Miranda looked distressed when she came back from the meeting with James Oliver, the new manager of Elias-Clark

Miranda looked distressed when she came back from the meeting with James Oliver, the new manager of Elias-Clark. For the first time in her life, since the night Miranda told her about her divorce Andy saw her furrowing her perfectly shaped eyebrows. She went into her office, without giving any order to either Emily or Andy, which reminded Andy that she didn't set Miranda's lunch yet.

"Andrea," Miranda buzzed to her on the intercom. "Come into my office." She knew it was the lunch that Miranda didn't have on her table yet and she was trying to prepare a good excuse which she knew Miranda would not accept.

"Miranda," She said as she went through the doors of Miranda's office.

"Sit down." Miranda said.

"Miranda, if it's about the lunch, I…" Andy knew it was a mistake to mention it.

"Andrea, the budget of Runway was cut." Miranda declared.

"It was?" It was her end in Runway and it wasn't even her fault. It was not the lunch, it was worse. Runway could not keep her anymore. She was sure that Miranda could do it if she wanted to, but why would she do it anyway?

"I need you to let Emily go. Print an official letter and send her away, I don't wanna see her here tomorrow morning." Miranda said coldly.

"You want me to fire Emily?" Andy's jaw dropped. She was relieved for not being fired, but was now standing in a worse position. Emily was there longer time than she was and she didn't deserve to lose her job like this.

"Are you suffering from a hearing problem?" Miranda replied with a question.

"No, Miranda. I will do it right away." Going back to her desk, Andy prayed that Emily wouldn't ask her what Miranda wanted from her.

"What did she want?" Emily looked over at her.

"She just wanted to know why her lunch isn't on her table." Andy lied and started typing the dismissal letter for Emily. She couldn't help wondering why Miranda decided so quickly to let Emily go and whether the cutting of the magazine budget was the sole reason for it. Her hands were shaking and she made about twenty typos, which she later needed to fix.

It was 6 PM when she decided to break the news to her unsuspecting colleague. Giving her the dismissal letter, along with a recommendation that she typed for her and signed on behalf of Miranda, even though she wasn't told to write it, she looked at Emily's face, noticing the surprise and disappointment that was registering across it.

"You're kidding me, aren't you?" Emily asked. Andy noticed that the skinny hands of her colleague were shaking.

"Em, I'm sorry. It wasn't my decision." Andy hoped that she sounded sincere as she felt.

"Well, have a nice life with this monster. I'm out of here." Emily declared with a slightly shaky voice, picked her Gucci bag and quickly walked out of the office, probably trying to avoid crying in front of Andy.

3 months later

Andy had her hands full since Emily was let go by Miranda and matters at Runway were not good either. The budget cut caused a severe shortage of clothes and accessories for photo shootings, as well the magazine lost 20 pages and seven models were laid off. Moreover, Miranda became stressed and it was clear that the situation was affecting her very deeply. Very often Andy heard her sighing when she saw "The Book" that she delivered to her house every evening and as she also knew that Miranda's twins were sent to their father, until further notice, probably because Miranda was not able to pay attention to them now that Runway was in trouble.

Andy unlocked the door of Miranda's apartment, hoping that her boss would be somewhere else. Lately, she would rather see Miranda being bitchy rather than seeing her cranky.

"Andrea, come here." Miranda's voice was heard from the living room. Andy walked there slowly, trying to hold back a sigh. Miranda was sitting on the couch, her head buried in her palms. Immediately Andy noticed that Miranda had dyed her hair. It was now dark brown and even though she was not used to seeing her boss that way, she thought it looked very well and gave her a more humane appearance. Miranda was wearing an untied robe and underneath it was hard for Andy not to notice that she was wearing an off-white satin baby-doll that was decorated with Swarovski crystals.

"Yes, Miranda." She said and handed her boss the book. It was much thinner when it used to be before the budget was cut and once again she heard Miranda sigh. Only then did she realize that Runway was Miranda's life and it seemed to be falling apart for her.

"I need to talk to you about an important matter. Sit down." Andy took a seat next to Miranda and looked into her electrifying blue eyes.

"You're a smart young woman and a good assistant." Miranda's voice was calm, almost lifeless and monotonous. "I think you should know that I'm going to file my resignation from Runway next month." Andy's jaw dropped. What would Runway be without Miranda? She was the woman who dictated fashion and nearly the entire fashion world was depended on her.

"But Miranda, you've built such an impressive career in Runway, what would be of it now?" A few months earlier she couldn't even believe that she will ever be able to be empathetic to Miranda, but now she couldn't imagine how the praised magazine would even function without Miranda's tough rule.

"Yes, it's true, I've built myself an impressive career and now that Runway is going down, I won't let it go down with it." Miranda's smile exposed two rows of perfectly white teeth and a somewhat cruel cynicism.

"What are you going to do?" Andy wondered. By the look on her boss's face, it seemed that she had some kind of plan. Miranda looked at her with self satisfaction and nodded lightly, as if to approve a thought that went through her mind.

"You'll see." She replied with a mysterious smile. Andy nodded slowly and blinked a few times, trying to pretend that she understood what Miranda meant. "I will need you to keep quite about my resignation and would appreciate it very much if you'd be inclined to stay my personal assistant after I leave Runway." Andy nodded, sort of dumbly.

"Of course, Miranda." She replied.

"And you can tell them to print the next issue." Miranda turned cold once again, pushing the book aside, without even looking at it. Andy wondered if Miranda even cared about the book or about Runway anymore.

"Yes, Miranda." She said. "Anything else?"

"That's all." Her boss replied and Andy wished her a good night and left her house.