Part 3:
The repetitive ringing of the cell phone on the bedside table stirred Andy from sleep. She sleepily leaned over to glance at the time, then turned over and tucked herself deeper into the covers. It was Sunday and much too early to get up, considering that she had spent most of another of her night researching one Miranda Priestly. Besides Sunday was the one day of the week that Andy could escape the chaos that was Runway and the mechanisms of its mistress. It was a well-deserved reprieve as far as Andy was concerned, and she meant to take advantage of it.
If she thought about it, which Andy carefully did not do, it had been at least two months since she had jumped head first into her research on the editor. After catching a tiny glimpse of the real Miranda there was no turning back for Andy. She wanted to know more. Andy could admit that, at least to herself.
Whoever was calling was quite persistent, staying on the line long past the customary three or four dial tones. Andy buried her head further beneath the pillows, trying to ignore the urgent demand of the ringtone. Just as Andy was starting to wonder when the voicemail system would pick up the call, the phone went silent. Sighing in audible relief at the returning silence, Andy drifted off again.
The phone rang again, and she found herself reaching out for the irritating sound. Andy could feel the early morning sunlight, behind her closed eyelids, as it spilled through the open curtains of her bedroom window; its brilliance beating against her, wanting her to join the waking world. Andy refused, taking the phone and rolling over. She pulled the covers over her head and bathed in the warm darkness. She pushed send on the phone to accept the call and tucked the ear piece between her head and the pillow.
"Yeah?" Her voice was still groggy with the haze of sleep. There was no reply on the other end of the line and Andy began to drift back off, imagining that she had just dreamed about answering the phone.
"I want you..." Miranda's unmistakably cool tone slipped out of the phone to curl contently around Andy's eardrum causing a shiver to slide down her spine.
"Wha-?" Andy asked unintelligibly. She hastily sat up ignoring the sheet as it fell down in a puddle around her waist. Andy blinked rapidly, squinting against the light that suddenly stabbed into her retinas.
"Wake up, Andrea!" The voice was definitely Miranda's Andy determined, hearing the sharpening of the tone. "I don't have all day." Andy rubbed her free hand over her tired eyes and then through unkempt hair as Miranda started issuing directions. Andy narrowly avoided moaning in frustration as she fell back against her pillows. This was supposed to be her day off.
"The fabric on that futon is all wrong for the colors in the rest of the shot…" Miranda continued as Andy listened to the slight burr that vibrated beneath the rounding of Miranda's 'r's. It was a pleasant little burr, nothing at all patently obvious or even normally noticeable during their everyday interactions. It seemed to say that Miranda was comfortable enough with Andy to relax a little. Thinking about it, Andy knew that Miranda would have probably been upset to find that her assistant even noticed it as much as she did. The woman never seemed to want to give away anything of what she was thinking.
But Andy was tired and she didn't care that she heard it. She was noticing all sorts of things about Miranda's voice now. Like how Andy could tell that Jocelyn's choice in swimwear for the June edition had been a pleasant surprise because of the minute rise in her pitch and that Miranda wasn't at all surprised by Nigel's contribution to the June issue but that her boss was relatively happy with it because Andy didn't hear the tale-tale flattening in Miranda's timbre.
Right then, drowsing sleepily against her pillows, Andy imagined that Miranda was in her office. The cold beauty would be sitting at her glass desk in her throne-like chair, gazing absently out the floor-to-ceiling length windows like a queen surveying her realm. Andy imaginged that Miranda wore the purple swoop neck blouse. It was one that she had seen on the older woman before. It hung off her shoulders exposing pale skin and delicate collar bones. The smokey gray a- line skirt that Andy remembered seeing Miranda wear with the shirt, would show off a toned thigh where the slit parted. It was a distraction everytime the woman sat and crossed her legs. A wide belt would complete the look. It'd accent the ensemble and manage to show off a feminine figure that anyone would have had to be blind not to see.
Andy imagined that a rebellious snowy lock of hair would fall over her forehead; straying too close to her icy blue eyes and Miranda would casually brush it back with graceful fingers to settle again with the rest her perfectly coiffed hair. Then, as another thought about the upcoming issue sparked an idea, Miranda would sweep the blue and silver monogrammed Mont Blanc pen up from the desk blotter and in her curving, arcing handwriting; scrawl the idea down before unconsciously placing the non-business between sharp white teeth. The fingers of the other hand would caress the pendant of the necklace that lay snug between creamy breasts…
Andy startled when Miranda said, "You also need to get those Josse samples and leave them with Johnathan." The vocal inflection that Miranda often used when she was finishing a task-list was very specific and Andy suddenly realized that she had been drifting while listening to Miranda's voice. She hadn't been paying attention to anything that the other woman had said.
"Wait, Miranda?" Andy asked panicking. "Could you-" She needed to find out what Miranda had been saying. Hell, she wanted to remind Miranda that it was Sunday and that she wasn't supposed to be on call. But with a surge of annoyance, followed finally by acceptance, Andy heard Miranda hang up before she could ask anything with a curt, "That's all."
Andy pulled the phone away, the dial tone sounding in her ear. The little phone icon danced and the screen flashed Call Ended in glaring red letters. Andy stared at the phone in disbelief, "Well... shit."
Serena brought the hand stroking down the side of Emily's face to caress along the satin smoothness of the red-head's lips. Emily's tongue wrapped itself around her index finger, pulling it into her warm mouth. The red-head sucked, licked, and nibbled along the trapped digit, and Serena tried not to squirm with the sensations pooling hot and heavy in her lower abdomen.
She smiled, gazing up lovingly at Emily. A gentle breeze came through the open window, and Serena watched fascinated as the late morning sunlight diffused through the billowing sheer curtains, and covered the pale peaches and cream complexion of the beautiful woman above her in a play of light and shadows. Serena's breath came faster, and she knew that Emily was cataloging her reactions from where the red-head straddled her prone, naked form. She enjoyed the playful, teasing sparkle in her love's blue eyes as Emily released the finger she'd held captive before leaning in to kiss her at first gently and then more fully.
Sundays were Serena's favorite day of the week. When she had been a girl, Sundays were spent running wild through the hills above the expansive acres of dense pastoral grasses and rich farmlands that surrounded the city of Horizontina. Her favorite thing to do was climb the trees whose limbs shadowed over the small cataract fed pool that she and her best friends, Martina and Gisele, had found one summer while exploring. Climbing always cumulated in jumping in, and the girls often had to explain why their Sunday best was ruined by the end of the day. Flocks of Saracuras would migrate there from further south by autumn, and Serena enjoyed watching them swim across the calmer parts of the deep pool just as she and her friends had earlier in the year.
Now-a-days, Serena often spent Sundays with Emily. Saturdays might be spent doing various small tasks for Runway: completing the odd job from the previous week or prep-work for the upcoming one. But Sundays had become almost sacrosanct again. Unless there was an emergency, they usually had the day free for themselves. Some Sundays, the two of them never even left the bed.
Emily had left Serena's lips, kissing down her neck to the blonde's collarbones when her cell phone rang. "It's the bloody phone," Emily muttered glancing at the phone where it rested next to the nightstand lamp. It wasn't Miranda calling as far as she could tell; as the red-head had given her boss a separate and distinctive ringtone just for such occasions as these. The problem was that it was one of the ringtones that Emily used for Runway. It could be anyone from Jocelyn to Andy to Nigel. If something were wrong, and Emily didn't pick up… She nipped at the soft skin beneath her mouth in frustration, then quickly licked at the small hurt, and kissed it in apology, "I should get that."
"Just ignore it," Serena whispered breathlessly as The Flight of the Valkyrie faded off into silence. "See? It was nothing." She inhaled sharply when her lover nodded her agreement, and sucked a taut brown nipple into her mouth. Serena closed her eyes, moaning as she gave herself over to the sensation of Emily's tongue laving at the sensitive bit of flesh between her teeth.
Emily had made her way down Serena's body and was torturously licking the delicate skin of one of the blonde's inner thigh when the downstairs buzzer sounded. Loudly. Emily lifted her head up surprised as a voice following the sound of the buzzer called her name from outside the open window. It sounded suspiciously like Andy's.
"Oh, no," Emily moaned with a mixture of annoyance and disbelief. "No, no, no, no." She clambered off the bed as Andy's voice rose once again, louder if that was possible, from the street.
Serena watched as her lover threw on a robe on, and marched angrily over to throw open the window further. "This cannot be happening," she groaned in disbelief as her head fell back against the pillow in frustration, "Emily!" The other woman didn't hear her, as she was currently shouting out the window at someone who Serena strongly suspected was their ill-timed co-worker.
Finally, Serena got out of bed and pulled on her robe. She strode across the room to where her wayward lover was, and pulled the shorter woman away from trading insults with Andy who seemed unusually willing to accommodate. "I'll buzz you upstairs, Andy," Serena said poking her head outside, and looking down at the brunette who seemed surprised to have their interplay interrupted.
"It's too early for this, meine liebe," she chastised Emily gently as she came back inside. "You wanted to entice Andy with the mystery that is Miranda. Did you think that she would not eventually want answers from you?"
"Wait. You think this is about Miranda?" Emily asked surprised.
"Why else would Andy be at your door early on a Sunday morning?" Serena replied, heading into the bathroom, "Now, go let your guest in."
The red head looked stunned for a moment before pouting, and nearly flouncing through the bedroom door to do as she was told. "She's not my guest," Emily called from the outer room, pouting. "I'm not the one who invited the twit up." Still, she obediently pushed the button for the downstairs entry and allowed Andy into the building. Then, she unlocked the door and plopped down on the couch and folded her legs beneath her.
"Were you planning on putting on any clothes before Andy arrives?" Serena inquired coming into the room wearing a comfortable pair of yoga pants and a worn t-shirt. She slid onto the seat next to Emily, and picked up a magazine from the coffee table in front of her. It was not a fashion magazine but Time. She enjoyed reading their distinctive style of writing the news and political science every now and then.
Emily pouted at her even harder at seeing the blonde fully dressed. "No. Shan't," the red-head stated firmly, before crossing her arms over her chest. The older woman thought that Emily was adorable, but she knew that saying so would only make her lover more difficult to deal with.
Andy was surprised to have Serena pop her head over Emily's shoulder in the middle of their shouting match and invite her up. She hesitated, but when the security door buzzed minutes later Andy hurried to enter. She knew that Emily and Serena were together together of course but for some reason she hadn't really expect to see the blonde at Emily's apartment building so early in the morning.
Together, together, Andy laughed sardonically. She shook her head chidingly at the direction of her juvenile thoughts. They're not teenagers necking while their parents are away. They're adults and they're lovers... of course they're at each other's home. She climbed the stairs up to Emily's landing glad that the couple were at Emily's apartment instead of Serena's since Andy couldn't even begin to figure out where she lived.
She knocked on the apartment door, and pushed it open when she heard someone shout that it was unlocked. Andy poked her head around the door carefully, "Hello?" Her eyes sought, and immediately found her hosts sitting on a couch in the living room area.
"Uh, hi." Andy gave a nervous little wave, the answer to which was Emily rolling her eyes, and huffing out an indignant breath turning away from Andy. Serena smiled ignoring Emily's behavior. The blonde tossed the magazine back onto the table, then stood up to greet her.
"Andy," Serena said. Andy's eye's popped wide open in surprise when the blonde stepped forward and gave Andy a short hug in greeting. She did not miss, Emily's sudden interest in the conversation, nor the way she narrowed her eyes in what Andy hoped was not jealousy. Andy tried to ease out of the hug without drawing attention. Finally, Serena released her, keeping a light, friendly touch on her arm. "What brings you by?"
Looking wearily at the tall blonde, Andy sat at the edge of the cushioned bench opposite the couple. She ignored the smirk edging Serena's lips as well as the frown that Emily was now sporting while she looked back and forth suspiciously between the two. At Serena's gentle prompting, Andy cleared her throat and explained why she was there.
"I'm sorry," Andy finished, "I got distracted and-"
"Miranda was speaking to you," Emily interrupted, confused. This wasn't at all what she thought the brunette came to talk to her about. "What on Earth could have distracted you when she was giving you instructions?" The flush spreading across Andy's cheeks had both Emily and Serena raising eyebrows. "What were you doing when she was on the phone?"
Eyes widening, shocked, Andy was quick to reassure them, "Nothing!" Seeing a hint of disbelief, "No, really. I wasn't doing that." Serena smirked and Emily nodded acceptance.
"Okay," the older assistant questioned, "so what had you distracted when you should have been paying bloody attention? Hmm?"
"I don't know. Really. I remember hearing her say something about a futon..."
"Probably the Louis Vuitton," Emily frowned, muttering her thoughts out loud.
"Yeah," Andy nodded eagerly, recalling the item in question and agreeing with her assessment. "And then... nothing just..." Andy hesitated remembering the contented rumble of accent in her tone. She thought briefly about it but, shook the memory away. It was time to focus. "She was talking, but I don't remember anything else until she brought up Josse and Johnathan." She looked up to see Emily was still frowning, and Serena had this contemplative look on her face that said Andy really didn't want to know what she was thinking.
"So let me get this straight." Emily summarized, "You interrupted our morning," she gestured between herself and the blonde sitting next to her. Serena had slipped on her glasses and was again flipping through the Time magazine. "Because Miranda needs you to do something for the special upcoming anniversary issue. And you missed what she wants you to do because you were what… listening to her speak?"
"No! I mean... kinda but..." Andy stopped to refocus her thoughts. "Well, when you say it like that, it sounds stupid," the brunette complained. She slumped in the camel skin chair and wrung her hands together nervously. "Please, Em. I can't screw this up. The Anniversary Edition is so important to her."
Emily pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling a headache coming on. "I know," she sighed. "I know." She leaned back into the seat and closed her eyes. She was suddenly exhausted with the conversation.
"Besides," Andy went on plaintively, sitting practically at the edge of her seat, "you're supposed to be on-call this Sunday. She shouldn't have even been calling me."
"Oh, whatever," Emily waved dismissively at Andy's statement.
"Emily!" Serena chided. Emily kept her eyes closed. She did not have to look at her partner to know that the blonde was shaking her head in disapproval. She did not look up at all during the previous conversation, Emily thought annoyed, but of course now she was all ears.
"What?" Emily demanded, finally turning fully towards Serena who she saw was frowning at her. "It's not my fault the twit's so bloody infatuated that she was imagining doing naughty things with our boss when she should have been focusing!" Her declaration was met with a "Hey!" of protest from Andy and stony silence from Serena.
Emily turned away from the two of them and cursed herself under her breath for not picking up the phone when it rang earlier. If she had, she could have had this conversation away from the goody-two shoes that was her girlfriend. It was not her fault that the twit was too busy listening to Miranda's voice of all things that she did not pay attention to what Miranda was actually saying. Grumbling, Emily gave in, "Fine, I'll help."
Andy gave a breath of relief, and practically collapsed back into the chair. She seemed willing to let Emily's memory lapse concerning the scheduling go for the moment. "Thank you, Emily. I didn't know what else to do."
"Yeah, well," Emily could not help but make one more, small dig at her younger co-worker, "maybe next time you can just pay attention."
"I was paying attention," Andy protested, adding as an afterthought, "And I'm not a twit!" Emily snorted in amusement at her loudly mumbled, "Whatever that is."
"Now, now, Emily," Serena chided, with a soft knowing grin. Andy sat up seemingly eager to have Serena come to her rescue. "Andy's not a twit. Miranda's voice is just very…. alluring." Emily smirked, wanting to laugh at the absurdity of Serena's defense, but didn't want to get in any more trouble. "I'm sure Andy couldn't help it." Emily made a note to never allow her girlfriend to defend her in a court of law.
Andy stuck her tongue, and Emily was about to follow up on that with a snarky remark about what Andy could do with her tongue when Serena suddenly clapped once loudly to get their attention. "Alright you two!" She admonished, "Quit acting like children." Emily watched her placed her clasped hands onto her lap and grin widely. The transformation from annoyed girlfriend to Stepford Wife was so sudden and flawless that Emily was a little wary. Even Andy seemed to straighten up. "So when are we going?" Serena asked.
"We?" Emily asked. She raised her eyebrows in inquiry, "where are you going?"
"Well, since Andy interrupted what was promising to be a very fun morning because you were supposed to be on-call this weekend," Serena began.
"Hey, apparently Miranda was going to call anyway," Emily reasoned, "So really its Miranda's fault."
Serena continued, blithely ignoring both Emily's stammering protests and Andy's rapidly reddening cheeks, "I've decided to have my fun through less prurient means."
"Which means…" Emily trailed off looking for clarification, "you're coming with us?"
Serena was already nodding and standing up. "I'm coming with you!" She walked over, and sat on the padded arm of Andy's chair. Serena continued smiling, "So, hurry along meine liebe, and get dressed. I don't want all of New York to see you in just your dressing robe. This gets to be my treat." Startling the younger woman as she threw an arm around the brunette's shoulders. "Well, just Andy's and mine."
Emily stood frowning. Serena had a look on her face that said she was a cat with a saucer of cream in front of her. And Andy… Andy was beginning to look terrified. Suspicious, Emily asked, "What are you two on about now?"
"Nothing!" Andy exclaimed hurriedly. She stood up abruptly from the chair putting some distance between herself and the blonde.
"Nothing much," Serena agreed innocently with a teasing glance at the nervous looking brunette. She smiled at Emily, and winked at her when Andy was not looking. Then the lithe blonde, slipped into the chair and patted the seat cushion besides her. "Come sit back down, Andy. We will chat and wait for meine liebe to dress together." She allowed her eyes to stray up the length of Emily's body grinning widely before fixing her gaze back on the younger woman. Impossibly, she perked up even more, "We'll have so much fun together. Just the two of us."
Emily thought that Andy's eyes were going to fall out of her head. Heavens know that turning that shade of red could not be good for her health. She figured that Serena was teasing Andy about something. She had her suspicions as to what but was not sure yet. However, she would find out later and happily hold it over the brunette's head.
Emily hid a smile behind a false show of annoyance before heading back into the bedroom. Halfway there, she realized that her day off had been effectively canceled. She was stuck with the brunette until the laundry list of things to do was complete. God! It'll be like some bloody scavenger hunt, she thought with a surge of actual annoyance. She should have answered the damn phone. She nearly flounce the rest of the way into the bedroom and slammed the door.
"Come on then!" Emily hit her horn as she shouted out of the window, "Move your arse!" A rude horn blasted at her in reply, and she responded back with an even ruder gesture. Serena watched from behind darkened sunglasses, feeling like nothing more than a lazy cat taking a nap in the sun. "God! Why are there so many stupid people in this city?" She heard Emily complain before the red head slumped back in her seat unhappily.
Emily had suggested that Nigel might have more insight into Miranda's plans for the Anniversary Edition, so Andy gave him a call. Luckily, she got in touch with him on the first try. He was entertaining that afternoon, but invited the three of them to join him and his guests for a meal. They agreed, and Emily opted to drive them over to his SoHo apartment.
"Are you sure, Emily?" Serena cautioned. Serena grabbed the floppy, straw hat that she had placed on the back of the couch as she left the bedroom. She had changed clothes once more, this time into a white and green sundress, in anticipation of the fair weather. "It's almost noon rush hour." She remembered the last time she had been stuck in traffic with the red head.
"Psshaw," Emily scoffed, "It's Sunday. There shouldn't be too much traffic."
"Those are famous last words," Serena cautioned, "Knock on wood." She matched actions to words and walked over to knock on the wooden doorframe.
Emily shook her head bemusedly and lifted a cream linen jacket off the coat tree. She removed an imaginary piece of lint from the dark royal blue, sleeveless shell she had changed into. Then Emily ducked into the kitchen to grab a set of keys out of the bowl near the door. "You know I don't believe in that nonsense," she smiled to take the sting out of her remark. Come on, Andy." Emily stated while she waved them towards the door, "Let me introduce you to my other baby."
"Sometimes, I think she loves her car more than she loves me," Serena whispered in an aside to Andy.
"Nonsense, Love," Emily said having overheard her. She placed a pair of Burberry sunglasses on top of her head and wrapped an arm around the Serena's waist and gave her a quick kiss, "I love you both equally." Andy giggled as Emily dodged a playful slap to her arm.
The red head ushered them out of the apartment and locked the door. Then, she led them down to the apartment's basement garage. Sitting in the third stall from the basement stairwell was a drophead 1968 Rover 2000TC. Andy's mouth fell open in shock at the little four seater.
"This is your car?" She asked in disbelief. She stared at the vehicle in awe, "It's beautiful." She couldn't help running her hand over the cotton candy blue paint of the classic car. Someone had obviously taken great car of the car, it was so shiny that she could see her reflection.
She looked up to see Emily grinning like a proud parent. "Yep, this is my baby." She swept a proprietary palm across the surface where Andy had touched the convertible. "My dad left it to me when he passed."
"Oh, Em," Andy said, "I'm sorry."
Serena reached out to squeeze Emily's bare arm. Emily smiled at her but shook her head, and brushed Andy's condolences aside, "It was a long time ago. Don't worry about it."
Andy nodded and slipped into the backseat once Emily unlocked the door. "So, Nigel's?" Andy asked, changing the subject.
"Nigel's," Emily confirmed. She pushed the button that would lower the soft top before she carefully backed out of the parking space. Then, she maneuvered the car up the garage ramp to the street level. "Shouldn't take us long at all," Emily said.
"Really pressing your luck, miene liebe," Serena chastised, ignoring that Emily was ignoring her words.
"Nah," Emily said, confident, "We'll be there thirty minutes tops."
Twenty minutes later found them stuck in traffic due to a massive road construction project. At their rate of speed, it would take them another thirty or so minutes before they reached their turn off. Emily had lowered the roof of the convertible in an attempt to enjoy the last of the warm Indian summer weather. Andy lay as sprawled as she could be in the backseat while wearing a seatbelt. Serena had put on a pair of Maui Jim sunglasses and now lounged next to Emily like a cat in the sun.
"Don't say it," Emily muttered towards Serena. She could feel the blonde staring at her through the bronze tinted lenses of the sunglasses that she wore.
"Say what?" Serena asked, innocently.
Emily looked out the corner of her eyes at the blonde warily. "You know what," she replied, stoically.
"What?" Serena asked, smirking. "That I told you so?" She watched as Emily's lips thinned down in unhappiness.
"I hate you," Emily stated evenly. She huffed, "Sometimes, I really hate you."
Serena smiled ignoring the red head's words. "You love me," she stated with surety as she leaned over to place a chaste kiss at Emily's temple. "How could you not?"
"No, I don't," Emily insisted stubbornly, poking her lower lip out petulantly. Serena leaned over and kissed her again, this time at the corner of her mouth. "Okay," Emily admitted, looking at her with eyes darkening, "Maybe I hate you a little less now." Serena took that as a request and leaned in once again.
This time she gave her lover a less than chaste kiss on her mouth, taking the time to suck the pouting, coral painted bottom lip into her mouth for a soft exploration. A soft, "Woah. Okay," was voiced from the backseat but Serena pushed the distraction from her mind. She was more interested in the feel Emily's mouth and the taste of her beneath her lipstick.
"Ahem," Andy cleared her throat. Loudly. "Excuse me? Hey, guys," she said, raising her voice and catching Serena's attention fully. Andy sounded both curious and embarrassed - probably for the curiosity. Serena pulled back from the kiss reluctantly, to see Andy cheeks tinged with blush. "Hey, um... Could you not do that while Emily's driving? I'd..., I'd really like to make it to Nigel's place in one piece."
She was about to respond to Andy when multiple car horns blasted, jarring her thoughts. Emily muttered unhappily under her breath and slowly drove forward as Serena sat back in her seat. Traffic had apparently inched forward and the cars behind and around theirs were growing restless at the holdup delaying them from moving forward a few more feet.
"Hey! Don't stop!" The trucker in the semi next to them exclaimed, "Keep it going! Come on!" He pulled the cord to the truck's air horn twice with a fist pumping action and the sound almost drowned out the rest of his words, but not quite.
Emily rolled her eyes at the man's vulgar suggestions. "Emily, that's not helping," Serena stated, calmly as the other woman flipped him the bird before slipping the Burberry's over her eyes. She then proceeded to ignore him.
After another twenty minutes of sitting in stop-and-go traffic, Serena sighed and giving up; she was officially bored. Leaning back casually in the side passenger seat, she rolled her head along the broad seat back from side to side, trying to loosen the stiff muscles in her neck. Sometimes being stuck in a car with Emily could be so very stressful. Her lover had way too much energy to be cooped up in the small space of a vehicle, no matter how spacious the seating.
Right now, Emily was bouncing and singing along to some Top 40's rock song on the radio while the car was inching along around ten miles per hour. Normally this would be fine; they were moving and Emily could carry a tune. Serena also didn't mind the music. However, she was apparently in a sound war with the pink corvette next to them. The owner of the corvette insisted on blasting bubblegum pop from the car's speakers and trying was trying to out sing Emily. The result was that the volume between the two vehicles had continued to increase every ten minutes that passed. Serena felt the beginning of a headache coming on.
Catching sight of the brunette sitting quietly in the backseat, scanning her phone intently, Serena tossed a piece of paper at Andy. Andy's head popped up and she received a deer-in-headlights look. "What are you reading?" She asked curiously.
"Nothing," came the too quick reply. Andy sat up straighter and blacked out her phone screen. This only peaked Serena's curiosity.
Serena shifted out of her seat belt to her lover's loud protest and knelt facing Andy in the back seat. "Andy," she sing-songed smiling mischievously. Andy watched her warily but Serena still took managed to take the younger woman by surprise when she lunged over the seat to grab Andy's phone. "Thank you!" she exclaimed, ducking back over to her side of the car with her ill-gotten prize.
"Serena!" The brunette's reactive grab for the phone was stopped abruptly by her seat belt. Serena just tittered at her predicament.
"Serena, give it back!" Andy unfastened herself and tried for the phone again, but Serena swatted her arms away while turning on the device. Desperate, Andy nearly jumped over the seat and instead she almost fell onto Serena's lap when Emily slammed the brakes, rocking the car sharply. Andy managed to grab a hold of the hand holding the phone. "Serena," she tried again, "Let go!"
"If you don't stop it this instant," Emily yelled, interrupting their tug-of-war, "I will turn this car right around!" She turned in her seat to glare at the two over her sunglasses. "Do you two hear me?" She muted the volume and tried again, "I said, 'do you hear me'?"
Serena let go of the phone and Andy cradled it close as she slumped back in her seat with a pout. "Oh, I didn't mean to make you mad," the blonde sighed. She ignored the redhead's muttering in the seat next to her about driving in a car with deranged idiots and lunatics. Serena looked at Andy who continued to pout a little. "Why were you looking up Miranda anyway? You can't say it's nothing now."
"It is nothing." Andy insisted with a sigh. I wanted to read up on her. There's not a lot." Andy gave in with a sigh, "I'm just trying to figure her out."
"Who?" Emily asked, half paying attention to the conversation as she concentrated on driving for a few minutes.
"Miranda," Serena supplied.
"Miranda?" Emily asked surprised, "Are you simple?" She raised her sunglasses and perched them back on top of her head, so she could look Andy in the eyes from the rearview mirror. Andy glared back. "Look. The internet is for watching porn and cat videos," Emily advised sagely. She glanced back at the road, "Not sussing out information about a bird you like."
Andy shook her head at the absurdity of Emily's statement. "You're the one who said that I should look beyond the Icon," she said. "How else am I going to do that?"
Emily frowned, "When did I say that?"
"Somewhere between slamming her against the wall and the iceberg joke, I think." Serena clarified.
"That's not helping," Emily repeated the blonde's words back to her. "And I don't remember it like that."
"You wouldn't," Andy muttered.
"The point is," Emily stressed, "you can't 'figure out' someone like Miranda Priestly by looking her up on the internet. If that were possible, then everyone would know her. Whomever you discover online... that's the Icon, the 'Media Whore' as those bloody gossip tabloid rags are so fond of casting her as. That's not the woman. The person that you're searching for isn't going to be so easily found."
Andy sighed, "Okay, but-"
"You did want to be a journalist, right?" Emily asked, exasperatedly. "At least that was what you blathered on about the one time I had the unfortunate idea to ask about your future plans."
"Yes," Andy replied.
"And I assume that you want to be a good journalist and work at something other than a red top magazine," she stated.
"Yes, of course," Andy rolled her eyes. "After all this," she waved her arms around to indicate everything she'd been through. "Why would I want to work for a tabloid?"
"Do you know where the term rag, in reference to a newspaper or magazine, comes from?" Serena picked up Emily's thread of thought. Andy blinked at the non-sequitur. At her negative response, Serena continued, "It was originally a Proto-Germantic word meaning to knock down, smash, and uproot." Seeing Andy's understanding she continued, "If you don't want to be a yellow journalist, then don't use their methods."
"So stop being so lazy," Emily added, cutting in. "The Internet is filled with sources that have a stake in assuming Miranda Priestly is guilty. And because it would be impossible to stop everyone thinking that she really is 'the Devil in Prada' she acts that way in public. She has a top-rated PR agency on her payroll, yet she rarely defends herself against libel and slander, instead using it to build up her public persona." She paused to move into the turning lane. "In order to discover the real Miranda Priestly, you need to respect her enough to allow her the presumption of innocence."
Andy nodded taking in the advice. She looked from one to the other before asking a question that had been plaguing her for some time. "Why are you doing this? Why is it so important to you?" She watched as Emily slid her sunglasses back over her eyes, her attention back on the road.
"Because we like you, Andy," Serena stated simply. Then she shrugged, "And we know Miranda. We think that you'd be really good for her but, she needs someone who truly knows her. Miranda could never be comfortable enough to love anyone who didn't." Serena sighed, "Besides, you're half in love with her already." She shook her head with a gentle grin when Andy tried to deny the statement, "Don't you think she deserves for someone to love her for who she really is?"
"Of course," Andy replied automatically to her question before arguing a point, "You're assuming that she could even be interested in me." The blonde cast her one more look before turning back around in her seat. The traffic had cleared since leaving the construction area. Andy sat quietly for some time as Emily continued weaving through the busy streets.
Emily and Serena's words echoed in her head. Did Miranda deserve the presumption of innocence? Of course she did. Although Andy never followed her father into the law profession, she'd had his sense of social justice ingrained into herself fully. The presumption of innocence was basically the heart of the US judicial system. How could she not give Miranda the shadow of a doubt?
Was she, as Serena stated, 'half in love' with Miranda already? Andy stopped there at that thought. She'd denied it earlier but, Andy was definitely feeling something for Miranda. Attraction and some luster definitely but, she couldn't say it was love. Not yet. Maybe never, Andy admitted to herself.
But all else aside, now what? Indirect methods weren't getting her the answers she wanted, and she had no fucking clue how to get a woman, who was notorious for not answering questions, talking. Andy had run up against the proverbial brick wall. Maybe it was time to 'gird her loins' as Nigel would say and ask that first question.
