CHAPTER 3
She refused to accept that Miranda send a driver, she took a cab from JFK to the Plaza. She arrived a day earlier anyway, wanting a moment to herself to soak up New York again.
For a moment after she left the posh hotel that afternoon for a stroll down Central Park, in jeans and a corduroy pea coat she almost felt like the old Andy. The idealist journalist who wanted nothing to do with the family business, who ran away from Chicago after her almost husband cheated on her with his mother's secretary. Regina had tried to cover up the slip, had said that 'little Henry had a moment of self-discovery that it would never happen again'. She was good at cover ups, covering up corruption, covering up statistics of crime, poverty and low education during her years as governor. She was good enough that she got a cabinet post last year with the new President, though the president's track record with cabinet resignations and firings it was a tricky deal. Andrea shook her head, she had forgotten how beautiful the water looks from the bridge at the Park. The summer has made the trees all green and full of foliage, their green color rivals the city's grey scheme and make them surreal. Her thoughts drift to the presidency again, it has been a surreal year, an unexpected election,at least from her liberal big city view, it was as if she were living a sci-fic novel, Fahrenheit 84 and Gattica where the end of reality and freedom was eminent, young Andrea would have basked in the realm of stories that could be written, she would have pleaded to be front and center, raised her hand for every possible assignment, not now. Seven years spent between legacy schools and biased courtrooms had jaded her. Democracy was an impossibility, a fairytale, beautiful to imagine but a fallacy to conceive. She kept walking from Central park down to a random subway stop, she paid her ticket and climbed aboard. She hadn't planned it but she ended up on the other side of town, where she used to live with Nate. She walked without a plan, past the Chinese restaurant they used order take-out from, and the first job he had out of culinary school. Had she really loved him? What was it that had ended their relationship? Why had it even started in the first place? He was the antithesis of everything her family wanted, unknown, poor, and a dreamer.
"Andy?" unplanned and without notice she had ended up at her friends Lili's house.
"Hi" she waved slightly.
"My, it's been ages. You disappeared, dropped out of the map, how have you been?" her dark skin friend asks.
Andrea takes a second to answer, this used to be her best friend, they used to know everything about each other. She looks her up and down, she notices Lili shift in her shoes. She's wearing black flats and dark jeans, and a long loose sweatshirt comes down almost to her thighs and her hair is still in unruly curls.
"I've been good. I was just in the neighborhood" she answers.
"Don't you live in LA or something?" Lili asks in reproach.
"Chicago," Andrea casts her eyes downward and looks at her own flat Prada pumps. Lili darts her eyes at them too.
"Well" Lili starts "that's definitely not LA"
Andrea manages a soft chuckle, "no, not at all. Do you still do gallery work?"
Lili nods, they are standing at the corner of the street, she nods toward her condominium, "do you want some tea?"
Andrea doesn't know what to answer, does she? Does she have anything in common with her anymore? The Andrea she knew was called Andy, she had no idea what Prada was, and ate French fries for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The Andrea she knew hadn't helped criminals escape jail, she would never stand for that, she didn't sell out to big companies, she had never heard of Miranda Priestly. This Andrea is hopelessly in love with her, with Ms. Priestly as the New York times calls her, the most influential editor in fashion. And said editor lover her back
The Andrea she was would never wear $500 dollar shoes in the dirty streets of New York, as if on cue her phone vibrates, it's a text from Miranda.
She shakes her head, "I can't I have dinner plans on the other side of town."
Lili nods, "Of course, have fun".
Andrea turns around and walks down a few steps, dialing her lover back, "Miranda, darling I didn't have time to call you this morning. I'm here in New York. I just got your text call me back"
She hadn't noticed Lili had followed suit, when she hangs up she turns to a half smile and a tap.
Her old friend had heard the conversation, "come back soon, okay?"
"Lili, I'm not who I used to be" she explains in hopes that her friend understands the old Andy was lost, still wandering in the city somewhere.
"I see," she says and squares her jaw just like Miranda does. Andrea was never good at doing that, "but you'll still always be my friend. Remember that"
She leans in for a hug, awkward at first and then comforting, a few seconds of herself came back.
By the time she had showered and changed to meet Miranda at the townhome whatever lingering nostalgia she had of Nate and Lili and Doug had been erased. She knocked at the door to be greeted Miranda.
"Miranda, you look gorgeous"
Miranda smiles and says nothing. "The girls are here, they wanted to have dinner with you" she pauses as if she had just said Hitler was over for drinks or something, 'I hope that's okay?" she adds.
Andrea is nodding before she can even answer, "yes of course. Um, so do they know?"
Miranda nods, "I would never make a life altering decision without telling the core objects of my life, Andrea. "
"Right, well lead on"
Miranda smiles again, this time it's candid and sincere. The corner of her lips twitch upward and her teeth bare a little.
"Ah hello there, if it isn't the twins" she says as two identical pair of eyes turn to look at her.
"Andrea" they say in unison, a pair of lanky, thin teenagers with perfectly straightened auburn hair and braces.
"Hopefully you won't prank me into going up the stairs" she jokes.
Miranda watches the interaction, steadfast blue eyes watching the three women interact for the first time in years.
"I don't think we will need to this time" Cass says sarcastically smiling
"I think mom will take care of that one" Caro complements her sister and wink
"Girls, we're behaving right?" Miranda cautions from behind.
"We are behaving mom," Caroline says as she drops down the book she was holding and reaches out to embrace Andrea, "we're glad you are here Andy" she whispers.
"I am too" she responds.
The evening is fairly easy, the girls talk about school, and fashion and travel. They joke here and there with Andrea and Miranda who stays quiet for most of the night nods here and there. The twins retire early, since it is weekday and they both wake up for swim practice at the prep-school everyday.
"Will they come with us to the beach?" Andrea questions.
Miranda shakes her head, "no, they are spending the weekend at their father's house upstate. "
"that's a bummer, they are great young ladies"
"I'm glad you approve of my parenting" Miranda says and Andrea can't quite tell if she's joking or upset.
"I think I should retire too" she announces.
Miranda doesn't oppose, she waves her gold ringed hand and shrugs "I'll see you tomorrow?"
Andrea nods, "is everything okay? You seemed quiet"
"Everything is okay Andrea" she says handing the younger woman her coat and bag.
"It doesn't feel like it"
"It has been a long day, and the fact that I had to find out through the concierge that my guest had arrived a day earlier…'" she stops as if trying to compose herself. She clearly hadn't planned on saying this, "you didn't want to tell me Andrea? This thing you do, with hiding things from me, it is not very comforting. It alludes me to think that you don't want to tell me things, to spend time with me, to be with me. I don't want to force you here. If I went back for you was to be fair but you don't have to accept … me. If it's over, it's over. If seven years was too long, then it is what it is. But …. Before we continue this, before you get deeper in my heart, my soul, before you become someone important in the girls life, you have to tell me Andrea."
"Miranda … I alre"
The younger woman is interrupted by the older editor gently pushing her out from the foyer onto the street. "Don't answer now, think it over. Roy will take you to the hotel."
Before Andrea can register what the fuck has happened, the door closes and she finds herself with her brown coat on her left hand, leather handback on the other and mouth opened like a guppy in water. She hears the silent hum of a range rover park behind her and sees Roy's familiar face. Resigned she walks over to him and slides in the back.
"Good evening, Andrea" he greets.
"Good evening Roy, nice to see you" she says.
He nods and the rest of the ride to the Plaza is quiet.
Again, Andrea is put at a cross-road decision. She has had a lot of those in the last month. She feels like she is at the restaurant in Chicago again and Miranda is giving her a way out, or that night on the couch with Miranda trying to end what she had just started. Perhaps that is how she keeps safe, safe from heartbreak and harm. Giving people a way out, she smiles and shakes her head. She rounds back to the earlier conversation with Lili, "she isn't the same Andrea".
So, she picks up the phone and dials a florist.
"Yes, you heard me right, 84 red roses delivered as soon as possible"
In New York anything is possible, even delivering flowers at midnight