It had been an ordinary day at the Runway offices and Miranda was in a meeting with the editorial department about a feature article which was to be a full interview with the actress Mariska Hargitay about her new documentary and the focus of the magazine was going to be women's rights in modern society. The article that included Mariska's interview was going to heavily focus on 'End the Backlog' and because of the importance of the topic, Miranda insisted on more meetings to ensure that she could monitor it much more thoroughly than she would any other article. Admittedly it was quite normal for her to want to oversee every aspect of the magazine wherever it was possible but this was even more important.
Andrea was alone in the office as Emily was in the meeting with Miranda in order for her to take notes throughout it. The meeting had already overrun by almost an hour and Andrea had finished all of the tasks that had been set for her previous to the start of the meeting. She had even made a start on the things that she knew that she would need to do the following day.
The young woman flinched slightly as a loud crash echoed around the offices when the door was violently slammed open, the sound of the glass cracking could not be mistaken, and the hammering of feet hitting the floor was like an ogre stomping through a cave. Andrea partially expected to see some sort of savage beast or caveman stood in the room when she looked up but she saw a short, balding moronic ape wearing a poorly-fitted suit instead. Despite the man's high salary he never seemed to be able to dress very well, although Andrea did, admittedly, rather like the comments that Miranda came out with about his clothing choices.
Irv stormed into Miranda's office with barely even a glance in the assistant's direction but then he realised that the Editor-in-Chief was absent, "Andrea!", he shouted out in a demanding tone that held a threatening element to it.
Andrea cringed at the sound of the imbecile saying, or rather shouting her name as she always hated it whenever anyone pronounced her name in that manner as the only one she liked saying it was Miranda. There was something in the way that she put emphasis on the middle section of her name that just made her melt inside and there was a look that accompanied it many times that made her want to pull the woman close and kiss her with all of the passion in the world. "Yes", she replied softly as she stood from her desk and cautiously entered the office.
The 'man' was stood at the other side of the room, away from the door, "Where is she?", he demanded in an intimidating tone of voice.
"Out", Andrea replied simply, she did not want to tell him the exact location of her boss because in the mood that he was in she was highly concerned with the concept that he would not only treat the other woman in the manner that she herself was currently being treated but that he would physically harm her. The idea of allowing that thing near her was something that was simply unacceptable in her mind and something that she simply could not allow to happen at that moment no matter what.
"Where?", he shouted as he stepped closer to her.
It was then that she realised that she had stepped too far into the room because there was no way that she would be able to escape it without having to go past the creature, "I don't know", she lied as she moved closer to Miranda's chair and put her hand on it behind her in a way that made her feel closer to the woman and in turn safer.
Irv moved even closer to her, his short stature made him a bit less intimidating than he would have been if he were taller than her, however, the anger in his facial expressions and the way he was gesturing showed that he was, indeed, a genuine threat to her safety at that moment. "Don't lie to me", Irv demanded as he pointed at her, his finger so close that it was almost touching the skin on her face.
Despite the perceived she still did not reveal the woman's location, "I don't know", she repeated, keeping her posture straight and her hand on Miranda's chair.
"I said, don't lie to me!", he shouted even louder, his voice booming through the office and out into the hallways of Runway where the cracked glass door did nothing to hide the sound, especially as the handle had gotten caught in the broken glass of the glass wall that was beside the actual door. He grabbed at her throat with his right hand in a sudden movement that took her by surprise, pressing her backwards and making her fall into Miranda's expensive office chair as he growled at her, "DO NOT LIE TO ME".
Andrea grabbed his wrists as she tried to pry his hands from her delicate throat, she could not respond properly to him with the pressure on her throat which was restricting her breathing but she managed to partially croak out to let her go and that she did not know where her boss was.
"DON'T LIE!", he shouted again as his grip tightened.
"Oh, do get off of my assistant", Miranda said from the doorway as she tried to hide her worry and concern for the woman, "Honestly Irv, what on earth do you think you're doing".
Irv instantly let go of Andrea's neck and moved towards Miranda instead, "You!", he shouted, "It's all your fault! She left me because of you!".
"Your wife left you because you cheated on her for months with your secretary and hired a multitude of prostitutes to fill the space in her bed whenever you got the chance", Miranda revealed, failing to flinch as he stepped closer.
He started to shout again but the woman simply shook her head, "No", she replied simply before dismissing him, "That's all".
Irv did not get the chance to get close enough to actually touch the Editor-in-Chief because the next moment he knew he was being restrained by security that had been called up by a staff member who had heard what he was saying and saw him grab hold of the young woman. The woman also ran and told Miranda too who wasn't far from her office but the meeting room was sealed so that anything discussed inside the meetings could not be overheard by visitors that passed by the doors outside of it.
As soon as Miranda had been notified of what was happening she had run to her office straight away without any real thought for her own safety and only of Andrea's.
The moment that Irv was pulled from the room, Miranda ran forward to her assistant with the worry that had been concealed now showing clearly on her face, "Andrea", she gasped as she pulled her into her arms.
Andrea had been in the process of sitting up when she was pulled into her boss' arms which resulted in them both on the floor, not that either took much notice of that fact.
Miranda had her arms tightly around her assistant as she held her close to her and pressed a few gentle kisses to the woman's hair. The older woman took hold of Andrea's face in a gentle and caring manner so that she could look into her beautiful eyes, "Are you okay?", she asked lovingly as her own eyes scanned her face in order to check that everything was okay. "Call a medic!", she shouted out as she glanced behind her as soon as she noticed the bruising that was appearing on Andrea's neck. A clear handprint was painting the woman's neck, despite how short the man was, his handprint appeared rather large against the assistant's delicate neck.
"I'm okay", she croaked, her throat still tender and sore from being restricted so violently.
"Water", she called out to Emily who was stood by the door having already called the medic for her boss, the English woman was a little uncertain as to what she should do but given the task of getting some water made her feel a little less uncertain so she nodded and ran to fetch some straight away.
After Andrea had taken a few sips of the water, Miranda did not care that there were a few staff members watching her, she simply leaned in and pressed a very soft kiss to Andrea's neck where the man's hands had previously been gripping tightly, "I'm sorry", she whispered.
"Not...your...fault", Andrea managed to get out as she cupped the woman's cheeks.
"If I hadn't have...", she began to say that if she had not have helped his wife obtain a private investigator then she would not have known about the cheating that Miranda herself was already aware of and so Irv would not have been angry as he had been in that moment which meant he would not have attacked Andrea in the office at all.
Andrea instantly put her finger over Miranda's mouth instantly silencing her.
Emily's eyebrows shot up but as did the others watching which included; Serena, Nigel, Jocelyn, and a few others that had been in the meeting as there had been a select number of staff from other departments that were allowed into the meeting for consultation purposes to ensure that everything that they wanted to happen in that particular edition of the magazine was possible to make happen. They were rather shocked that anyone dared to touch the Editor-in-Chief let alone silence her with a finger to her lips but then again the woman who was doing just that was still partially in their boss' lap.
Miranda's eyes were wide in surprise as nobody had ever dared to do that to her and so it took her by surprise.
"No", Andrea said simply, "I'm safe... 'cause of you".
"Oh, my Andrea", the woman whispered as she smiled softly at her, "I won't let him near you ever again, I promise you that".
Andrea smiled and wrapped her arms around Miranda, she felt protected and safe in her embrace.
"I love you", Miranda whispered as she pressed her cheek against Andrea's forehead in their embrace.
The dark-haired woman pulled back ever so slightly so that she could look up into the Editor-in-Chief's eyes, "I love you too", she whispered back, "so much".
Miranda could not help but smile brightly in response before she captured the woman's lips with hers in a loving kiss.
When the medics arrived, Emily put her hand on one of their arms to prevent them from entering the room and she silently put her finger in the air in order to indicate that they had to wait a moment so that they would not interrupt her boss and colleague in their moment. Her boss got annoyed when a phone call or meeting was interrupted so she could only imagine how much fire the woman would breathe if that kiss was to be interrupted at that moment in time.