DISCLAIMER: The Devil Wears Prada and its characters belong to Lauren Weisberger and 20th Century Fox. No infringement intended.
CHALLENGE: Written for Passion & Perfection's Big 5000.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
A Banquet of Consequences
By The Last Good Name
It isn't that Andy doesn't know what she's done, it's more that she is willing to accept the consequences. Also, Miranda won't actually hunt her down and kill her. Probably.
So when she leaves Miranda in Paris, Andy is pretty sure that she has narrowly escaped from a horrifying fate. She's a little saddened to think of what Emily might be going through in her absence, but not enough to change her mind. And when she sees Miranda across the street after her very successful interview at the Mirror, an interview that was mostly due to Miranda's not killing her after all, Andy can't help but smile at Miranda and wave.
Miranda ignores her.
Most of Andy expects that reaction, but the part of her wonders, briefly, faintly, about what opportunities she might have thrown away. She will never learn how to break Miranda's reserve now, but she's finished with that job.
Andy is generally a happy person, but she's been through a lot of turmoil in the last few months so it's not that surprising to her when she finds herself momentarily feeling down. She misses Nate, Lily is mad at her, she's dealing with walking away from something-failing at something-for the first time in her life. But that doesn't explain why her heart stops whenever she sees a woman with silver hair, or why St. Bernards dragging their owners for walks will bring a momentary lump to her throat. And it doesn't account for the fact that she's started clipping news items featuring Miranda Priestly and carefully putting them in a scrapbook.
Perhaps she's not actually done with Runway, or with Miranda.
When Emily phones two months after Paris, Andy realizes she's been waiting for this phone call.
Emily says, "Miranda wants you to interview her, provide a sympathetic portrait for the press."
Andy kind of wants to tell Emily to go to hell, and to take Miranda with her. What Andy actually says is, "I don't do interviews, Emily. Besides, I'm way too new."
"I don't care, Andrea. This is the least you can do for Miranda."
Emily is right; it is the least she can do. She talks to her editor, and to the Sunday features editor, and to the editor in chief. She spends an entire morning going in and out of people's offices and not doing any work, all for the opportunity to sit down with the woman she betrayed.
No, that's not fair: what happened in Paris wasn't a betrayal. Not really. What Miranda did to Nigel, that was a betrayal. What Andy did to Miranda-what Miranda did to Andy- wasn't a betrayal. That was two people agreeing to disagree about the future of their relationship.
And the fact that Miranda hasn't come after Andy like a ton of bricks just proves it.
In the end, the editors agree that the publicity alone from Andy's interview with Miranda is worth letting a junior reporter five weeks on the job do the biggest interview the newspaper has ever seen.
So the following Friday, Andy finds herself sitting down with Miranda at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Patrons Lounge. Andy didn't even know this place existed, but Miranda looks perfectly at home here. Andy thinks that she's never seen Miranda look anything less than perfectly at home; that's a neat trick. Maybe she'll learn how someday. After all, Nigel did say "watch and learn." Maybe Andy should have listened to him.
"So, Miranda," Andy says.
Miranda doesn't wait for Andy to ask any questions. She just starts talking.
She talks about Stephen, about the twins, about the divorce, her second in five years. Nothing about Runway, though, and Andy knows better than to ask about that. Miranda talks a little bit about the double standard of women in the corporate workforce, about how no one ever denigrates the twins' father for being a 20-hour a day lawyer who prefers the courtroom to his children. She talks a little bit more about how Stephen insisted that he understood her hours and the demands of her job, but how in the end all he wanted was a dutiful wife.
Miranda says, "I realize that this is not a popular position, but I don't think I should be expected to do any less than my best at my job, so that my husband can feel more like a man."
Andy wonders if Nate felt the same way. Everyone complains that Runway doesn't pay, but compared to the restaurant industry the publishing industry is where fortunes are made. No one ever got rich cutting up carrots.
Except for Emeril, but he doesn't count.
"Of course not," she says.
Miranda looks at her. Andy wonders what she sees.
The interview, when she finishes, is easily the best thing she's ever written. Part of that-most of it-is that Miranda pretty much wrote it for her, gave her the structure, the quotes, the story. Miranda gave her the background starting her first day at Runway and by the time Andy found out about the divorce in Paris, Andy could have written this story in my sleep. Andy didn't really have to do anything. Andy has been watching the papers, so she knows that Leslie, on Miranda's orders, is smoothing the way for the twins and wrangling the media, and Andy knows that this little interview is part of that strategy. Miranda knows what will play best in Paris and in Peoria; Andy is only just beginning to realize this.
The interview ends up selling more copies, getting more hits on the website, than her editors could have hoped for in their wildest dreams, and everyone looks at Andy with a newfound respect. All around, everyone gets exactly what they wanted.
Which is why Andy wonders what the hell she's doing when she finds herself standing in front of Miranda's door two nights later.
She shouldn't be here. She doesn't know why she's here.
And then Miranda opens the door, and she's wearing that same gray bathrobe that Andy has been dreaming about for that last two months, and Andy realizes what she's been waiting for.
She kisses her.
For a second, Andy can't figure out who moved first, but then she decides it must have been her. After all, she was the one who left; she should be the one who apologizes.
Miranda's lips are dry, and her tongue is sharp. Andy pushes her way into the house, shoving Miranda backwards and not letting her go. Andy smiles against Miranda's mouth, suddenly happy again for the first time in forever.
"Stop smiling, you stupid girl," Miranda says.
Andy doesn't bother replying. Instead, she tugs on the belt and the robe opens. Andy slips her hands inside. Miranda gasps.
Miranda skin is hot, and soft, and the feel of her skin sliding across Miranda's takes them both by surprise. Miranda trembles as Andy explores everything she can touch, and soon enough the robe in on the floor and Miranda is pressed up against the wall with Andy thrusting into her.
"The girls," Miranda pants.
Andy ignores her. The twins will just have to get used to it, and if they see something they shouldn't, well, they'll get over it.
Everyone will. Eventually.
The End