A/N Sorry I'm late with this chapter! Real life kind of got crazy… Anyway here's chapter twelve!
Chapter 12
Miranda was sitting behind her desk working and contemplating the situation with Andrea once again. She was certain that spending that much time together was starting to become too much for the younger woman and knew it was certainly becoming too much for her too. Every second she spend with Andrea, she was worrying that she would just blurt out her feelings. She couldn't handle it anymore. She needed a break which was why she had so readily accepted the invitation to spend a weekend at the new resort just outside the city. Anna, the owner of the resort and a close friend of Miranda's, had called her and had practically begged her to come claiming she needed Miranda's opinion on her resort. Miranda had jumped at the opportunity to get away from Andrea for a weekend and to be able to see her close friend again. She had ordered Emily to rearrange her schedule and was now working hard to get all the work done in time. She was so busy she didn't even look up when a hesitant Nigel walked into her office.
"Miranda?" He asked softly.
"Yes?" She replied still not looking up from her work.
"I've got some changes I need you to approve of."
This drew Miranda's attention and her head snapped up. Changes? She had cleared all of his ideas why would he want to make changes? Her blue eyes focused on a very nervous Nigel fussing with the papers in his hands.
"Well…" She said impatiently looking at the papers that were still in his hands and not in front of her on her desk.
"Oh yes… Sorry," Nigel mumbled and quickly handed her the papers.
Miranda read over them feeling more than a little apprehension. She knew Nigel was up to something. Something she wouldn't like. She just didn't know what yet. At first glance everything seemed okay. A few writers had been switched, but Miranda realized that it was probably for the best. She saw nothing wrong until she reached the review section.
"You want Andrea to write the review on luxurious resorts?" Miranda asked incredulously. Andrea's talents were better spent writing articles than reviews and she couldn't understand why Nigel would want her to go and review a resort.
"Well… Yes," Nigel said looking like he was getting ready to flee.
"Why?" Miranda asked eyes narrowing at his suspicious behavior.
"Because the review will be about one of the best and most luxurious resorts in the area and I figured the best deserved our best and Andy is one of our best writers."
Miranda could clearly hear the alarm bells going off in her head when Nigel uttered the words 'best resort in the area'.
"And which resort are we sending her too?" Miranda asked in an ice cold tone already suspecting the answer.
"Dawson's Resort right outside of the city," Nigel answered quietly.
"When?" Miranda snapped.
"This weekend," Nigel muttered taking a step back when Miranda leveled him with a frosty glare.
"Nigel!" Miranda growled feeling annoyed and panicked. She was supposed to be getting away from Andrea this weekend!
"Miranda, relax," Nigel said softly. "She'll be doing her job so I'm sure you'll hardly see her. After all from what I've heard that place is big! And it's not like I can just get her a reservation for the next week because the place is booked for the next few months! Just give her a ride there and after that I'm sure you'll hardly see her."
Miranda was calming down during Nigel's speech. He was right. She was overreacting. The resort was huge and Andrea had a job to do so she probably wouldn't even see the girl. But then he mentioned that she was supposed to give her a ride and all her calm went right out the window?
"A ride?" Miranda repeated in an unnaturally high tone.
"Yes, a ride," Nigel replied like it was the most normal thing in the world. "Come on, Miranda. You're friends and you're both going to the same place for the same amount of time. Why wouldn't you let her ride with you? I'm sure it'll be a lot easier for her than taking a cab."
Miranda glared at him again. She knew he was setting her up, but she also knew that once at the resort he couldn't force her to spend time with Andrea. So she'd give him what he wanted and would ride to the resort with Andrea and after that she would do her best to avoid the brunette till they had to return to the city.
"Fine," Miranda huffed. "Now, I want to talk about this photo shoot. The models look like corpses! Is it too much to ask for a little bit of life in the photos?"
"They were supposed to look relaxed," Nigel defended not knowing where Miranda was going with this.
"They look dead! Fix it!" Miranda ordered and dismissed him.
"Yes, Miranda," Nigel mumbled dejectedly and left her office. Miranda barely suppressed a grin. If Nigel thought he wouldn't pay for the whole Andrea situation than he was severely mistaken. This week would not be a pleasant one for Nigel. She would make sure of that!
Andy stood in front of Nigel's desk looking very confused.
"So you want me to review this resort?" She asked to clarify.
"Yes! I know it's not what you normally write, but this resort is one of the best and we figured it deserved one of our best," Nigel said smiling at Andy and Andy smiled back blushing a little at the compliment.
"Okay, so when do I leave?"
"This weekend and you'll be able to ride with Miranda so you don't have to worry about how to get there," Nigel replied nonchalantly pretending not to notice how her eyes widened when he mentioned Miranda.
"Miranda's coming with me?" Andy squeaked.
"Well, she's going too. The resort belongs to one of her closest friends who invited her over for the weekend and I figured it was only logical that you two drive there together."
"You figured?" Andy asked confused unsure if Miranda was really okay with this and unwilling to go through with it if she wasn't.
"Miranda agreed of course. It makes no sense for you to take a cab when she can just take you along with her."
"Right," Andy mumbled. A weekend together with Miranda at a resort sounded like dream, but given the fact that she was having a hard time keeping her feelings and her hands to herself around the woman it was more like a nightmare.
"Don't worry Andy. Just do your job and it'll be fine. It's a big resort so it's not like you'll be bumping into each other all the time."
Andy relaxed a little and nodded.
That evening an exhausted Nigel walked out of his office and towards the elevators.
"How was it?" Emily asked from behind her desk.
"Okay," Nigel mumbled. "I expected more resistance and less punishment," he continued.
Emily nodded thoughtfully since she too had expected a lot more resistance from Miranda.
"Hopefully it'll work out," she said.
"I hope so too. It would kill me if I went through all this for nothing," Nigel replied rubbing the back of his neck. "You almost done?" He asked Emily.
"Yeah, just need to finish this mail and then I'm out of here too," Nigel nodded.
"Hi guys," Serena greeted them warmly.
"Hi," both Nigel and Emily mumbled.
"And bye," Nigel said as he got on the elevator.
"Bye," both women called after him.
"So Emily… Would you like to join me for a drink?" Serena asked flirtatiously.
Emily gulped and opened her mouth to stumble out an excuse.
"Come on. I'll wait for you to finish your mail and then we'll go to a bar."
"But…"
"I promise I won't keep you out too late," Serena said with a blinding smile.
"Fine," Emily huffed unable to say no to that smile.
"Great! It's a date! I'll wait for you downstairs in the hall," Serena said before getting on the elevator and leaving an openmouthed Emily alone with her thoughts.
Early Friday morning Andy greeted Roy with a smile and nervously got in the car with Miranda.
"Are you sure you don't mind me riding with you?" Andy asked hesitantly after they had greeted each other.
"Of course I don't," Miranda replied with a small smile. "We're friends and we're going in the same direction so why would I mind?"
"Okay," Andy said looking relieved and a lot more relaxed. "So tell me about Anna Dawson?"
Miranda smiled at the girl's enthusiasm.
"You mean to tell me you haven't researched her yet?" She asked teasingly trying not to be too charmed when Andrea blushed.
"I have," Andy admitted sheepishly. "But you're her friend so I'm sure you'll be able to tell me something I don't know."
"Anna is a very good friend and is a brilliant businesswoman. She used to own a restaurant chain but got tired of the pace. She still loved her job but she needed something new so she quit. At first she considered early retirement and wanted to travel the world. I warned her that she would get bored after a few months and I was right. Anna's a very active person and after three months of vacationing in Europe she wanted something new, something challenging so when she stumbled upon a small rundown resort near Paris she bought it. A lot of people called her crazy and told her she should have just bought a restaurant if she was that bored or at least a decent resort since the one she bought was really rundown, but I thought it was great. She needed a challenge and running that resort certainly would be. After two years Anna's resort was one of the best there was in Paris so she decided to buy another one in Italy near Rome. And now almost five years after buying that rundown resort in Paris she opened the one we're going to now and she herself says it's her favorite."
"That's great," Andy said enthusiastically. She couldn't wait to explore the resort and figure out why it was the owner's favorite.
"Did you ever consider early retirement?" Andy asked after a moment of silence.
"I have a few times," Miranda admitted surprising Andy who couldn't imagine Runway without Miranda. "I considered slowing down after divorcing my first husband because the girls were still so little and I hardly got to see them, but I just… Couldn't. Runway is a very important part of me. Not as important as my girls and if I had to give it up for them I would, but at that time I didn't have to give it up. I just needed to manage my time better so that's what I did. I took more work home with me and made sure I was home before the girls were put to bed. That way I could spend time with them and still keep Runway."
"I know you love your girls, Miranda," Andy said softly covering Miranda's hand with her own. "It's very obvious you would do anything for them," she continued trying to make herself let go of Miranda's soft hand but her body just wouldn't obey her.
"Thank you," Miranda replied softly trying not to enjoy the warmth of Andrea's hand too much.
"When was the other time?" Andy asked quietly. "You said you considered it a few times," she clarified when Miranda just looked at her.
"When Stephen and I first started having problems. We were fighting so much and I knew that he was slipping away. I knew that the girls were going to lose another father and I also knew he hated Runway. He hated that I was better at business than he was and that everyone always wanted to talk to me and not him so he gave me an ultimatum quit or divorce. I considered it then and I might have done it, but he changed his tune when his boss' wife found out he was married to Miranda Priestly. Being married to me suddenly granted him closer access to his boss and me being editor in chief of Runway suddenly wasn't a problem anymore. Not for a while anyway. When he finally got that promotion he wanted he started complaining about Runway again, but by then I had no intention of quitting Runway for him."
"I'm sorry, Miranda," Andy said looking sad and giving Miranda's hand a slight squeeze.
"It's okay. I made the right decision in the end and as it turned out the girls never really liked Stephen all that much," Miranda said softly before changing the subject.
Andy nodded and spent the rest of the ride with Miranda's hand in hers enjoying the connection for as long as she could.
Meanwhile Nigel was dialing Anna Dawson's number. He hoped she would do as he asked, because without her help it was going to be impossible to accomplish the second part of his plan. He only hoped Miranda wouldn't kill both of them when she found out.
