Mrs. and Mrs. Priestly
Chapter 10
Miranda was sitting on a bar stool, holding a double dose of a thirty year old Macallan scotch, a brand the famous Bar always had in stock just because of her. Lots of thoughts were swimming in her mind. A single tear insisted in falling from her eye. She could not let it happen. She should not feel guilty. She warned Andrea about the consequences of her actions and gave her sufficiently time to disappear, to give up. Andrea wanted to killed her. Andrea was an enemy. Andrea was a stated threat. Andrea was her love. Andrea was her everything...
Miranda was lost in her sorrowful memories when a strong but yet delicate arm that she knew very well embraced her waist and then full and warm lips brushed over her neck.
"Sorry to bother you, but is this seat empty?" Andy asked, smiling. Her lips were only a few millimeters away from Miranda's skin. Miranda could not help but close her eyes to the feeling of delight running down her body, oh how much she missed such closeness.
"Yes it is, but if you sit down, the one I'm in will be too." Miranda had answered the same thing with the same tone to the same question which had led them to make the first step to be here today again.
"You know I was having uncalculated thoughts of what to say to you when we'd meet after you tried to kill me, again." Andy said before nibbling on the back of her neck.
"And what marvelous thought have you decided on?" Miranda asked in a whisper. Her eyes were still closed and her flesh was burning as Andy brushed her tongue over her ear lobe.
"I want the divorce", Andy said almost murmuring. Then, she let go of Miranda's body. Miranda felt the sudden absence of the unique warmness of Andy's body on her.
"Perfect." Miranda gave as an answer now turning her attention to Andy who was sitting on the leather bar stool next to hers. "Our history started here so it has agreeable symmetry to end it the same way", Miranda finished and put her finger on the trigger of her Kahr P380 inside her Prada handbag.
"Hey Andy, you want the usual champagne cocktail?" Davis, the barman, asked her.
"No thank you Davis, champagne is for celebration", Andy said, also putting her finger on the trigger of her Glock G27 in the pocket of her leather D&G jacket. "I will have a tequila shot."
"What about you, Mrs. Priestly?" he asked Miranda.
"I'm fine." Miranda answered without leaving her eyes off Andy.
"You look amazing in that dress", Andy honestly commented Miranda's black dress.
"I was absolutely positive that I had become a widow today, so I was mourning", Miranda replied, raising an eyebrow.
"Sorry to disappoint you." Andy faked a sad face.
"What do you want Andrea?" Miranda's tone was back to cold and acid.
"We have a mutual problem, Miranda. I guess you want me dead." Andy pointed with a smile.
"See, you are not as stupid and naïve as I thought," Miranda said, knowing her words would cause Andy to be hurt. She could see it in her eyes, but Andy quickly came back into the game. "You could not have guessed better. I'm done playing games with you."
"You're right. You are indeed too old to play games, right?" Andy whispered close to Miranda's ear again.
Andy knew very well how to hurt Miranda the most. Her pride was the key. One of Miranda's biggest concern in the beginning of their relationship was that Andy would realize she was too old for her and leave.
"And how do we solve that common problem?" Miranda asked her and took a sip of her drink. Unfortunately, the fine scotch had no miracle power to make Andy's words untrue.
"You tell me, or I can shoot you right here and go to our home and sleep because I'm getting tired of that cat and mouse pursuit", Andy said to her. With a wink, she raised her tequila before drinking it in one swig.
"I don't think so darling, but that's a shame because if I kill you now, I would not be welcome here anymore and I like this place."
A nice song by the Brazilian singer Vanessa da Mata, a duet with Ben Harper named Good Luck started to play in the Bar.
"C'mon, dance with me", Andy said. She took her hand out of her pocket and offered it to Miranda.
"I don't dance Andrea", Miranda said not taking her hand.
"With me you do," Andy smiled to her, "and you always enjoyed it", she tried again and this time Miranda took her hand and stood up from the stool.
Holding hands, they walked to the little dance floor in the back of the bar.
"Do you think our story will have a happy ending?" Andy asked holding Miranda by her waist.
They were moving together until Andy pressed Miranda's back hard against the column and she lost her balance for a moment.
"I don't believe in fairy tales, Andrea", Miranda said as she regained her composure.
"I used to believe in ours", Andy said as she looked into Miranda's piercing blue eyes. She was dying to say that she still believed it, but Miranda's impassive stare discouraged her.
"Your Pollyanna Complex doesn't work in real world Andrea", Miranda said in a sad tone and her hands started to roam on Andy's body. She found a Shuriken star strapped on her back and threw it at a door.
"Happy now?" Andy asked as she started to move down Miranda's body. She stopped for a second to stare at her full breasts and remembered the times when she could make Miranda have an orgasm just by sucking on them. She continued her search with her hands up Miranda's thigh and took a gun from a holster. She put it in the pocket of a man dancing behind her.
"Not yet", Miranda replied bringing Andy back on her feet and took the gun from her pocket. In one neat move, she was able to put the gun inside an ice bucket in the corner.
They continued moving at the pace of the song. The lyrics of the song fitted like a glove with their actual experience. Miranda's hands were on Andy's chest, squeezing her breasts and she could feel her nipples becoming harder beneath the repulsive white t-shirt.
"That is all Andy baby, and you know it", Andy winking at her. She was slowly caressing Miranda's arms. "When do you think we started to lose each other?" Andy asked in a serious tone now.
"When we started to lead our lives in separate ways and lying?" Miranda answered, raising an inquiring eyebrow.
"I have a theory", Andy said. Her hand rested on Miranda's lower back, pressing their body together while Miranda's right hand was possessively holding her neck.
"I'm thrilled to hear it."
"You ruined our relationship", Andy said hastily.
"Oh did I?"
"Yes, when the excitement of our beginning faded you never fought for us to stay strong, to work on our problems. But it seems you used me as a perfect cover. So why bother, right?" Andy asked close to Miranda's lips.
"You were the one who handled our marriage as a job, a mission you had to accomplish. And besides it takes two people to build or ruin a relationship", Miranda told her and moved her cheek to meet Andy's. Being so close to the mouth of the woman she loved was too dangerous.
"You are no saint, Miranda", Andy said facing her again.
"Neither are you, Andrea", Miranda declared holding Andy's neck tight. "I was just a cover for you as well, right?"
"My feelings for you were always honest, completely different from yours."
Andy stopped dancing and locked eyes with Miranda, her right hand tracing Miranda's jaw line. How could this woman become more beautiful every time Andy laid eyes on her?
"For you, I was nothing more than some stupid naïve girl, right?"
Recognizing that the answer that Miranda was about to give her might not be the one she expected, Andy's heart broke. She was terrified, but she needed that answer.
"How can you be so sure of that?", Miranda asked her, forcing Andy to move along the rhythm of the song again. She could see the fear right through Andy's chocolate eyes, but she could not let Andy see the same in hers.
"You don't treat me like I wasn't, like you care about me, ..." Andy stopped dancing again and looked intensely into Miranda's sapphire eyes, "...like you love me", Andy said the last part barely audibly.
Miranda stared at her for a few seconds and broke the gaze. "Will you excuse me", Miranda said.
This situation was becoming out of hand. She was supposed to intimidate Andy into surrendering and not succumb to her.
She tried to pass by Andy but Andy took a step ahead. She needed to ask, she needed to know the truth, and more importantly, she deserved to know because not knowing would drive her mad, and since her fears were already so visible, all the walls she had built to face Miranda today were already down, she couldn't go back.
"Do you... do you still love me?" Andy asked holding Miranda wrist.
Miranda looked down to Andy's hand on hers, they fit so well together, she thought.
"I..." she hesitated. She considered the damage her answer could do to them right at this instant. She wanted to jump in Andy's arms and hungrily kiss her until her lips felt sore but she couldn't, she just couldn't risk it now.
Andy contemplated their options as well. This pause permitted her to have hope that Miranda was still as much in love with her as she was herself but she would break if Miranda said she didn't love her anymore or worse, if she said that she never did. Hearing those words would mean that there was nothing more left for them to fight for after today and that killing each other was the only option.
Miranda lazily looked up from Andy's hand to her eyes.
"You know the answer", Miranda said softly. "I don't…" she trailed off again.
Andy winced. She could feel Miranda's pulse getting stronger under her fingertips.
'She doesn't… know,' Andy repeated in her mind. 'Is that what she wanted to say?' she asked herself while her eyes pleaded at Miranda. Not knowing meant that there was still hope. It was better than the certainty of not being loved anymore. Certainty was final, like death.
Miranda tried to push her arm away from Andy as if her touch was burning her skin. She needed to get away from her or she would give in. "Let me go", she whispered finally letting go of Andy's grip and headed to the restroom.
"There is no way out this time Miranda", Andy said after her, trying to make her heart beat at a normal pace.
Andy continued to follow Miranda with her eyes.
"Stop being a fool Andy. She was just using you, and she still is", Andy whispered to herself. "She just said she didn't love you. Didn't she?"
Not even a minute later, a huge explosion could be heard in the restroom, causing a turmoil in the Bar. Andy only shook her head with a smile over her lips. She knew the cause of all of this, or better yet, she knew who caused all this.
She ran in the restroom against the tide of all the people coming in her direction but as soon as she scanned back to the main door of the Bar, a wave of grey hair caught her attention. Miranda looked back raising an eyebrow to her and a satisfactory smile over her face.
"Fuck," Andy murmured running outside the Bar, but there was no sight of Miranda anymore.
"Andy, you are making a funny noise", Davis told her and he started to giggle.
Andy rapidly took off her Jacket and threw it in the garbage in front of the Bar and as soon as she did that, the garbage can exploded and Davis jumped on the floor to protect himself, frightened of what he had just seen.
Andy immediately ran to the corner to get her car but it was nowhere to be found.
"Now I'm pissed", Andy said and took her cell phone from the back pocket of her jeans. She called and told Lily to send her a vehicle and then she called her phone car.
"Andrea Priestley's car", Miranda answered the phone in the most natural way.
"Ha ha very funny Miranda, I can't believe you stole my car", Andy said indignant.
"If I'm not mistaken, mine was found today completely ruined and it was your entire fault", Miranda reminded her. "And besides, I gave you that car."
"It's the fourth time you've tried to kill me in three days", Andy said pacing from side to side in the alley.
"And you never die?" Miranda asked her. "Don't be so dramatic, it was just a little present."
"You ruined a brand new D&G Jacket, do you know that? The one I liked the most", Andy said making it sound like what Miranda had just said about a bomb was a trivial thing and that her jacket was the important issue here.
"I gave you that jacket as well", Miranda replied. "It seems that I gave you a lot of things, didn't I?"
"Yes, except good orgasms for quite some time", Andy replied playfully.
"You can be so rude, Andrea."
"Do me a favor before I kill you? Call Emily right now and tell her to send me another jacket", Andy said still pacing.
"I will make sure you wear it at your funeral", Miranda replied.
"Oh really? So when do we face our differences?"Andy asked.
"It all depends on you darling. And your desire to die sooner or later. When do you want to die? Tonight? Tomorrow? The day after tomorrow?" Miranda said, almost quoting a line from a movie that she had watched with Andy and the twins some time ago. In the movie, the lady with a yellow outfit was almost as good as she was with a samurai sword.
"How about tonight?" Andy suggested.
"Wonderful. Where?" Miranda asked.
"Since you're my beloved wife, I will let you decide", Andy said glancing over to her watch. Where the hell is my backup, she thought.
"You can admit you are scared, I will give you a chance so you can collect all of your belongings from our house and leave", Miranda gave her the choice.
"You know what Miranda, I don't want to have anything related to you, so I'm going to the Hamptons to burn every single memory I have of you and of our marriage." Andy kicked the wall in front of her.
"Fantastic, I will meet you there then."
"Fine, because I will burn that car too and I hope you will be in it", Andy said angry.
"Fine", Miranda said disconnecting the phone.
Fifteen minutes later, Andy was already sitting on a red BMW k1200S bike. As soon as she put her Shoei helmet, she called her car again.
"Where are my girls?" she asked when Miranda answered the phone. "I called Cassidy's cell and someone said they are not allowed to talk to me anymore, is this true?"
"They are in a safe place away from you", Miranda informed her.
"Why?" Andy asked with hurt evident in her voice.
"I was afraid you could have done something to them to get me," she said in a whisper.
"Miranda, how could you think so low of me?" Andy asked incredulously. "I would never, ever, do anything to hurt them. I would die to protect them if I had to. I love them as my own children", Andy told her and Miranda believed her. Her twins had never been so happy before Andy came into their lives.
"They love you very much as well", Miranda said to her.
"But you don't", Andy said not as a question but as an affirmative.
"Are you some kind of masochist? I already told you, I don't…", Miranda trailed off again before she could finish her sentence and closed her eyes for a moment not paying attention to the road anymore.
"What was I really to you? A mission? A cover? A pastime?" Andy asked her. She still had hope.
"For me, you were only business, Andrea, nothing more", Miranda said and her heart felt like breaking.
"Are you serious?" Andy asked. Damn helmet, she would have to drive with tears in her eyes now.
"I have never been more serious in my entire life", Miranda said taking deep breaths to each word. Her heart was fighting with her mouth for silence. She knew that what she was doing was like sticking a finger in an open wound but she had to do it, she could not afford to fail her mission once again.
"I thought I was different. I thought we were a family". Andy still wanted to convince Miranda.
Denial.
"Well, once again you're wrong. You should not be surprised Andrea. You have known me well from the beginning, you remember Paris and what I did to Nigel. I do what I have to do to get my interests and my missions accomplished." That was the final stab in Andy's heart.
"Thank you Miranda, you just made my decisions a lot easier", Andy said. She was clearly taken aback by Miranda's cold words. No more hope for them. Was it all a lie? Three years and seven months of her life that she always thought was the only honest and true part of her for as long as she could remember was nothing but another lie.
"You're welcome Andrea", Miranda said and waited for Andy to be the first to disconnect the phone.
"Maybe when you finally accomplish this mission and lose me," Andy said in a sad tone, "you will value what we had, my love for you and you will be able to understand what you lost, but then it will be too late, right? Because one of us will be dead", Andy finished and disconnected the phone and Miranda could not help but fight back the urge to cry.
As soon as they hang up, Miranda's cell started to vibrate in her pocket.
"Yes", Miranda answered in a low voice.
"Miranda, something bad happened," Serena started, "Roy was found terribly hurt, he was shot in the chest and he is in the ICU," Serena continued and Miranda gasped. "The doctors do not seem optimist", she finished.
"Who did it?" Miranda asked. She could feel her blood boil in her veins.
"Our intelligence service said it was the same person as in Vegas", Serena informed her.
Now was the moment of the truth. Now it did not matter for them who will win because, in the end, both will lose.
TBC…