Last chapter! I hope you all enjoy it.
Note: All errors are mine and mine alone.
Disclaimer: like always, I don't own DWP.
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Miranda got a little weary when she saw Andrea got on the Brooklyn Bridge and drove towards Brooklyn. She didn't like not knowing things. It made her uncomfortable and apprehensive, not that she'd reflect that on the outside. She trusted Andrea with everything she's got and Andrea understands her. During her time at Runway, Andrea was able to read Miranda like a book and was able to anticipate what she wanted before she even knew she wanted it. The brunette knows her quirks, her likes and dislikes. She shouldn't worry, but…
"Breathe, Miranda." Andrea reached out and gently squeezed her leg in reassurance. "I promise it'll be better than what you're imagining in that head of yours."
Miranda raised an eyebrow and looked over at Andrea. "So confident in your mind reading skills Andrea."
The brunette shrugged her shoulders and grinned. "I'm the master of the impossible."
As the car slowed down and Andrea glided into a parking spot at the corner of the street, Miranda took in their surroundings. Around them are two-story row houses, Renaissance Revival styles, if memory serves her right. The area looked safe and has the Upper Manhattan feel to it, but Miranda was a bit perplexed. She didn't see any restaurants or a possible eatery anywhere within her sight. Not even a convenient store. She turned to Andrea, about to ask, but Andrea turned off the engine and unbuckled her seat belt, urging the girls to do the same.
"Come on, it's just over there," Andrea said as she opened her door and got out of the car, before opening the back door for Cassidy. Caroline too excited to wait for Miranda, had opened the door herself and hopped out of the car. Seeing as she was the last one, Miranda let out a sigh, then unbuckled her seat belt and as she was about to open her door, Andrea beat her to it.
"Milady." Andrea did a bow with her hand raised for Miranda to take. Miranda rolled her eyes at the brunette's silly, charming gesture, but put her hand in Andrea's soft, silky hand anyways. Andrea looked up at her and winked, then kissed the back of her hand before moving her hand to the crook of the brunette's arm. "Shall we?"
"Yes!" Caroline and Cassidy said.
With the girls on either side of them, Andrea led them towards one of the two-story row houses. For a brief moment, Miranda wondered if Andrea was taking them to her place for dinner, however, instead of leading them up the steps, Andrea led them down a few steps towards a green door. When Andrea opened the door, they were hit with the wonderful smell of tomato sauce, oregano, and garlic. Taken by surprise, Miranda glanced over at Andrea, only to have the brunette winked at her.
"Ciao Andy! Come Stai?"
Miranda and her daughters watched as a tall, slender, dark haired woman rushed forward and wrapped her lanky arms around their Andrea. Andrea let out a laugh as she returned the woman's hug and greeted the woman in Italian. Soon, they were both conversing with one another in Italian. The conversation was moving so fast that Miranda was only able to pick up a few keywords.
"Rosa, these are my friends," Andrea started, while gesturing to her and her daughters. "Miranda and her daughters, Caroline and Cassidy. Ladies, this is Rosa. Her family has owned this restaurant for over 20 years."
"Ciao Miranda! Caroline e Cassidy. Nice to meet our Andy's girls." Rosa greeted them each with a big hug, throwing Miranda off slightly with the unexpected hug. "Come, we will seat you at the family table that way you can enjoy and eat."
Rosa led them to a big, circular booth in the back corner of the quaint Italian restaurant. Caroline and Cassidy slid in first to sit in the middle, while Andrea took a seat next to Cassidy, leaving the spot next to Caroline for Miranda. While they were walking towards their table, Miranda got the opportunity to take in the restaurant's environment and decorations. The restaurant itself was tastefully decorated. They had kept it simple and made it feel homey. String tea lights hanging around the room, with fake Italian windows and a couple of trellis covered in vines along the yellow-brown walls reminded Miranda of being outside, under the night sky in Tuscany.
"You have a beautiful restaurant, Rosa," Miranda said.
"Grazie! My mother and father were the ones that started this restaurant when I was sixteen, " Rosa began. "Mother loves to cook and she loves to feed people."
"Rosa, Chef Giuliano needs you in the kitchen."
Rosa glanced over to the person calling for her and nodded her head before turning back to Miranda and her group. "Mi scusi, it looks like my Giuliano is in trouble. Luca will come to take your orders soon."
"So, what is everyone eating?" Andrea asked.
"Ravioli!" Caroline said.
"I'm getting spaghetti," Said Cassidy .
Andrea looked over at Miranda, "What about you, beautiful?"
"Recommendations?"
"The Beef Braciole is delicious. The dish that I almost always order is the Chicken Cacciatore. It reminds me of my nonna's whenever I eat it."
"I didn't know you were Italian, Andrea. Sachs is a German surname, is it not?"
"Good evening ladies! My name is Luca and I'll be your server this evening," a tall and gangly teenage boy greeted them as he placed glasses of ice water down on their table. "Do you all know what you want to eat or would you like me to take your drink orders first?"
Andrea looked over at Miranda, an eyebrow raised in question. In response, Miranda gave a slight nod of her head causing the brunette to send Miranda a beaming smile.
"Hi Luca," Andrea began, "We'll start with the bruschetta and fried calamari. She'll have the Beef Braciole, ravioli and spaghetti for the girls, and I'll have the Chicken Cacciatore. Two glasses of Santi Barbaresco. Girls, what would you like to drink?"
Cassidy and Caroline looked at one another, silently communicating before looking over at Miranda for approval. Miranda raised her eyebrows at the girls, only for them to give her puppy dogs pleading eyes. "Fine, but just one glass, no more."
Both girls beamed in happiness at their mom before turning to Luca and simultaneously saying, "Sprite, please!"
"Alright, I'll go put your orders in and be back with your drinks," Luca said.
"My nonna is Italian, while my opa is German," Andrea said as she looked over at Miranda. "Their marriage was quite scandalous back then."
"Your mom's side?" Miranda asked.
"Mom is half Polish from my babcia's side," Andrea said. "And half Greek from my papou's side. You add those together and I'm practically a mutt."
Miranda hummed as she looked at Andrea, taking in her facial features and complexion. Her Andrea looked more Mediterranean with her tanned skin tone, thick wavy hair, lush eyelashes, and soft, kissable lips. Lips that made her tingle earlier that evening. Lips that had her forget everything as soon as it touched her own. Lips that she wants to kiss again and again. Lips that… Light chuckles and giggling brought Miranda back to the present. She looked around the table to see her daughters giggling while looking at her and Andrea chuckling, while giving her a knowing look. Feeling her cheeks heat up, Miranda gave her dinner companions a glare, causing her dinner companions to laugh out loud.
Shaking her head and trying to contain her smirk, she said, "You all are incorrigible."
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Miranda can't recall a time she had enjoyed dinner with anyone other than her daughters. Dinners with her ex-husbands were usually strained or filled with snide remarks from them about her always working and not making time for them. Tonight on the other hand, was comfortable, like they have been doing it for years. It was filled with laughter and light banters. They were all in high spirits and Miranda can picture them doing this at least once a week, if not more.
They were all back in the car and Andrea once again wouldn't tell them where they were going next. During dinner, her daughters tried to implement all of their bag of tricks on the brunette but she wouldn't budge. Instead, the brunette thwarted their attempts by asking the girls about school and their extracurricular activities. Lovely and smart girls that they are, were too easy to distract and forget their mission. Although Miranda is as curious as her two daughters, she found the not knowing excites her and it is quite entertaining to see the three exchange different strategies.
"Andy, why are we stopping here?" Cassidy asked, while peering out her window.
Miranda, brought back to the present again, looked out the window to see a 7-Eleven in front of them. Confused, she looked over at Andrea to see her turning to look at her daughters.
"I have to pick up some things really quick before we head to our next destination," Andrea said. She turned back to look at Miranda and searched her eyes briefly before smiling. "I'll be right back ladies."
Andrea moved to open her car door and made her way out of the car when she paused her movements and turned back to Miranda. Before she knew it, the soft kissable lips she was thinking about back at the restaurant was once again upon hers. The kiss was brief, so brief that if she didn't feel the tingling sensation on her lips she wouldn't believe that it had happened. Bewildered, she opened her eyes to see Andrea giving her a wink then left the car to go into the convenience store, while her daughters are giggling in the backseat.
"Are you girls enjoying yourself this evening?" Miranda asked, in an attempt to distract her daughters.
They both nodded their heads enthusiastically while bouncing up and down in their seats.
"We're glad dad forgot about us," Cassidy said.
"We like spending time with Andy and you more," Caroline continued.
"Andy is the best, do you think we can do this again?" Cassidy asked.
"Andy won't go away again would she, mom?" Caroline asked.
Hearing her daughters innocent declaration and voicing their concerns, tugged at Miranda's heart string. During Andrea's time as her assistant, Miranda knew that her daughters would sneak down occasionally to talk to the brunette, but she didn't think anything of it. She didn't realize how fond her daughters were of Andrea.
"No girls, I won't let Andrea go away again," Miranda said with reassuring confidence to her daughters. She would try her very best to have Andrea want to stay with them forever.
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When Andy pulled into the Coney Island parking entrance, she could hear Caroline's and Cassidy's excited exclamations. Glancing over to look at Miranda, she saw the look of horror and incredulity causing her to laugh out loud. Miranda looked over at her and glared. Andy wasn't sure when it happened, but Miranda's glare no longer affects her like it used to. Now, the glare only reminds Andy of how cute Miranda was in trying to intimidate her with her La Priestly persona.
"Surprise!" Andy said.
"Really, Andrea," Miranda began. "Coney Island of all places?"
"Isn't it great mom?!" Cassidy exclaimed.
"Yeah! This is awesome! Can we go on the rides?" Caroline said in excitement.
Andy grinned and shrugged her shoulders at Miranda. She knew that Miranda wouldn't say no to her daughters, not with how excited they are right now. Andy also believed that Miranda would have a good time, even if she's reticent about it right now.
"I was going to wait for our fourth or fifth date, once you were comfortable with us dating before taking you and the girls here," Andy began softly for only Miranda to hear, "But since the girls are with you this weekend, I thought this would keep them from being bummed out."
Miranda's eyes soften at Andy's kind words. "Fine, but only this one time will I be subjected to this. Are we clear Andrea?"
"Yes, Miranda," Andy cheekily responded.
They all got out of the car, with Caroline and Cassidy bouncing up and down in excitement. Both girls looked about ready to shoot off like a rocket.
"Okay ladies, before we go have some fun, I have something for you all," Andy announced as she walked to the back of the car and opened the back gate. Reaching in, she grabbed one of the bags she had come out with from the 7-Eleven store. She turned to see three sets of eyes looking at her in curiosity. Eyes twinkling, Andy pulled out the disposable cameras she had bought.
"What's that Andy?" Cassidy asked in confusion.
"These are disposable cameras. I thought it would be fun for each of us to have one and be able to take pictures of whatever we want," Andy said. "I can get it developed later and we can all get together again and compare them."
"That's a great idea, Andrea."
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Their evening at Coney Island so far is going better than Miranda had imagined. Her daughters and Andrea had fun riding the many stomach churning rides, like the Coney Island Cyclone and the Tickler. She's not sure how those three can ride those types of rides and still want to eat funnel cakes and deep fried cheesecakes. Just the thought of those mixtures makes Miranda's stomach queasy. She had sat out during those rides, but was able to capture a handful of pictures of her three favorite girls laughing and enjoying themselves. It was very creative and thoughtful of Andrea to think of capturing their time together with a camera; and it to be a disposable camera so that her daughters can be apart of it was even better. She can't wait to see what type of pictures everyone had decided to capture.
It had taken a lot of cajoling, but her girls had managed to talk her into riding a few of the other safe rides with them. The B&B Carousel was lovely and it reminded her of the first time she had ridden one when she was a little girl with her dziadek in England. The Brooklyn Flyer was a bit dizzy but she had also enjoyed that ride and wouldn't mind doing it again. It went high enough that she could see some of the park's layout, but not high enough that her stomach would churn.
"How about we take a break from the rides and play some of the fair games they have?" Andrea suggested as she points to the many booth games they have set up with all the prizes that can be won.
"Could we play that one?" Caroline asked, pointing to the booth already containing a few people racing each other with water guns.
Andrea looked to Miranda with a challenging look, Miranda never backing down on a challenge raised an eyebrow in return. The four of them stood at the booth to wait for the others to finish and for the seats to become available for them. Andrea took the time to explain to her daughters on how to play the game. It sounded simple enough and Miranda had confidence that she would beat her Andrea in this silly, child's game.
"Hi! Four players please," Andrea greeted the man manning the booth and handing over some bills.
As they all sat down, Andrea taunted them, "Ready to lose ladies?"
"Ha! I'll be the one winning," Cassidy exclaimed.
"You're all going down cause I'm going to win," Caroline declared.
"Now, now girls," Miranda reprimanded, "We all know that I'll be the winner of this silly game."
The moment the man said the word 'Go!' all of their attention was towards their water guns and little rockets. Miranda had to try and block out the taunting and trash talking coming from her daughters and Andrea in order to focus on her rocket.
"Yes! Oh yeah! In the lead baby!" Andrea yelled out.
Hearing this, Cassidy used one of her hands to shove Andrea on her shoulder to slow her down.
"Hey! No cheating Cass!"
Caroline, deciding to take a page out of her sister's book, shoved Cassidy in the shoulder to throw her off her game. Soon a game of distractions began between the two, while Andrea tried to focus on her game and avoid Cassidy's further distractions.
"Congratulations to the lady in blue!" The man announced. "You can pick one of the prizes on the bottom row."
Smirking at her win, Miranda looked over the many stuffed animals the man had hanging around his booth. Not seeing anything she wanted, she began to tell her daughters to pick one when her eyes landed on the small stuffed blue dragon. "That one."
Andrea snorted, while her daughters giggled at her selection. She imperiously glared at them as she took the dragon from the man. "Next." She demanded.
"That looks cool," Cassidy suggested. Miranda had to roll her eyes at her daughters' sudden attraction towards shooting games.
"How about something else instead," Andrea prompted, "That one is a one player game and it can be difficult if you don't know how to play."
"Oh," Cassidy muttered out as her excitement deflated.
Seeing this, Andrea knelt down with one knee to be at eye level with Cassidy. "Hey, what's wrong?" She asked.
Cassidy looked at Andrea, then back at the booth, hesitant to say whatever it was bothering her out loud.
"Cass, come on. You can tell me anything," Andrea said as she took a hold of Cassidy's hand and gave her a gentle, reassuring squeeze.
"I want that monkey," Cassidy answered. They all turned to see what Cassidy was pointing to, to find a big, purple monkey sitting in the back of the booth. Andrea turned back to look at Cassidy and smiled.
"Alright, let's go get the monkey," Andrea said as she stood up and held out her hand for Cassidy to take.
"Hello, how many for the big prize?" Andrea asked the man.
"Hello miss. Knock down three large targets for the small prize, three of the ducks for the medium ones, and five of the small flags in the back for the big prize," The man answered.
"Alright, one round please," Andrea said, handing over money to the man.
The man took the money and handed over the BB gun with five of the BB ammos. "Good luck."
Andrea nodded at the man, then readied the gun and focused on the moving targets. Caroline and Cassidy stood on either side of Andrea and cheered her on, while Miranda stood to the side watching and capturing the moment. The first two shots, Andrea missed the flags in the back. The third shot she managed to knock down one, while she missed on the fourth shot and knocked down a second flag with her fifth one. Not giving up so easily, Andrea pulled out some more bills and handed it over to the man.
"The first round was just a warm up," Andrea said, readying herself for the next five shots.
Andrea did better in the second round, she only missed one of the five shots, earning herself a total of six shots altogether. Cassidy and Caroline both wrapped their arms around Andrea excitedly. "You did it Andy!" They chanted. Andrea handed the man his gun back and wrapped her arms around the girls to return their hugs. She looked over at Miranda, smiling and eyes shining in happiness. Miranda captured the moment with her camera and returned a smile of her own.
"The monkey is all yours Cass," Andrea said as she looked over to Cassidy. Cassidy looked up at Andrea and grinned before looking over to her twin in silent communication. Caroline nods her head in agreement to her sisters silent suggestion.
"Could we get two small stuffed animals instead of the big monkey?" Cassidy asked Andrea. Andrea smiled and brushed Cassidy's hair away from her face before turning to look at the man in question. The man in turn chuckles and nods his head.
"Sure, which two would you like?" The man asked.
"The small purple monkey please!" Cassidy said.
"Caroline?" Andrea asked.
"The green elephant please!" Caroline said.
Stuffed animals in their hands, Caroline and Cassidy ran to Miranda to show her their winnings.
"Well, what shall we do now ladies?" Andrea asked. "More games or more rides?"
"Bumper cars!" Both girls exclaimed loudly.
She must have given a look of horror for Andrea to look at her with twinkling, laughing eyes and barely contained amusement.
"How about the Ferris Wheel? It's dark enough now that we can probably enjoy the beautiful view of the New York skyline," Andrea gently suggested.
"Okay!" Both girls said.
Leading the pack, the girls held hands and skipped along in front of them towards the Wonder Wheel. Always with a smile pasted on her face, Andrea glanced over at Miranda while they followed the girls. "Worse night of your life?"
"Absolute worse," Miranda said as she winked at Andrea.
END