"Andrea", Miranda's voice called out from within her office in her usual soft manner.
The assistant had now been working at Runway for two years, despite a slight 'hiccup' in Paris everything had been going well for her at the magazine and she was even due to start working in the editing department in two weeks time. "Yes Miranda", Andrea said with a smile as she stepped into the woman's office and stood near her desk.
"I would like you to bring Sophie in to work tomorrow at 1 O'Clock", the white-haired woman stated with a rare smile, it was a softer request than her usual demands.
Andrea frowned slightly, "Erm… are you sure?", she asked with uncertainty.
"Of course I'm sure", the Editor-in-Chief replied, "When have I ever said anything that I didn't mean?".
"Never", she responded softly with a slight sigh.
"Precisely", Miranda said with a slight smirk on her face, "So you will bring her to my office at one".
"Can I at least ask why?", Andrea asked her boss.
The older woman nodded, "You can", she said as she observed the other woman, "But I won't tell you".
Andrea rolled her eyes, "Fine", she said, resisting asking the question again, "I guess it has something to do with her birthday being tomorrow".
Miranda said and did nothing, she just continued to observe the woman.
"She's really excited to the sleepover with the twins tomorrow", Andrea commented, "She already has her bag packed although she has two bags; one for her and one for her doll".
"As is my Bobbseys", Miranda replied with a bright smile, "Well, dolly will be needing clothing too Andrea", the amusement shone in her eyes at the last part.
Andrea smiled brightly and nodded, "Of course, especially as you seem to have turned my little girl into a mini fashionista, which resulted in three outfit changes this morning".
"One less than yesterday", Miranda said with an amused smile. "Oh, can you get hold of Donatella and rearrange next Thursday's lunch?".
"Sure", she said straight away, "So, does that mean you're coming?".
"Of course", Miranda replied, "Sophie invited me to her teddy bear's picnic so it is of utmost importance that I attend".
"I can't believe you're cancelling on Donatella Versace in order to go to a teddy bear's picnic with a load of toddlers", Andrea said with clear amusement.
"Well you best believe it because that is what shall happen", Miranda replied with a smirk.
"Oh do let me tell her that's the reason", Andrea said with a grin.
Miranda rolled her eyes, "If you so wish", she said softly, "Donatella will understand the importance".
Andrea nodded, "Okay, I'll go and do that now", she said with a smile, "Coffee?".
She nodded, "Please", she replied, it was a response that not many got because if it had been anyone else the response would have probably been something along the lines of 'acceptable'.
The woman turned to leave the room but turned back when she heard the slight clearing of a throat.
"I think you forgot something Andrea", Miranda pointed out with a smile as she watched her from where she was sat.
Andrea frowned slightly in confusion before looking around the room to see if there was something that she was supposed to have collected, "I…".
When Andrea began to speak, Miranda simply tapped a singular finger against her own lips three times with a smile.
The younger woman shook her head, "How could I forget that?", she said softly as she moved closer to her boss.
"I have no idea Andrea", Miranda said with a slight smirk, "Honestly, you'd forget your head if it wasn't screwed on", it was not true of course but she was only joking with her.
Andrea leaned in and pressed her lips to those of the Editor-in-Chief before the woman pulled her in closer to deepen the kiss. They had been dating ever since Paris, it had, of course, been declared to human resources but luckily neither of their contracts deemed it a fireable action.
"Oh and you'll have to collect Sophie's dress from the closet, the one for tomorrow", Miranda said with her hands on Andrea's hips.
"You got her a dress for tomorrow?", Andrea questioned with a slight smirk, "Well I better make sure the little fashion princess is looking fabulous tomorrow then".
"Don't be silly Andrea", Miranda said with a smile, "She always looks fabulous".
When Andrea left the room, Miranda turned back to her desk and looked at the photos that were sat there. She had a double frame with both of her girls' school photo in each side, a frame of them both together, another with the Cassidy, Caroline, and Sophie together which had been taken the previous Christmas, and a photo of the three of them with both herself and Andrea which had been taken in the Hamptons a few weeks previously when they were lounging on the beach.
Miranda and Andrea spent a lot of time together outside of work, and the three children all got on well so they too loved to spend time together. Nate had left for Boston whilst Andrea was in Paris, leaving behind his daughter after signing over custody of the little girl although that was not a surprise to Andy as she had raised the little girl on her own throughout the entire relationship as he had taken very little interest in the child. The Editor-in-Chief had met the little one on a few different occasions before Paris when Andrea would take the book to her house but she did not take on a full role in her life until after Paris. She had become rather fond of the little girl.
The following day, Andrea had gone on her lunch break to go and get three-year-old Sophie from nursery to take her to whatever celebration Miranda had planned for her at Runway.
Miranda, meanwhile, had arranged for one of the meeting rooms to be decorated in the way that she deemed appropriate for Sophie's third birthday party.
Miranda was sat in the living room with the little two-year-old in her lap, she was wearing a dress that the woman had chosen herself as she had volunteered to take the child so that Andrea could finish writing an article that was due to be published in Runway. The little girl had her hair down so that her dark curls flowed down around her face and her dark brown eyes were looking up at Miranda. "What would you like for your birthday?", she asked the child.
"A party", the little one said after a moment's thought.
"Is that all?", Miranda asked softly as she held the child close to her.
"And a dress", Sophie said with a huge smile, "I love dresses".
"I know you do", she said simply as she hugged her tightly, "Are you excited to turn three?".
"Hm… kind of…", she replied, "Cass said it means that I get cake and that I get to blow out three candles instead of two, she said she'd help me if I need help". "Caro said that it means I get to do more things, so it must be good, right?", she asked as she looked up at the older woman.
Miranda simply nodded with a smile, "Are you ready to come with me to collect Caroline and Cassidy from the train station?".
Sophie suddenly looked extremely excited and jumped down from Miranda's lap quickly to run and get her shoes on in the entrance hall.
Miranda simply laughed at her enthusiasm and followed, "I suppose that's a yes then", she said to herself.
At just before one o'clock, Sophie was bouncing up and down in the elevator at Elias Clark with pure excitement, the little girl had already been given four birthday presents on the way through the lobby from staff that worked in the lobby so Andrea was carrying the four gift bags; three from receptionists and one from a security guard.
When the elevator stopped, "I can go and see Miranda now? Pleaaaaaaaaase", the little one asked before dragging out the word 'please' whilst pulling the most angelic look she could possibly create.
Andrea nodded, knowing that it just meant that her daughter wanted to run straight to Miranda's office, "Okay", she said but it was useless because as soon as she had nodded her head, the little girl had gone.
Miranda was stood in her office when the little girl came shooting in and threw herself at the woman. The Editor-in-Chief smiled brightly and lifted the little one into her arms, ignoring her assistant and dismissing the woman with a wave of her hand as she paid her attention to the birthday girl in her arms, "Happy Birthday Sophie", she said happily as she stood in front of the large windows that looked out onto the city.
"Thank you", Sophie said with a smile as she embraced the woman, leaning into her quite happily.
Andrea put the gift bags down on her desk before going into her boss' office, and yet people still think she's a dragon, she thought to herself with amusement.
"Are you ready for your surprise?", Miranda asked gently as she looked at the little girl in her arms.
Sophie nodded excitedly, "Yeah", she exclaimed.
Carefully, she placed the girl on the floor so that she could walk and then took hold of her hand before walking out of her office, pausing only to press a loving kiss to her girlfriend's lips before continuing on towards the meeting room with Andrea.
When they entered the room the majority of the Runway group were there with Emily, Nigel, Jocelyn, Serena, and so many others. Miranda had even ensured that there was a photographer for the little girl's party. Each of the people from Runway who had children had brought them with them and both of Miranda's were there too. It was, after all, the school holidays so all of the children were free to be there without missing out on important school work.
The room was decorated in a mix of Tiffany blue and silver balloons with a variety of banners whilst the tables were covered with white tablecloths and had a range of foods in the middle of it. Surrounding the food was a scattering of confetti in the shapes of silver snowflakes. The little girl loved Frozen and even more so when she heard someone calling Miranda the 'Ice Queen' because from then on she thought that Miranda was the real Elsa, the child, of course, thought that the name was awesome and even Miranda had decided that maybe it wasn't as bad as she had originally thought it to be.
"Sophie!", came the shouts from both of Miranda's redheaded twins as they ran to her and embraced her. "Happy Birthday", both of the girls said, one slightly after the other.
Cassidy picked up a bag from the side of the room, "Look, we got you a present", she said as she handed over the bag to the little girl.
"We have your other presents at home so you can open those when you come to dinner tonight", Caroline said with a bright smile.
The adults were all in conversation with each other and watching the children after everyone had yelled the initial 'Happy Birthday' but Sophie's attention was solely on the twin girls in front of her. The two older girls completely doted on the three-year-old and had almost instantly adopted her in their own way.
"And sleep", Sophie said with a huge smile.
Caroline nodded, "And sleep", she agreed, "Mom has a surprise for when you sleep over tonight".
"Another surprise?", Sophie asked with wide eyes, "I think I'm going to be all surprised out by the end of the day, I have so many!".
Both of the girls were giggling at what she had said but agreed.
"Well?", Cassidy asked, "Are you going to open it?".
She hadn't opened the presents that she had been given in the lobby as her mother said for her to open those later when she got to Miranda's house but she nodded before reaching out for the bag. She opened up the bag that was covered in a picture of Disney's Elsa and she reached in to pull out the present before sitting down in Caroline's lap who, along with her sister, had sat on the floor of the meeting room.
She unwrapped the box carefully, the paper of the gift was a very light powder blue with a slight shine to it, the wrapping paper revealed a remote control dragon and according to the box; it walked, flew, and made sounds of which you could also record your own roar. "Wow!", Sophie gasped with excitement, "That's the one from the tv".
Cassidy nodded, "We know, that's why we asked Mom if we could get it for you", she said with smile, "We knew you'd like it", the girls had spent some of their allowances on the gift themselves as they wanted to buy the little girl a few things with their own money and they had also bought two other gifts which were back at the house; one of the gifts was a scrapbook that they had bought and then made together, then the other was a necklace with the word 'sister' on it as they had, after all, adopted the little girl as their sister without prompting from anyone else. They decided that they wanted a little sister and considering the fact that Sophie was there that she would be their sister. Neither of the women said anything about it as all three children seemed rather happy with the idea, and in actual fact, so were they.
The party went very well, it was an unusual event for Runway as it was the first children's party that had been held there but it would not be the last as Miranda had found that having her employee's children playing together with her own (which she tended to include Sophie in) was quite enjoyable to watch as they all seemed to enjoy themselves and it gave a more relaxed atmosphere to the Runway offices. Some of the staff were coming in and out of the room but the ones with the children remained. In total there were approximately 25 children in the room making it quite a large group to celebrate the anniversary of the child's birth.
Later that evening the family would go back to Miranda's for dinner where the woman would cook the little girl's favourite meal as Sophie loved Miranda's cooking and she enjoyed helping her in the kitchen even more which made it a little more messy than normal but the woman didn't mind as she was rather fond of her little assistant chef. Sophie loved her surprise that night because her surprise was her own room but also because she got to sleep inside a teepee with Caroline and Cassidy that Miranda had purchased for the sleepover.