So I died, and by died I mean went on a cross country move/adventure, for the span of three weeks and so this didn't get posted sooner. Crazybecat, however, was patient with me so she's the best coauthor ever. And with that, have some Cat/Miranda.
Miranda internally groaned before stepping out of the vehicle in front of the CatCo building. She was not happy to be here, but also knew not to be petty if it wasn't worth it. The fact of the matter was she was already going to be in National City for a few showings from designers that had decided that warmer climes were better for their creativity and turning down an interview for an article about powerful businesswomen, when she ruled the publishing industry in New York and in all of fashion, would be a bad move for publicity. Especially when she was already in hot water with the press over the divorce.
She scowled at the thought of the divorce. At one point she had been in love with Stephen, in her own way, and he had loved her back. But then he started cheating on her, and she started treating him like the charlatan he was, and now he was trying to drag her through the mud, as if she was in the wrong. At least the disgusting pig had made a drunken mistake and gone out with one of his mistresses and been caught by the press. Her attorney said that it was going to cut the court proceedings a lot shorter, even though Stephen was still taking her to court to try and annul the prenup. He should have been more careful with his indiscretions, the bastard.
Heels clacking on the pavement, she swept into the lobby and glanced around with an efficient eye. She knew that Cat would have a way to access the building that only the Queen of all Media herself was supposedly allowed to use, and Miranda would find it, and then proceed to use it. They both had shared the dislike of publicly shared spaces. She didn't think that had changed over the years, and since Cat owned the building and had it remodeled from top to bottom when she bought it, Miranda had no doubt there would be a private elevator somewhere.
Ah. There it was. She walked towards the elevator doors set apart from the main bank, secured with key card access. She hadn't let something frivolous like a lock stop her yet and wasn't about to now. Miranda strode past the security desk with purpose and didn't look back.
"Ma'am. Ma'am! Ma'am you can't go in without a pass," someone who sounded almost pre-pubescent to Miranda's ears said behind her.
Miranda rounded on the boy who barely filled out his rent-a-cop uniform. "Do you have any desire to never have a job outside of fast food again?"
The boy blinked. "Um, no?"
She smiled the fake, shark-like smile that a great many people had seen right before their careers went down the drain. "Then I would suggest you let me onto this elevator and never call me ma'am again. Do we have an understanding?"
"Well, um, Miss?" Miranda lowered her sunglasses and glared harder and the boy started to tremble visibly. "I can't let you up there without a pass and for that you need an appointment. And that elevator is Miss Grant's personal elevator and no one can use it except her."
Miranda let out a dark sounding chuckle. It was brief, and she could see several people around her stop dead in their tracks. "Oh. I see. You obviously care so little about your job that you didn't pay attention to who does have appointments, and how important some of these appointments are." She cocked her head to the side and looked at his name badge. "Devon, is it. Would you like to know something? People who really want to move up in the world don't just accept a list of names and wait for them to check in at the security desk. They look up photos of the people on the list so they are ready when they arrive, especially if some of these people are rather famous. Now have you done that?"
The boy shook his head weakly.
"Clearly. Your initiative is equivalent to that of a lazy fast food worker. So unless you plan on letting me into this elevator right this second so I may keep my appointment with Miss Grant herself, you will be working at the corner McDonald's with a snap of my fingers. Do you grasp this rather simple ultimatum or must I take more time out of my day to use simpler words?"
The guard scanned his badge over the key card lock on the elevator and handed over a visitor's pass without another word.
"Wonderful, I'm glad you can rub two brain cells together." She stepped on the elevator and pressed the right floor. "That's all."
The doors closed and the elevator rose swiftly. Only once she was safely ensconced in the privacy of the small car did she let out a sigh. Terrorizing the staff only marginally soothed her frustrations, and it wasn't nearly as pleasant now because it wasn't her own staff. At least she paid her own staff to put up with her rather capricious moods. Honestly, whoever was the manager of security was the real problem, not some twenty-year-old baby. She'd be sure to have a thorough discussion with Cat about mentoring young workers better.
The elevator dinged and let Miranda out on the fiftieth floor. She strode into a mostly empty office, only the bare skeleton of a weekend staff moving around at a sedate pace. The Sunday edition had already gone out to print and Monday morning must be mostly finalized by this time. There was nothing really to scramble over then. Still this would be unacceptable in her building, a little pep in their step wouldn't hurt them.
She walked through to where she knew Cat's office was. It was hard to miss, all impressive glass walls so she could look out on the rabble. For all their differences, they had remarkably similar tastes in office decor. She almost felt as if she were at Runway, but Cat's office was more earth tones while hers tended towards greys and neutrals; Cat also had her bizarre love for that fashion disaster of a pink panther statue. The amount of crass jokes that must be made about that train wreck was probably more than Miranda could count in a lifetime. Oh she was sure that Cat had a reason for it, some lofty ideal speech about it, but really, it was about power over her own domain more than anything. It irked Miranda that Cat had something so gaudy and displayed it so brazenly. It irked her even more to know the panther had become a trademark, almost as important as the CatCo logo itself.
Miranda walked past the empty, but cheerily decorated, desk which had to belong to Cat's assistant, since it was positioned right outside her office door. The second desk situated across from the first, looked rather blank with no personal touches, and Miranda smirked at the thought that Cat struggled with assistants as well. She looked up and saw Cat sitting there, and Miranda's heart skipped a beat before she got herself under control again. Their time had been years ago. Her body would do well to remember that.
Stepping into the office, she didn't bother to wait for Cat to get off the phone as she announced herself, "I do hope you won't keep me waiting."
Cat rolled her eyes and wrapped up the phone call with another few words. "Still have a penchant for dramatics I see," Cat said once her phone was situated back on her desk.
Miranda just cocked an eyebrow and looked back out in the direction of the huge pink statue and then returned her gaze to Cat.
"I know you of all people understand statement pieces. Really, Miranda, have your years in fashion taught you nothing?"
"Statement yes, ugly and gaudy no." She sniffed before settling regally on one of the sofas. In no world would she sit on the wrong side of a desk, that stopped the moment she became Editor-in-Chief.
"Really, gaudy I can see, it is glaringly pink, but ugly? It's a rather handsome piece."
"The face of the panther looks like it got hit by a shovel as a child."
Cat rounded her desk, phone, pen, and pad in hand. "So does half my staff but that doesn't affect their performance." She sat on the couch opposite Miranda. "And considering you're trying to pull power plays in my own office perhaps it's left you a bit on the back foot."
"No, I believe what's left me on the back foot is your incompetent security staff. Honestly, they must have been dropped on their heads as children, or perhaps that same shovel that mauled the panther had a go at them. If you have VIPs going in and out of your building your security needs to be on top of what they look like so they may be ready to treat them accordingly."
Cat scowled. "They gave you a hard time? They had your name and were aware of your appointment with me."
"Oh, yes, because a celebrity wants to go up to the security desk and give their name like every other plebian out there. Do you want to go through such mundane measures when you go places? I much prefer to not be hassled by suck ups or screamers. To be greeted in the lobby and then led to the elevator without any fuss is not a great deal to ask. Instead I had to find the elevator on my own and then was accosted by a boy that looked like he should be in kindergarten not working as a security guard here. He didn't know who I was, didn't know that I had an appointment, nothing." Her nostrils flared. "He. Called. Me. Ma'am. Cat, he. Called. Me. Miss."
"Oh dear god, is the boy still standing?" Cat looked to the heavens. "Or do I have to call some sort of cleaning crew to squeegee him off the ground."
"He's still standing, but I'm not sure about the state of his underwear. And he might believe that his future career mobility might be more towards fast food than any sort of well paying work."
Cat snorted. "Well, that's rather mild for you. I remember the story about what happened to that idiot who called you Miss right after you became art director. Everyone talked about it for weeks afterward, so much that I heard about it on the opposite coast. The sanitation crew, Miranda? For a designer that had to be the worst sort of hell imaginable."
"That was the point." She smirked. "But I wasn't so heartless to leave him without a job in total. Besides, the workers do important jobs and have good benefits and a decent salary. A good portion of New York would kill for a job like that."
Cat looked at her for a long moment before shaking her head. "I think I'm going to need a drink to get through this. You haven't changed at all." She started to get up from the couch.
Miranda reacted immediately. "No. No alcohol or I'll walk out of this building and never look back." She could see the decanter of Macallan from her seat on the couch and didn't want to smell that damned whiskey ever again in her life. Stephen had ruined it for her.
Cat blinked at that and sat down. "Ok, there is a story there, but I'll let it go for the time being." She reached over for a glass full of M&Ms and started to eat those instead.
Miranda felt the anger rise within her. "Oh please, because it's such a secret that my soon to be ex husband is an alcoholic with a pension for whiskey and overly endowed blonde women." She breathed out harshly. "But that's of no matter. I'm here for you to interview me about my success in business, not about my divorce. My PR firm is handling anything and everything to do with that mess."
Cat offered the cup of chocolate. "Here, chocolate will take the edge off. I know it's sugar, but you eat like a bird and I know that hasn't changed."
Miranda nearly laughed. "Oh I have a beautiful medium rare steak for lunch nearly every day. It kills the office to see me eat such rich food and keep my size."
"Yes, but when exactly was the last time you had any carbs?" Cat shook the glass again.
"M&Ms are not carbs." Miranda glared as she took a handful.
Cat smirked. "Right. Not carbs. What are they then?"
"A figment of the imagination." Miranda slipped a few of the candies in her mouth and chewed, sighing at the taste of chocolate.
"Oh, like that cake after fashion week years ago was a figment of your imagination then? A whole cake, Miranda. Where did you even put it?"
"My thighs probably."
"Not that I could notice." Cat's eyes raked up and down Miranda, taking her all in.
"Twenty years is a enough time to work off even an entire chocolate cake."
"Twenty-six, really since we met, at that little bakery, and you had a two slices of strawberry pie. The cake was a few weeks later, if I remember correctly, and I year wasn't good for you on the carbs front." She looked down at her nearly empty glass and got up to refill it.
She breathed in and out again as memories threatened to crash over her. No. She had perfected her iron will for a reason. She would not remember a tryst that had only lasted a few weeks of her life and have it derail her entire interview. But that ache of a wound that never healed properly tried to surface, to suffocate her. It had only lasted a few weeks, but god, they had been some of the best of her life. She wished they had continued. She still wondered in the middle of the night what her life would have been like if they had.
But they hadn't. And that was why she had spent most of her professional life avoiding Catherine Jane Grant. Because Miranda Priestly didn't spend time dwelling on the past by any means necessary.
And besides, she had fallen again after Cat. With all of her husbands, even if the connections weren't as strong, and then with…
She sighed. That was another thing she couldn't look back on. Andrea had left her. And that was that. She was somewhere on this coast, working for Cat of all people. There was a cruel type of irony in there somewhere, a could-have-been lover working for an ex-lover.
"Twenty-six, has it really been that long?" She asked as if she hadn't counted the years, the months, the days, that passed after walking into her apartment to find it almost empty of Cat's things. She had left like a breeze, leaving only scattered remnants that she was even there, a leaf or two here and there, or a favored drugstore pen and a few hair ties as the case had been. She had known the exact amount of time but getting it wrong, well, it was distancing. Or at least she had hoped. Her heart was still clenching in her chest.
"Yes, unfortunately it has. What I wouldn't give to be in my twenties again." Cat sighed and poured another batch of M&M's into her glass before walking back to the couch and sitting down once more. Cat's eyes flitted over to the decanter of whiskey, but then looked away to dump a handful of chocolate into her palm.
Miranda hummed and nodded. There was no arguing with where she ended up, but still there were things she would change about the way she'd gotten here. She doubted that there was really anyone in the world that when push came to shove wouldn't change something about their past.
A silence hung between them for a few seconds, filled with words left unsaid about what had happened between them. Apologies, explanations, platitudes, defensive statements, all died on their tongues before they could meet the air. They had tried this whole reconciliation thing before, but it hadn't worked out. Now there was no need to rehash old ground. She was here for business, nothing more.
"How many successful businesswomen are you interviewing for this article?" Miranda almost rolled her eyes at herself. Of all the things she could have said to change the subject, her brain had to choose that.
"We're doing three women in major industries in every magazine this year as part of an ongoing series about the different sort of barriers that women have to get by to get to the top. It's part inspiration porn part expose. I picked fashion as this month's because people don't think that women have a hard time making it since it's all about women anyway."
At that Miranda laughed, really and truly laughed. "Can they please tell that to Irv. Goodness knows it might make my life a little easier." She shook her head. Irv had been beaten down in Paris, but he wouldn't stay that way for long. He never did, sadly.
"That disgusting little worm is still on the board? If we're old, he's ancient. How has his racist, sexist, ableist, homophobic, and everything else ass not been removed already?"
"Now that, I have no idea. I've been after him since I became editor-in-chief. Of course, it's mutual. The man really can't accept that I turned down his many and varied overtures." She shivered. Workplace sexism when she had first started had been brutal. "He tried to oust me a few months back yet again. It didn't end well for him." She smirked at that. It cost her dearly, but his flabbergasted expression had been worth a great deal.
"Oh, I wouldn't think it would've." She shook her head. "The media has one thing right about you, and that's that no one should go against you, Miranda Priestly."
"No, that they shouldn't."
Cat flipped an M&M between her fingers absently. "You know the board of CatCo tried to oust me from my own company."
"Well, since you are still here in this rather lavish office, I believe they weren't successful."
"Of course not, I had them all removed without a moment's hesitation. They were worried about stock prices." She snorted. "They forgot who is, and who will always be, majority stock holder of this company. They don't deserve a second chance."
"I see your foresight to make sure you weren't beholden to investors paid off."
"As we knew it would. Because what could a woman ever know about running a business." She rolled her eyes. "As if CatCo isn't the third largest media conglomerate in the world or anything." Cat grabbed up her pen and pad. "And if that isn't a segue into this interview I don't know what is."
Miranda sat back. "Ask away then. But you know, Cat, that I won't answer if I don't want to."
Cat waved that off. "I expected nothing less. I have back up questions for you, don't worry." She flipped a few pages and nodded before looking up at Miranda again. "What was the first instance that you remember thinking that it was going to be harder to advance because you were a woman?"
Miranda didn't even have to think about that, it would forever be branded in her brain. "It was my first day working as an assistant at Runway UK for the editor-in-chief, Alistair Bancroft. He'd sent me off on some errand to the art department and one of the junior editors looked at me as I walked in and said 'Oi, boys, what do you wanna bet that Bancroft keeps this one around for a good long time just to look at her?' And I knew that if Alistair wanted to keep me around like that there was nothing that I could do. To make it in the fashion world like I was hoping I needed his recommendation. For that to be in danger just because I was a good looking woman was infuriating."
Cat looked over at Miranda, head cocked, for a long second. "That's why you took the junior editor position in New York."
"New York was my end goal anyway. I wanted to run the flagship publication, not one of the subsidiaries, but I admit, that was a rather nice perk, getting out of that office."
"And how much harder do you think you had to work for the promotions that led you to your current position?"
Miranda laughed humorlessly at that. "I don't think there's a way to quantify that. I accepted no less than perfection of my work and yet there were men at the same level as I was while I was working my way up who were mediocre at best. They did not work as hard as I did, and yet they'd gotten there before me and made a good deal more than I did as well. I had to maintain perfection to get noticed for a promotion and yet despite the fact that I was the best of the best I wasn't chosen for quite a few promotions. I practically had to show empirical proof that no one could do what I could to even be considered."
"Knowing you, you did have empirical proof stashed somewhere to use just in case," Cat said as she scribbled down her notes quickly.
"I might have," Miranda said with a smirk. She watched as Cat flipped through her notes once more before her eyes flicked to the myriad of screens behind Cat's desk, glancing over the headlines for something to do.
She gasped as a familiar face flashed up on one of the screens. Miranda was off the couch and in front of the screen before she consciously registered her movement. She was about to ask for Cat to turn on the volume but the next second sound was coming out of the speakers.
"...and at popular lesbian bar The Cunning Linguist their annual Hottest Couple of Pride Contest wrapped up in a sizzling conclusion that left the reigning champions on top."
The picture flashed to two brunettes, one with a questionable white streak in her hair. Honestly, what was she thinking with that fashion statement? But before Miranda really had a chance to get herself worked up into a snit about that the camera panned to Andrea and her apparent companion.
"But the competition was close today, featuring these two challengers. The audience members all had similar things to say about the competition, calling it one for the record books and most assuredly hot. One of the owners of the bar said, "I don't think I've seen the bar this excited since Ellen showed up a few years back."
The footage rolled over to the two brunette women kissing in a very acrobatic manner. Miranda raised an eyebrow at that. So the white streaked woman had upper body strength, at least she had one thing going for her. But Miranda's stomach dropped out of her body all the way down to the ground floor of CatCo. If that's what this couple was doing, she could only assume what would come next.
Sure enough the next shot was Andrea and the other woman kissing for a long moment. She watched as Andrea's hands slipped from the woman's hips down to her ass before visibly squeezing. The camera zoomed back in before the blonde woman went to work on Andrea's neck, leaving some rather dark bruises behind. Anger shot through Miranda at the same time as lust. She would unpack that reaction later, for now fury was reigning.
"Keira!" Cat exclaimed, obviously as angry as Miranda. "Honestly, I give that girl one day off and this is what she does with it."
Miranda turned towards Cat. "You know the blonde?"
Cat nodded, eyes still glued on the screen. "She's my assistant." She glared at the screen even harder as Andrea popped back up on the screen. "In fact, I know three people on that stage. The one practically assaulting Keira is the new cub reporter at The Tribune we hired a little less than two weeks ago. Andy, I think she said her name was. I didn't really listen, she's much too bubbly, just like Kiera."
"Yes, I remember." The words were quiet as they always were with her, but heavier now. She remembered all too well. Midwestern naivety and the belief that she could change the world with her work had left an imprint on Miranda.
Cat rounded on her this time. "You know her?" She stabbed a finger at the TV screen.
"Yes, she was my assistant until almost two months ago. She left me in the middle of Paris Fashion Week and threw her phone in the fountain for good measure." Everyone always left her. Why should it sting more this time?
"Wait, she left you during the biggest time of the year for you and you didn't blackball her?" Cat squinted at her. "Miranda, there's the story about the assistant you blackballed at everywhere except TV Guide because she cut herself terribly and couldn't answer the phone."
Miranda waved that off. "Oh please, that was the excuse she gave. The cut was no more than a paper cut, she was just horrible at her job. That assistant also tried to purposefully get my first assistant fired when she was called out for it, but of course that never made the news."
"The point still stands that you have blackballed people for less."
Miranda frowned and immediately tried to change the subject. "And how many ex-employees have come after you now? Two, three? There was Livewire and Silver Banshee, twice each. Should you really be questioning how I handle my former employees when you've made such a mess of yours? Didn't even Supergirl throw you off a balcony?"
"I can damn well question whatever I want. And having assistants and ex-employees coming after us is nothing new and you know it. Treating one with kindness after they've screwed you over, that's the real outlier. Spill, Miranda, I won't drop this and you know it." Cat crossed her arms and stood with her legs shoulder-width apart, chin up, and eyes narrowed.
Miranda recognized that stance. She would not get out of this. She couldn't even leave the building and end the conversation. No, Cat would come after her with every journalistic resource she had until the question was answered. She never took no for an answer like this. It was why she was at the top of her company and why she was such a damn good journalist.
But that didn't mean Miranda was going to give Cat the answer easily.
"Surely you must have realized she'd come from Runway. The girl asked for a recommendation even after quitting. She did have an almost stupid amount of bravery at points."
Cat's eyes narrowed. "So not only did you not blackball her, you wrote her a recommendation?"
Miranda quoted from memory. "'Of all the assistants I've ever had Andrea Sachs, by far, is my biggest disappointment. And if you don't hire her you're an idiot,' I believe were my exact words."
"You're big on damning with faint praise. That's practically an effusive love letter from you." Her eyes widened like they always did in that a-ha moment. "No, Miranda Priestly, you didn't."
"I didn't what?" Miranda asked, voice light and airy, like she had no care in the world even as her heart rate started to increase.
"It all makes perfect sense. You're never warm, even when in love, that's just who you are, but god you will move heaven and earth for the other person. Heaven and earth this time just happened to be avoiding what you would do normally to anyone who walked out on you like that."
Miranda barked with humorless laughter, "Oh. I see." Her gaze turned cold. "So I have to suddenly be in love because I didn't blackball someone. Because deciding to not deal with a crying, whiny ex-assistant in the midst of the nastiest divorce I've ever had is moving heaven and earth? So what, I'm not allowed to take off a problem from my plate?"
She turned from Cat and stalked over to the massive windows looking out onto the balcony and then National City. "And what would you know about how I am when I love, Cat. You never even gave me the chance to move heaven and earth for you. You just disappeared into thin air and you won't even tell me why all these years later."
Cat was silent for a few long moments before padding over to stand beside Miranda, just looking out over the buildings as the sun started to make its journey towards the horizon.
"I realized it later. I realized it when we saw each other again in Paris ten years later and you still would have done anything, fixed anything, that caused me to run in the first place. I realized when I heard how rabidly you defended your girls against the press. But I didn't realize then." She stood for another long minute before walking back over to the couch and grabbing her glass full of M&Ms and returning to Miranda's side.
Miranda took a big handful and wondered why chocolate tasted like regret. "And yet you still won't tell me, even after realizing all of that. Instead you focus on ex-assistants and hounding me over them."
Before Cat could reply, a giggle sounded from outside of Cat's office. They both turned to a rather unexpected sight. The two people who had started this argument between them were now strolling in. Strolling, however, was a generous term. It seemed that Kiera was more supporting a visibly drunk Andrea as they walked towards the desk that Miranda had accurately pegged as the assistant's desk.
"Shh. Andy, please, there are still people finishing up for the day," Kiera's whisper wasn't truly very quiet in the almost emptiness of the floor.
"Psssh. Kara, Kara, what does the- what does the elephant say- say to the naked man?" Andrea's giggling increased.
"What, Andy?" Kara looked the picture of pained patience.
"It's cute, but can you breathe through it?" Andrea broke out into loud laughter, drawing looks from the few remaining employees on the floor.
Kara turned beet red and kept shuffling Andrea along. "That's nice, Andy."
"Oh, oh, I have another. Listen to this, what kind of bees produce milk?" Andrea giggled some more and even hiccupped.
And here Miranda had thought that that particular reaction was something strictly out of cartoons. Of course Andrea would be the only one in the world who actually hiccupped when drunk. How very Midwestern.
Kara looked to the heavens and whispered something that Miranda couldn't hear. "I don't know, Andy."
"Boobies!"
Miranda, despite herself, snorted. How very innocent for a dirty joke.
"Andy, you better stop now while you're only slightly embarrassing or else sober you is going to die of secondhand embarassment. Trust me. I will tell Alex and Astra about this, you won't live it down as long as you're in National City."
Andrea looked up at Kara with wide eyes. "I don't want to die yet. You know, I haven't been this drunk in a long time. The ladies at the bar must make really strong drinks and I must not have noticed. I'm sorry Kara that you have to deal with drunk me. But I know lots of jokes so that makes up for it right?"
"Or you simply had about sixteen drinks. That could have been it."
Andrea laughed again. "Sixteen! No, I only had- I had um. Not sixteen. I think it was five. Or maybe it was six. That sounds right."
"Are you including the shots you had?" Kara finally sat Andrea down in her desk chair and rooted around in her desk, unaware of Cat and Miranda watching her every move.
"I didn't have shots, that was all Lucy. I only had things with peach schnapps in it because I really like schnapps."
Kara, as Andrea seemed to call her, handed Andrea two pills and a bottle of water. "Take these, drink the water slowly, then we'll get you down to your desk and get you writing. At least, I hope. You probably need to sober up some first. So I'll make sure you drink lots of water, and I'll get you some food." She leaned her head against Andrea's for a brief moment. "Let's hope we can stave off a hangover."
Miranda looked at Cat who was visibly seething, blush covering her neck and chest and her free hand in a fist at her side, the other clenched until it was white around the glass of M&Ms. Where Miranda was cold in her anger Cat had always been more fiery. And right now she was about to go off like a shot. Miranda didn't think there would be any harm in joining her. She stepped up to Cat's side, took the glass of M&Ms, and set it on the nearest surface before nudging the other woman forward.
Once started, Cat strode forward like a bat out of hell, heels digging into the carpet, and hair flying around her. Miranda followed, more sedately, but with the gait that all of Runway feared, the deadly sway of her hips enough to tell those who had been there long enough that someone would be dead, perhaps almost literally, by the end of her rage.
"Keira! What is the meaning of this?" Cat's voice was sharp like a knife and twice as deadly.
Kara turned around like she wasn't surprised that Cat was there. "Oh, um, Miss Grant, I'm sorry about this, but Andy and I were out at Pride and she remembered that she has an article due for the online about the festivities, but had one drink too many, and so I was just taking care of her to get her back in shape to write. We'll be out of your hair shortly, I promise." She fidgeted slightly, adjusting her glasses and smoothing down those atrocious blue shorts she had on.
"Oh no, you aren't done here yet. You do not get to run away after what I just saw on Channel six."
Kara's eyes widened. "Um, what was on Channel six?"
"You were, Keira, you and this," she looked down at Andy scathingly, "thing, were on Channel six making out like horny teenagers. Exactly what did you think you were doing? You are a member of CatCo, do you think you were representing the company well like that? And on a station that's not even a CatCo affiliate? Are you and your little girlfriend that desperate for attention?"
Miranda felt her nostrils flare at the insults to Andrea, but before she could jump in Kara began to stutter and stammer. "What? We? Wait, I- what? Miss Grant, it-"
Andrea giggled and leaned in close to Kara, clearly in an attempt to whisper, despite Kara's ear being rather far from Andrea's mouth. "You were right." She hiccupped. "You can't talk-" She was cut off when Kara's hand clapped across her mouth.
"Andy, not right now," Kara almost begged. The young woman turned to look at Cat. "We really should get going, Andy needs to finish her article and get some food. I'm sorry, Miss Grant, I wasn't aware that we were being filmed. If I had-" Kara yelped, pulling her hand away. "Andy! You just licked me!"
"Well, you licked Astra!"
"That's different!"
Cat scoffed. "I would have thought the sharing of bodily fluids between you two would have become commonplace by now, since you two seemed so comfortable on Channel six."
"Oh for- that wasn't real! We're not together! Andy and I hammed it up to give the reigning couple a little competition, but it was consensual and-" This time it was Kara who was interrupted when a wobbly finger reached up and pressed against her lips.
"Ssshhhh. Don't give in." Andrea said conspiratorially, as if her words made sense. "Besides, she doesn't have any legal right, Kara. I mean, about getting angry you're not on CatCo affiliated news. I was pre-law as well as journalism and English. The lady said the competition is a huge deal, so if Miss Grant wanted coverage then she could have covered it. We were under no contract with any news site about our compliance with the kissing competition." Andrea nodded, almost rocking herself forward out of the chair except for the fact that Kara was holding onto her shoulder. "And as far as representing CatCo, I read through the contract before signing it and that part is more of a moral thing than a legal thing. She can't fire you over that either. Though reprimand you, that she can do." She shrugged and slumped back. "I think she likes you too much to do that though."
"Oh, so now you decide to use your knowledge of the law, Andrea," Miranda said, finally stepping forward to stand beside Cat right in front of Kara's desk. "Where exactly did that knowledge go when you destroyed company property?"
Andrea squeaked and turned red in the face, nearly toppling backwards as she tried to hide behind Kara. "Kara, Kara. It's her. It is her right, I'm not just having a drunk hallucination, right? Or, or if it isn't real, tell her that I paid the company back for the phone. I sent the money to HR. Tell, tell her I paid it back, Kara. I paid it back."
"All right, Andy. Everything's going to be fine. I think it's time to get you back to your apartment even. We can work on your article after you take a nap and eat some food and drink some more water."
"I'll be fine, Kara," Andy said, trying to spin the chair she was in around, but hitting Kara's legs instead, almost as if she had forgotten what she'd just said.
Miranda just blinked. She had never seen someone so ridiculously drunk. Well, at least since college. It was almost cute. But that was overridden by the amounts of fury directed at Kara for being so familiar with Andrea. And perhaps there was also some ire towards Andrea, for leaving her, for moving on so quickly, but god it didn't even compare in scale. It didn't make sense, it wasn't fair, and she didn't give a damn.
She leaned down and placed her palms on the desk, looming over Andrea. "Oh, I assure you, Andrea, I am real, and I don't know just how fine either of you are going to be after this." Andrea's eyes widened and she latched her arms around Kara's leg her mouth gaping open.
Cat hummed her agreement. "Yes, I don't believe this flimsy excuse about a competition. You will tell us both the truth. Right this instant. Or no matter how much your friend claims I like you, I'll find a suitable punishment for you, Kiera."
Kara swallowed visibly at that and perhaps blushed a shade or two darker. Now Miranda would say she qualified as a rouge instead of rose. She stared at the girl for a bit longer. There was something familiar about her, but Miranda had no time, nor want at the moment to place it.
"That is the truth, Miss Grant, I don't know what else you want me to say. I met Andy out at Pride, we watched the parade together with my sister and aunt, and then we went to the club together with Lucy and they had the competition, which we competed in after Andy got pushed into me and the spotlight landed on us as I was trying not to let her fall over. Andy is my friend, nothing more." She stood up a little bit taller and stared down Miss Grant for a few seconds before dropping her eyes and starting to fuss with random things on her desk, straightening things that didn't need straightened.
Andrea snickered against Kara's leg, mumbling unintelligible words just before Kara fumbled with a mug of pens.
Miranda looked at Cat and Cat turned to her, fire still in her eyes. She didn't believe Kara anymore this time than she had the time before. Miranda, for her part, believed Kara at her word, but sensed that there was more going on here than she knew. Why in the world was Cat so incensed about this? She understood why she was furious, but Cat?
And her own lightbulb came on and perhaps she wasn't the only one who had fallen for their assistant after all. What absolute cliches they were. It was almost laughable how alike they had turned out after all.
Cat turned back after finding whatever she needed to in Miranda's eyes. "We don't believe you."
Miranda thought it too much trouble to actually dispute the fact that she did believe them, if only about the events of the day. She was far too curious about what lay beneath.
Andrea started to tap Kara on the leg. "Kara, Kara, it's almost six, I only have six hours to write my article and edit it. Can you walk me down to my desk?"
Kara looked down at Andrea, back at Miss Grant, and then snuck a glance at Miranda. "Miss Grant, she has a point. If you don't want a blank space in the online edition, she does need to get writing."
"I don't even know if it's worth keeping her on The Tribune." She crossed her arms and glared down at Andy like she was about to murder her.
"Cat, you said her writing was some of the best for a new reporter that you'd seen in ages." Kara's stance shifted to defiant, chin up, shoulders back, and chest out.
Andrea pressed her face against Kara's leg, continuing as if the other two hadn't spoken. "Oh god I don't want to get fired, Kara, I need to get my article done." Her voice had taken on a shaky tone, and she seemed to be in her own little world. "I don't want to have to move again, Kara. I have to get the article done. I had to borrow money from my dad to move out here. I have to pay him back, I can't do that if I lose my job. I can get it done, I swear. Miss Grant won't even know I was drunk, I've written articles while drunk. Once, in college…someone spiked the punch and I didn't know." Andrea sniffled and whispered just loud enough for them to still hear. "I don't want to be another disappointment, Kara."
Kara just looked at Cat and cocked an eyebrow. "You're always complaining about millennials who don't want to do their work and want everything handed to them. She wants to do her work, Miss Grant, even drunker than a skunk and maybe about to throw up at some point soon."
Cat made a disgusted noise. "Fine, go, but that article better be damned perfect, Kiera, or you're both out of a job."
Kara nodded. "It'll be done."
She helped Andy out of her seat and grabbed up her water and the bottle of aspirin, "I'll order something from the Deli down the way and have it delivered, does that sound ok to you, Andy?"
"Kara, I don't want you to get fired because of me. You should just throw me under the bus. It's my fault I'm this drunk." Andrea sniffled as Kara walked her away.
Miranda's stomach roiled, watching the two of them walk away. She was torn between going after the girl and comforting her, or ripping her apart. So she just stayed there. Every relationship she had was in tatters at the moment, she shouldn't rend the pieces of that one even more. The elevator opened for them and whisked them away to parts of the building unknown.
She quietly walked back into Cat's office and shut the door behind them both and leaned against it. She was mentally exhausted and it was only early evening. She had a feeling that it wasn't going to get any better though as Cat angrily picked up her M&Ms again and started crunching away.
"You're in love with her," Miranda said, softly, as another piece of her ripped away. It was one thing to hear about Cat's romantic attachments from thousands of miles away. It was another to see them face to face.
Cat froze. "I am not." She glared at Miranda, but it had no effect.
"Cat, you were about to accuse me of being in love with Andrea before the two of them walked in here. I will be honest with you if you are honest with me." She closed her eyes for a long moment before opening them and stepping away. Miranda hesitated for just a moment before walking over to Cat's minibar and grabbing two glasses. She filled them halfway with scotch and turned back around. "One, and only one, or my walking out still stands. But this is needed I think."
Cat nodded and took the glass before taking a long sip and sighing. "Come out on the balcony. No one will disturb us out there."
Miranda followed her out into the dry heat of National City. Without the humidity that plagued New York, it wasn't so bad at ninety degrees and cooling down as the day headed towards an end. She sat down in one of the many plush chairs as wind blew around them gently. They sipped their drinks in silence for a little while before Miranda put her almost empty glass on the coffee table in front of her.
"I did fall in love with her while she was my assistant," Miranda said, looking out over a sunbleached city. "It was hard not to, really. It was like she almost read my mind for every need I could ever have. She met all the challenges I threw at her and asked for more. She looked at the Dragon, and she still cared. It was intoxicating. I hadn't had that since…" she trailed off, but the meaning was clear. The only person she had felt this way for was sitting across from her, in love with someone else. "But then she left me in Paris, and then left the City entirely, and it was rather clear that whatever was between us was only one sided. And so I moved on. It isn't like I could afford to have something like that in my life with the divorce going on still. Page Six would have a field day, and Stephen would try and use it to his advantage."
She reached out and picked up her glass again, looking at it for a long second, watching the light warp through the golden liquid before slamming the rest of it back and setting the glass down again. The alcohol burned on the way down, but it felt good, better than good really, to have a distraction from the thoughts in her mind.
"I hired her two years ago. She surprised me, my 10:15. Everyone had come in saying how special they were, how much harder they could work than everyone else, but she came in and said that there was nothing special about her. You know I'm not often speechless, but I was then. I still am sometimes. But that wasn't the start of it. That didn't come until later until after a hundred late nights at the office working side by side with the girl. My assistants never last long, never past three months, but she did. So I became a mentor and then a friend, and somewhere along the way that bashful, nerdy exterior and a need to help others got under my skin. Soon, my day wasn't complete without seeing her, without talking to her, and god that's when I realized it. I'd become the cliche CEO that I said I'd never be, yet here I am. She doesn't know, can't know. She wouldn't feel the same way. After all Andy is much better for her. They're the same age, and it's much more acceptable now. No one will look twice at them, and they can live quite happily."
Miranda hummed her agreement. Cat was right, they would, if that's what they wanted. They could live very happily together, and perhaps even get married. It would surely make more sense than being with the two of them. And yet, she wouldn't let Cat believe that all was lost.
"I think Kara was telling the truth about them not being together," she said, looking at Cat who steadfastly refused to look back. She seemed to be trying to find answers in the bottom of her scotch glass.
"You don't know her. You don't know what she's like. She could be lying and you'd never know it."
"Cat, do you really think I got to the position I have without being able to tell a liar at a hundred paces, even people I didn't know before that moment. Besides, you do know her. She seems like one of those people who can't keep a secret to save their life."
Cat just snorted and laughed. "You're more right than you know."
"So then why don't you believe her now?" Miranda asked.
"Because it would be easier if it was that way. Besides, since they were thick as thieves in a day, less than that even, who's to say that Kara couldn't fall in love with her?"
Now that, Miranda couldn't actually ascertain without knowing the girl. "So why don't we figure it out?"
"We?" Cat raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You're leaving the day after tomorrow and have days chock full of showings if I remember your penchant for busy days. There would be no we about it."
Miranda took out her phone and stared at it for a long second. This felt important, like something she needed to do to perhaps finally attain her own peace. If Andrea and Kara could fall for each other then she could reason that Andrea was taken and there was nothing she could do. She could force herself to move on more effectively than she had been.
Or maybe it would just break her heart that much more. There was really no telling how it would go. She wondered if it would be the same way for Cat. If she should really push this. If the opposite was true and if Kara and Andy were really just going to stay friends would that pain them more too? To know that there was opportunity and not take it?
But what if they did take it? What if this was what led them down that path? Miranda's mind spun in circles trying to figure out just what path she should take. Plans branched out before her, choices at every turn laid out. It was part of what made her such a good businesswoman, the ability to plan anything and everything in such fine detail in an instant. Here, though, no plan was standing out as the best and what exactly was she supposed to do now?
She took a deep breath and dialed. No reward without risk, she supposed.
When Emily picked up she didn't even wait for the girl to say hello, she just started rattling off instructions. "Emily, cancel the showings we have tomorrow and the next day and reschedule them for four days from now. Set up a makeshift headquarters from which Runway can be worked on in the interim. Cancel our tickets but do not rebook them just yet. I will inform you of when to do so. Extend our stay at the hotel for at least another five days and tell anyone who thinks that they make slack off because we will be out of the Runway offices for a longer period than planned that they will regret doing so upon my return. That's all."
She hung up the phone and looked at Cat. "We."
Cat was staring at her like she couldn't quite decide what to do with Miranda. Miranda had seen the same expression on the other woman's face not long before Cat had asked her out for a drink. She had made her decision then and from the look on Cat's face shifting into determination, she had made her decision now.
"Well then. As our confrontation with them together went so well the first time, I will talk with them on my own first. I'm the one who knows Kara best and they both are my employees so it would make the most sense. Afterwards you can then," she flipped her hand in the air, reminding Miranda very much of her own ticks, "have your own talk with them if you desire and we can compare notes."
"That doesn't sound very much like a we at all, Cat. And while you may know Kara, you do not know Andrea. I should be the one to speak with them first, if we're doing it that way. You're too close to Kara to get anywhere without seeming suspicious. She knows you probably just as well as you say you know her, if not better. Add to that the fact that they are your employees and god knows what sort of HR complaints could be filed against both you and them, it would be better to talk to someone not within the company, which leaves me."
"Please, nothing was filed when Kara was caught kissing with James, or when Lucy and James were nearly caught in the stairwell, nothing will get filed for this. Although, honestly, the stairwell? His office would have been a much better choice, even with the glass walls. There has to be some spot in there that's not visible, or he could pull the blinds down. Or even a bathroom." She rolled her eyes. "The point is that half of your concerns aren't valid. I'm an investigative journalist by trade, Miranda, I know how to get information out of people. You run a fashion magazine, the world's best, yes, but still it's not the same."
"May I remind you that one of the positions I held on my way to becoming editor-in-chief was junior editor of features where I conducted all of the interviews for our celebrity articles. No one wants to talk less about the actual interesting things in their life than celebrities. Just because the company I run is strictly fashion doesn't mean I don't know how to be a journalist. You remember I do have degrees in both, yes?"
"You're out of practice," Cat said, waving her off. "Besides, as I said Kara has been my assistant much longer than Andrea ever worked for you. Clearly that points to a level of loyalty that you never had. I've had several meetings with Andrea since she was employed here, and she says she's very pleased with her new position here and that it fits her much better."
Miranda tasted hot metal and fury. Loyalty. How dare this woman in front of her who had run for god knew what reason lecture her on loyalty.
She swallowed hard and blinked long and slow before speaking in an icy tone. "I learned long ago that any sort of loyalty is false and fabricated. My family was never loyal to me. My relationships have been full of liars. My supposed friends have sold my secrets for money. Where in the world is there loyalty? I may have had a taste here and there, but there is very little loyalty in my life. It took me ripping apart two people's career goals to realize my first assistant and my art director may truly be loyal to me. But the rest?" She shook her head. "I might have a list of artists of all measures who say they will follow me wherever I go, but when it comes down to it, they'll merely fall in line with the next Top Dog should I be ousted."
Cat blinked and blinked again, stunned. "I'm sorry."
And Miranda didn't know what she was sorry for exactly. There were a great many things between them to be sorry for other than an almost offhand comment. Perhaps she was sorry for all of them. But there were very few things she could do with sorry.
"But for someone who doesn't believe in loyalty, you represent it steadfastly for your selected few." She looked away. "Miranda, I'm still one of them after all of this. And don't deny it, because it's true. If I had called you at any time in the last twenty-six years and asked for help you would have been here."
Miranda's burst of laughter was loud and short. "That may have been, but we both know you never did, and you never would have. And who says I would have helped? I promised my longest lasting employee a new job, and look where that got him?"
"Do you have plans to give him the next suitable job you come across? Do you have a plan to help ease the pain in the meantime." She looked at Miranda for a long few seconds. "Don't tell me you don't, Miranda. I know you do. Heaven and earth, Miranda, heaven and earth. It's the same thing."
Miranda sniffed. "And what if I don't? I barely kept my own job." So she was mostly exaggerating, that didn't mean Cat had to know.
"Bullshit, and we both know it. Irv's ham handed schemes wouldn't come anywhere close to actually ousting you. Just because I haven't been around forever doesn't mean I've forgotten anything. You do have a plan and you're just trying to avoid admitting it to try and seem like the Ice Queen everyone paints you as. And I know you aren't. Just stop with this, Miranda, stop with the act."
"What act, Cathrine? You may have gotten to know the young Miranda who thought it was wonderful to stay up late on a work day, or who thought a nice smoke on a Saturday was a great way to relax, but you know nothing of the past twenty-six years! You haven't forgotten anything? Well, I certainly haven't either!" Miranda could feel her control slipping, but her heart ached too much to stop and regain it. "I was struggling both personally and professionally, trying to find my way as an adult and hitting roadblock after roadblock. I finally started thinking I might have found someone who would care enough to remain loyal and steadfast in my life, that something might be going right, only to come home to an empty apartment!" By the end, her whole body was rigid and her voice was barely under a shout.
Cat drank the rest of her scotch in one go then stood up and walked to the railing. Miranda refused to follow. She was too angry, too beaten down. How had a discussion of who was going to talk to Andrea and Kara come to this?
A silence lapsed between them that neither of them seemed to want to break. Miranda debated on leaving, getting up and walking from here and never looking back, but this wasn't finished and she would stay until it was. They both needed that, if nothing else.
Cat suddenly whipped around and faced Miranda. Her chest was heaving gently and there was a pained expression on her face.
"You've always wanted to know why I left. I'll tell you. Right here, right now, Miranda. I'll tell you why I couldn't tell you sixteen years ago. I'll tell you anything you want to know. And then you'll get angry at me, and disappointed in me, but you still won't leave this balcony because I know you. I may not have been with you the last twenty-six years, but the core of a person doesn't change, Miranda."
"I thought you trusted me. I thought, finally, someone who understood my drive, and my passions. I thought we could talk about anything, work, miserable childhoods, and everything else. I had gotten off an hour early, desperate to get back to the apartment because my boss said I had strong potential, and that if I kept up the good work I could be promoted sometime in the next few months. I had gone out to that little bakery where we met, and got home-" her breath caught in her throat. "I got home to find you were gone. No note. No sign that you'd even lived there for almost three months, save a few shirts in the laundry, a bottle of unfinished shampoo in the shower, a few hair ties lying around, and a hairbrush underneath the bathroom counter. Why, Cat, just why?"
"I-" Cat took in a deep, shaking breath before continuing. "Before I came to New York I was involved with this man named Brent Foster in Metropolis. It was serious for a time but then he broke it off because I was too dedicated to my work. I didn't find it a real loss honestly, especially since I was being transferred from the Daily Planet in Metropolis to the outpost in New York for the TV contingent."
She walked over to the chair where she had been sitting before and sunk down on knocking knees. "He faded into the background, especially with all that happened between us. I didn't think of him at all until two months into our relationship and three since I'd left Metropolis. We had been careful. We used protection, I was on the pill, and yet somehow I got pregnant anyway. Of course I did. Because that is the sort of luck I have."
She laughed, but it sounded almost watery and Miranda almost wanted to reach out to comfort her. Almost.
"I didn't, I didn't know what to do. I wasn't ready for a child. But neither did I want to get rid of him. I knew that from the second I took that test in our tiny bathroom after two missed periods. It was probably a dumb choice looking back on it, but I don't regret it. But I regret so much else about everything surrounding it."
Cat looked up at Miranda with watery eyes, but no tears were falling. She looked lost and alone and young, so very young again. Miranda could see that same twenty-four year old who she'd fallen in love with years ago.
"I regret that I ran from you instead of telling you, but Miranda I was so scared. I was scared that you'd throw me out. I was scared that you would tell me to get rid of it. I had come up with so many bad scenarios in my mind about what could happen that I couldn't see what I knew to be the truth, that I trusted you." She ran her hands through her hair. "I just remember you saying in passing one night that you weren't ready for kids yet and I just took that and I ran with it, quite literally. I packed up everything the next day while you were at work and took the next train to Metropolis and found Brent and told him I was pregnant and next thing I knew we were married and Brent was overjoyed that he was having a kid. He wasn't anywhere near happy to have me back though, especially when I started working harder than ever, getting the money for CatCo, for the TV show, everything. I wanted to work so I could forget how scared I was."
She picked up her empty scotch glass and looked at mournfully, but didn't get up to refill it. Cat just swirled the dregs around slowly as she tried to find her words again.
"You would have said the right thing. You would have been a great mother. You are now. If only I would have asked we could have had that."
Miranda sat there stunned. Of all the things that she had thought that Cat had run away for, this was not one of them. She cleared her throat as her brain thought through it all.
"And honestly, the reason I couldn't tell you ten years later after everything had calmed down was because I was ashamed of everything even after that. Brent didn't like that I worked a lot before. He liked it even less after I had Adam. He said that I was an unfit mother. I ran away from you, only to lose my baby in a nasty custody case. I barely even fought, Miranda, because somewhere deep down I thought he was right. Then I lost him entirely when Brent moved as far from me as he could get. I didn't pursue him then either. What kind of mother does that? I didn't see my son for twenty-two years. I thought about him every day, but talking about it, admitting it to others what I'd done? I couldn't. I can barely talk about it now even though I've finally reconciled with him because of Kara. I can only talk about it because it's you."
She put the glass down and then her head in her hands. "God, Miranda, the guilt, sometimes it feels like it's trying to claw me apart from the inside out. It always has, maybe even moreso now that I have Carter. The disparity between the two. I was there for Carter every step of the way. Why couldn't I be for Adam? Why?"
And with that Miranda finally did break. She moved from her seat and kneeled in front of Cat and placed her hands on Cat's legs gently. Cat didn't acknowledge her, though. Miranda waited a few seconds before gently touching Cat's hands and drawing them away from her face. She replaced Cat's hands with her own, tenderly cupping Cat's cheeks. Cat's eyes finally met hers after a long moment.
"Is Adam happy and healthy?" she asked.
Cat just nodded minutely.
"Do you plan on mending the relationship between the two of you to the best of your abilities?"
Again Cat nodded.
"Then you've done and will do all you can."
"But I could have done more. I could have-"
Miranda cut her off. "You were young, and career driven. You fought for him, in a custody battle. You didn't just let Brent take him away from you right from the beginning. Sometimes the best thing for a child is to let them go. If you kept fighting for him, all it would have done is create discord. I've been to enough therapy appointments with my daughters to see the damage caused by constant fighting and arguing and court battles. They are almost eleven and I am still fighting to keep majority custody. But I'm also at a different place in my life than when you were fighting for custody of Adam. Brent was at a point in his life where he could handle a child, you weren't. It was and is as simple as that. It doesn't make you a bad mother."
"But I didn't try to see him at all. I could have at least done that. Something. Anything." She sniffled, but still the tears were not falling, stoic until the end.
"Did you really do nothing? Did you really give him no money, no gifts, no holiday cards when he was growing, nothing?"
"Well, of course I gave him money. He has a trust just like Carter does. He's using the money to pursue a degree in film at the moment."
"Then you have done something, and he appreciates it and is using it, not leaving it there to spite you. I am not saying you couldn't have visited, that you couldn't have done more, because that is the truth, but what I am saying is that you did what you could and what you thought was best, and that is all you can do. And to feel guilty over Carter is foolish. To treat him the same as Adam would be a disrespect to Adam himself because it would have shown you did not learn, that you did not care. You care. You care greatly. Oh, darling, you always have underneath it all."
Cat took a few slow, deep breaths. Her body was shaking with silent sobs. Miranda had a feeling she hadn't been like this in front of anyone in literally years, probably decades. She stood up from the ground and grabbed Cat's hands and pulled her up as well. She led them carefully to the small sofa and sat them both back down and wrapped her arms firmly around Cat.
"So do you, you care. You wouldn't be here otherwise."
"And so I do. You were right."
They sat in silence as the sun really started to sink in earnest, lighting up the sky in gold and pink and purple. Miranda looked out at the colors and wondered why it was impossible to capture the true beauty of a moment, a sunrise, a sunset, a death, a birth, a confession of love, in art. Oh she had seen breathtaking dresses modeled on a great many moments, but they never quite shined as brightly as the real thing. And this moment, well this moment would be too hard to capture to even try.
"I really am sorry," Cat finally said when her body had stopped shaking. Miranda still had her arms around the other woman though, and wasn't planning on letting go anytime soon.
"I know you are. I am too. For a lot of things. But sorry is just the beginning of working past the issue."
Cat slowly wrapped her arms around Miranda, resting her cheek against Miranda's shoulder. "I think we can work past the issue given time." She cleared her throat and sniffled. "Perhaps, as you've cleared a few days in your schedule, we could use some of it to get to know each other again. Maybe have a lunch out, or a dinner together? If you would be willing?"
Miranda closed her eyes and leaned against Cat. The other woman had been right. She would have forgiven Cat sixteen years ago if she would have told her about Adam. She would have tried to salvage their relationship. Because right now, if there weren't other people in their lives, she was almost positive that she would try to do just that.
"I would enjoy that, quite a lot, really."
Cat sighed, relaxing. She tucked herself further into Miranda's neck, and Miranda felt just the slightest hint of moisture. "Good."
"Yes. It is."
They cuddled for another little while before Cat pulled back just a bit to look at Miranda. "I still say that I should go first with Kara and Andy."
Miranda laughed and laughed until her sides hurt. She just leaned her forehead forward as she finally calmed down and shook her head. "I think we should let them be for a little bit, and watch silently. If further inquiry is needed we should work together. During lunch we can come up with a plan, and work together to get our answers. We always worked better as a team."
Cat scoffed. "That was for doing dishes, because you hated wearing the rubber gloves. Don't think I didn't see through your reasoning about being better at drying and putting them away in the correct cabinets."
"There is nothing wrong with me hating the feel of latex gloves." She shivered delicately. "Or hating mushy food touching me." She grimaced.
"Oh I bet you were a hoot when your daughters began to wean off breastfeeding." This time Cat shivered, and she carefully untangled herself from Miranda's grasp. "We should head inside, and get going. Carter's with his father tonight, so I have the evening free if you'd care for dinner?"
Miranda thought about it, mentally going through her schedule quickly. Her afternoon had certainly been completely cleared for Cat. She had known it would take some time to be interviewed, and as far as she was aware, Emily hadn't scheduled anything for later either just in case.
"I think that would be ameable." The corners of Miranda's mouth curled up into a smile.
Cat gave a little smile as well. "Good. I'll resurrect that rice dish from decades ago." She leaned forward and before either could stop it, Cat pressed a quick kiss to Miranda's cheek. When she pulled back she was beet red and looking at the ground. "Right, well, this way." She then promptly stumbled just a little bit before righting herself and going on her way.
Miranda just stared after her for a moment. Cat Grant getting flustered at a kiss on the cheek. Who would have thought.