moments, he felt the thumping in his head ease up.
The minutes ticked by. Nigel shifted, trying not to think too much. He was vaguely aware that the other department heads were growing equally uneasy. Miranda was never late.
Serena pulled out her smart-phone and checked her email.
"She didn't send a notice to reschedule, did she?" Ashley queried from across the table.
"No. Nothing."
Nigel poured himself a glass of water. Ashley, the junior head of advertising, played with the new Pulse® pen she had bought during the holidays. Serena alternated between checking her phone for new messages and half-hearted 'to-do' list-making. Molly, Robert, Charles, and Cora discussed the New Year's Day parade and the results of the various college football games.
Just when a general calm had fully settled in, cloaking them in a warm, fuzzy, post-New Year's haze, Walter snapped a finger against the front page of the newspaper in his hands.
"Well, I'll be damned."
Walter, the head of the journalism department, passed the paper to Cora.
She snorted, "Wonders never cease." Now everyone's heads perked up. The awe in Cora's voice was not well disguised.
"What? Share." Serena prompted.
"It seems," Cora drawled as she scanned the column in her hand, "that Andy Sachs is in good spirits and doing quite well. Seems she is starting off the year with a new love interest and a step up the professional ladder. In fact…she has obtained real estate on the front page of the Mirror, at least twice a week." Cora looked up.
"Andy made it out alive. Wow." Charles intoned.
"I suppose global warming was bound to have an affect on Miranda at some point." Cora retorted.
Several chuckles ensued.
"Andy has her own column?" Ashley asked as she read over Cora's shoulder.
"Slick observation." Walter stated, dryly. He had a reputation for his harsh criticisms, and frequently directed his wrath on the younger members of his department. His bitterness likely a cover for the fact that he was a journalism dinosaur, surrounded by staff members who managed the Runway blog, Facebook page, and Tweets with as much ease as tieing their shoes.
Cora put the article down and they looked around the table at each other. Nigel made a motion to her and she passed it down the table to him.
"This means there is a slim glimmer of hope for the rest of us at some point, doesn't it?" Robert's face lit up.
"Oh, Polyanna, you are an optimist." Nigel grinned.
"Have to be, to work here." Charles quipped.
"And what's wrong with optimism?" Robert continued the conversation. "Here we are, at the beginning of a new year - a fresh start and a boss who has granted us several extra moments of peace before the wheels of fashion start another 12 months of grinding us down. I, for one, am quite happy."
The room was quiet for a brief moment, stunned silence at the rare display of positivity in their midst. Cora was the first to right the ship and return them to a sense of cynical normalcy.
"Most people who think they're happy just haven't thought about it enough."
Walter piped in, "Most people who think they're happy are actually just stupid."
At that moment, the glass doors to the room swung open and Miranda strode in.
Or rather, Charles noticed, she sauntered, walking in that strange manner that he and his sisters did after riding horses all day, back home in Tennessee.
"Happy New Year," she threw out in her usual monotone, while lowering herself with care into her seat at the head of the table.
Charles pricked up his eyebrows at the way she moved, wondering if she HAD gone horseback riding. He simply could NOT picture Miranda so close to dirt and dust, and, well, farm animals. His preoccupation with her body language prevented him from hearing what she had said.
The rest of the room, however, had definitely heard her. And they were stunned.
"Well, it seems that 2008 has brought me a room full of mute people. That should make this meeting go by all the more quickly." Miranda eyed them, finally settling her gaze on Nigel, seated just to her right.
"Nigel, I hope you took something for your hangover already. I could smell the vodka from the elevator. Do you have-"
She stopped mid-sentence, her gaze falling on the newspaper atop his stack of notes. Nigel quickly tucked it under his seat, blinked his eyes against the continued throb in his head, and focused his vision on his tablet.
"Happy New Year to you, as well, Miranda." Robert stated. The rest of the room visibly cringed, prepared for the unleashing of fiery wrath.
Instead, she smiled at him, warmly even, "Thank you."
Turning her gaze back to Nigel, she continued, "I must say while 2008 started out with me feeling quite happy," here, she put an emphasis on the word, "my hopes for the feeling to carry me through the year were dashed as soon as I entered this room." Her blue eyes flashed, irritably, and there was no doubt that any feeling of goodwill the Editor-In-Chief had when she walked in was long gone.
"Nigel. Do you-"
"Yes. We have the Alicia Keys cover shots for February, and…"
---
After the weekly staff meeting finished up, Charles, Serena and Cora went straight to the Art Department for a huddle with Nigel. The group quickly moved to the back area of the Closet.
"At long last, our Queen finally is getting shtuped properly." Cora stated in her usual, no-nonsense way. The other three considered her words.
"Well, that would make more sense than my idea," Charles mused. "Did you see the way she was walking when she entered and left the room? And the way she sat down? Like a woman who has been riding a horse all day."
"Oh, she was riding something all right." Nigel chuckled.
Charles blanched, "Oh. That's disgusting. I don't need that image."
Serena chuckled, "Well, it is about time, I think. She is a woman of great passion. This is good for her."
Nigel smirked, "Well, I, for one, don't want to ponder her sex life any further. If you don't mind, I need to direct my passion to pulling together the last few pages of the February issue before lunch."
---
Miranda sat at her desk, reviewing emails on her laptop. Her cell phone rang, bouncing across the magazines it sat atop. The customized ring tone brought a small smirk to her face.
She picked the device up quickly, but not before Emily and Jenny could hear it from the outer office.
Jenny looked quizzically up at the first assistant and whispered, "Was that Katy Perry's song—"
Emily shot her a look full of venom and put a finger to her lips. After a moment, she rose and carried a small stack of prints over to the second assistant's desk.
"If you want to continue breathing, I beg of you, forget what you think you heard."
Inside her office, Miranda had pivoted her chair towards the window, rose, and strode gingerly to the far corner.
"Andrea, the Emilys are already suspicious. This ring tone must go."
At the other end of the line, Andrea chuckled.
"Fine. But, did it make you smile?"
"I don't have to answer that. I'm already being ogled by my staff today. It seems my mood has altered visibly. There is even a bet circulating on whether or not I have been replaced by a pod-person."
"Since when do you care what other people think?"
"That's not the point. I can barely walk. And when I do, I am reminded of certain…pleasurable events. This won't do. How can I reprimand my staff when I am inadvertently feeling aftershocks from the past couple of days? Seriously, Andrea. Even my new balcony Myla bra is driving me to distraction."
"Miranda, I can't believe I'm the one saying this, but I only have a couple of minutes here. I called because the twins told me this morning that they want to go ice-skating this afternoon. They've finished all their winter break homework, so I was thinking it would be okay."
"Fine." Miranda waved a hand irritably through the air.
"Good, then. I want to be sure we're home before you get in from work. You know, in case you finish early enough to have dinner with us." There was a small amount of hesitancy in Andrea's voice.
Miranda's breath caught, briefly, "I wouldn't miss it for the world. I have no patience today for these post-holiday idiots." She could hear one of Andrea's co-workers saying something in the background.
"Okay. What time?" Miranda could hear Andrea's smile.
"Seven."
"Great. See you then." With that, Andy hung up. Miranda stared at her phone for a moment, surprised that she wasn't the least bit upset that someone had hung up on her.
Perhaps it would be a Happy New Year, after all.
~That's All~