Christmas Exchange: For Pantone462
Okay, pantone462 , here's your actual gift.
Title: Santa's Little Secret
Author: Natalie ( silentrevyrie )
Word Count: 2,817
Rating: PG-13, mostly for language
Pairing: Miranda/Andy
Prompt: A fic. Christmas at Runway - the employees (and a certain employer) decide to play secret Santa (and yes - a happy end is a must!)
Disclaimer: Don't own anything or anyone, unfortunately.
A/N: This prompt was too good to pass up. This is un-beta'd, and any and all mistakes are my own. Feedback is always appreciated!
A/N 2: This is slightly AU in that Paris happened, but Andy didn't quit. Maybe she threatened to? Maybe she walked away and then went crawling back? We'll never know. But she and Nate are still broken up, and Miranda is still seperated from Stephen.
“Fuck! Nigel, what the hell am I supposed to do?!” Andy was absolutely certain that Emily had taken some sort of sadistic pleasure in informing Andy that her giftee for the Annual Runway Secret Santa Exchange was none other than the impossible Miranda Priestly.
“Breathe, Six. Miranda handpicks her ‘gifter,’ if you will, every year. Means she trusts you not to completely screw it up,” Nigel explained.
“But Nige, the woman has everything! And if she doesn’t already have it, it’s because she doesn’t want it!” Exasperation crept into Andy’s voice. Nigel, of all people, should know how ridiculously impossible it was to please Miranda.
“Don’t be so sure about that, kid,” Nigel smiled. “Think hard. Be very observant for the remainder of the day. I mean, you’ve got a whole day to figure it out.” The sarcasm in this last statement was not lost on Andy.
“I guess so. Well, I’ve got to be getting back. My 15 minutes are up. I’ll talk to you later.” Andy hurried through the corridors back to her desk. She looked across the room to Emily, who was still smiling.
“You’re screwed!” Emily chuckled. Andy had been right; there was obviously some schadenfreude on Emily’s part. “I’ve never gotten Miranda, thank God. She’s impossible!”
“Yeah, I know,” Andy grumbled, though she was secretly thrilled to learn that in three years of Secret Santa-ing, Miranda had yet to choose Emily.
“Andrea,” Miranda called from the inner office. Andy took a second to breathe before hastening into the other room.
“Yes, Miranda?” Andy had long since learned that “yes, Miranda?” didn’t count as a question; it was more of a confirmation of her presence.
“Get me flowers,” Miranda ordered. Andy was stunned. Could it really be that easy?
“Absolutely,” Andy replied, almost giddy with relief.
“The girls have requested purple Gerberas this week,” Miranda continued.
Huh? Andy thought. What do Caroline and Cassidy have to do with this? And then it dawned on her. Miranda was talking about the fresh flowers she had scattered around her home. Duh. Of course Andy wouldn’t be getting off that easy.
“Andrea…?” Miranda sounded less than pleased.
“Oh, uh, right. Purple Gerberas instead of the usual orange. Got it,” Andy confirmed.
Miranda gave the awkward assistant a once-over that seemed to last for years. “That’s all,” she muttered, a half-smile almost gracing her lips. Andy nodded and walked quickly back to her desk before Miranda could notice her blushing furiously. She called Miranda’s florist and made arrangements for delivery before laying her head on her desk in defeat.
“Oh, stop sulking,” Emily scoffed. She rolled her eyes in an impressive impersonation of Miranda. “Really, Ahn-dray-uh, I don’t understand what’s so difficult about this task. Getting to Mars and back before lunch can’t possibly be that impossible an undertaking. Am I reaching for the stars here? No.” Emily’s American accent and Miranda Priestly intonation were dead on. Andy snorted back a laugh.
“You’ve been working here for way too long, Em,” Andy laughed.
“Don’t I know it,” Emily agreed. The phone rang and Emily shot Andy a scheming smile before answering. “Miranda Priestly’s office.” The Miranda-voice was back.
“EMILY!” Andy couldn’t breathe. This was going to be great. Emily, wide-eyed, motioned for Andy to pick up her own extension. Andy snatched the receiver from its cradle and slid her hand over the mouthpiece.
“The signature necklace you ordered is almost ready, Miranda,” the caller said. “I just need to confirm the inscription before we engrave it. ‘For my greatest disappointment. Yours, Miranda.’ Is this correct?”
Emily didn’t miss a beat. “Bore someone else with your questions,” she said snidely before hanging up. Andy nearly slammed her own receiver down on the cradle. What the…?!
“Well, I guess we know who Miranda has for this silly Secret Santa thing,” Emily sniffed. “But that inscription…’Yours, Miranda’?! She didn’t even have me sign cards for Stephen with ‘yours’! It must be a mistake. But how can I correct it if I’m not supposed to know about it? I didn’t even know she called Tiffany’s!”
Andy stayed silent. She and Miranda were each other’s Secret Santa?! And what was this whole “Yours, Miranda” thing? She’d have to think about that later, though. Right now, she needed to figure out what to get for Miranda. The woman could have anything she wanted and she could have it when she wanted it. How was Andy supposed to top that? Miranda had been showered with gifts almost daily since she’d taken the helm at Runway fifteen years ago. Andy had often wondered what Runway had been like in the B.M.P era-Before Miranda Priestly.
Suddenly, Andy had an idea. “Em,” she called, rising from her desk. “I have to run down to the Archives. I’ll be right back!” Emily didn’t get the chance to object before Andy was too far down the hallway for it to do any good.
Andy resisted the urge to skip to the elevator. The ride down two floors to the Archives was quick, and Andy found herself grinning at the sight of the Archive manager, Donna.
“Hey Andy! What do you need?” Andy was a familiar face in the archives; it seemed Miranda needed a back issue almost daily.
“God, I hope you can find this one for me,” Andy started nervously. “I need…” She stopped to think. “I need the September 1991 issue. Two copies would be idea, but even one would be incredible.”
“Are you sure you don’t want, like, ten? Back then, we kept 50 copies of each issue instead of today’s standard five. September ’91 is the last issue we did that for; Miranda changed the policy after it went to print. I’ll be right back.” With that, Donna wandered back into the well-organized space, leaving Andy to ponder her good fortune. Donna quickly reappeared with the magazines. Andy thanked her and made a mental note to send her flowers or something. She’d just totally saved Andy’s ass, after all.
Andy spent the remainder of the afternoon arranging for the rest of Miranda’s gift to be delivered to her apartment. She’d finish it tonight and it’d be ready for the annual Runway holiday brunch the next day. She’d finally figured out that this was essentially a test; Miranda wanted to see if her “gifter” could come up with something in such a short time. And if Andy hadn’t known the real reason Miranda had chosen her, this would have explained a lot. If anyone could come up with the impossible in less than twenty-four hours, it was Andy.
Andy was checking her email when she heard Miranda call for her. She swallowed hard before venturing into the inner office. She hadn’t seen Miranda since she and Emily had intercepted that phone call.
“Yes, Miranda?”
“Call Tiffany’s and arrange for them to deliver my order to the townhouse by tonight. Then, call Tavern on the Green and-“
“Confirm tomorrow’s brunch menu and number of guests? Done.”
“Well, then. Starbucks. That’s all.” Andy nodded and walked out to her desk. She grabbed her Sidekick and her purse before retrieving her coat from the closet. She had just stepped out of the elevator in the Elias-Clarke lobby when her phone rang.
“Hi, Miranda.”
“Get something for yourself, and an Earl Grey for Emily.” And then she hung up. Typical, Andy thought. She does something completely out of character, even by my standards, and then she just hangs up! Andy clacked her way across the lobby and out into the bitter December cold. When she got to Starbucks, she was amused to see a barista already working on a drink in a cup labeled “M. Priestly.” They must have seen Andy coming.
“It’s a sign of the apocalypse,” Andy grinned, “but I also need a Grande Earl Grey in a Venti cup, and…” Andy hadn’t ordered anything but a Grande non-fat, skimmed latte with an extra shot, scalding hot in so long that she didn’t know what to order for herself. She stared at the menu until something that sounded both low-fat and delicious jumped out at her. “And a Grande caramel apple spice, no whip.” Andy also couldn’t remember the last time she’d ordered a drink without some sort of modification to it. Well, c’est la Runway. Andy paid for the drinks and carefully toted the beverage carrier across the street back to the Elias-Clarke building and Runway. She had just stepped into the lobby when she realized that she hadn’t called Tiffany’s yet.
“Shit!” Andy squeaked, desperately trying to avoid spilling the hot drinks all over herself as she blindly searched for her phone. She found Tiffany’s in her address book and quickly called to arrange Miranda’s delivery. She barely made it into the elevator, which she rode, alone and in silence, to Runway’s 18th floor offices.
Andy had placed her drink on her desk and was just handing Emily hers when Miranda appeared in the doorway to the inner office. Emily spotted her first.
“Yes, Miranda?” she inquired, holding her tea in mid-air.
“I’m leaving at 4:30 today to see the girls off to their grandmother’s. You two may do the same as long as you’ve confirmed every last detail for tomorrow’s brunch. No book tonight. That’s all.” Miranda turned on her heel and walked back into her office, leaving a dumbstruck Emily and Andy to make sense of what they’d just been told.
“Bloody hell…4:30?!” Emily was at a loss for words. “In three years, not once has Miranda let anyone leave before 6:00.” She looked at the cup in her hands. “And she’s letting us have beverages at our desks! Ohmigod, it’s a sign. The world is coming to an end.”
Andy nodded her head in agreement. “The Starbucks baristas were shocked when I ordered more than just Miranda’s latte. Today’s been crazy.”
Andy and Emily were able to leave the office just after 5:00. Andy took the subway home and stopped by her super’s apartment to claim everything that had been delivered for her. After she lugged everything up four flights of stairs and into her apartment, she got to work.
The fact that her project demanded perfection was absolutely going to be Andy’s downfall. She didn’t finish until nearly 11:00, when she went to bed with a headache from staring at tiny print for so long. It was worth it, though, because she’d finished Miranda’s gift.
Andy awoke at 7:15 the following morning. Her headache was, thankfully, gone, so she indulged in coffee before taking a luxuriously long shower. She staunchly refused to get out until she ran out of hot water and was forced to do so.
Andy was completely ready to go by 9:00. She transferred the contents of her large work purse into a smaller “real person” purse before grabbing Miranda’s gift and heading outside. The cab she had called was waiting at the curb, and the cabbie helped Andy load the unwieldy package into the trunk. They stopped at the florist’s, where Andy picked up the small, but meaningful, arrangement she’d ordered the night before. She gripped the bud vase tightly on the way to Tavern on the Green.
Along with most of the guests, Emily was already there when Andy arrived, and she looked frazzled. “They almost brought in freesias.” She didn’t have to say anything else. Andy sniffed hesitantly and was relieved to find no trace of freesias in the air. Her Sidekick beeped from within her purse and she pulled it out to look. It was a text message from Roy.
“Miranda’ll be here in five minutes,” she half-yelled. The entire room stiffened before descending into an organized chaos as everyone tried to find their assigned seat. Andy was surprised to find herself seated next to Miranda at the center table. Maybe it’s arranged by Secret Santa pairs? she wondered.
Miranda, wearing a belted sweater-dress in the deepest blue Andy had ever seen, made her grand entrance exactly five minutes after Roy’s text. Everyone quickly seated themselves and the waitstaff had brunch out on the tables within minutes.
Andy listened to everyone at her table attempt to make small talk without annoying Miranda, which wasn’t an easy task. Fortunately, she was rather involved in a hushed conversation with Nigel so there wasn’t too much to worry about.
When everyone was finished eating, Miranda rose. She thanked everyone for attending and explained that they would all find their Holiday Bonus checks in envelopes on their way out. There was a smattering of polite applause and Miranda resumed her seat. Then, Nigel stood.
“So, let’s get to what everyone’s really here for…the Secret Santa exchange!” he exclaimed. The ambiance of the room shifted drastically; suddenly laughter and animated chatter could be heard from smiling employees.
“Merry Christmas, Six,” Nigel said as he handed Andy a gift box.
“Th-thanks, Nige!” Andy smiled as she hugged him, trying her best to hide her confusion. If Nigel was her Secret Santa, then what was with the necklace engraving? It was common knowledge that Miranda referred to only one person as her “greatest disappointment,” and that was Andy, so there was no one else that it could possibly be for.
Andy absently opened the box and gasped when she saw what Nigel had given her. In the box, nestled in a bed of tissue paper, was the pair of Louboutins Andy had been lusting after since she first saw them in the closet.
“Ohmigod, Nigel, these are…Ohmigod!” She threw her arms around his neck, momentarily forgetting about Miranda’s presence. “How did you…?”
“Don’t ask, don’t tell, kid,” he winked. Andy noticed he was holding a card with his name on it in Miranda’s handwriting, which meant that obviously Miranda had been Nigel’s Secret Santa. Nigel gave Andy a look, and she was, again, confused until she realized that Miranda was still standing between them, giftless.
“Oh, cra-I’ll be right back with your gift, Miranda.” Andy almost ran to the kitchen, where she’d been storing Miranda’s gift. It was too large to have kept with her in the dining room. She carefully carried it back out to where Miranda and Nigel were waiting and she pulled out her chair and placed the wrapped gift on it. “Merry Christmas, Miranda.”
Miranda nodded in acknowledgement before meticulously unwrapping the package. Andy was fairly certain that Miranda had stopped breathing when she saw what Andy had gotten for her.
Andy had taken the Editor’s Letter, Editor’s Picks, Editor’s byline, and the front cover of the first issue of Runway for which Miranda was Editor-in-Chief and carefully matted them all to fit within the same frame. She glanced at Nigel, who gave her a covert thumbs-up, before she looked back at Miranda.
“Come with me,” Miranda ordered, grabbing Andy by the wrist. The women quickly went out onto the patio, away from the noise and crowding of the dining room. Neither one seemed to notice the freezing temperature.
“Miranda, I-“Andy felt the need to apologize. It was obvious Miranda hadn’t liked her gift. Somehow, Andy wasn’t shocked.
“Quiet,” Miranda barked. “That is the most thoughtful gift I’ve ever received, Andrea.” Now, Miranda looked nervous. She reached a hand into her purse and brought out a jewelry box recognized the world over.
“You’ve been with me for almost two years, now, Andrea. You’ve gone to great lengths to see to it that I am happy, something which no one else has ever done. Thank you.” Miranda inhaled slowly. Andy didn’t say anything before opening the box, which held the engraved necklace. She flipped it over to reveal the engraving. For my greatest disappointment. Yours, Miranda
“Miranda, I…” she trailed off. Miranda slowly removed the necklace from the box and fastened it around Andy’s neck. Her hand grazed the back of Andy’s neck, and Andy’s knees almost buckled. She turned to face Miranda. “I’ll be right back.” Andy darted back into the building, where she retrieved the flower arrangement she’d picked up earlier. She held it out to Miranda, who took it and examined it.
The arrangement was simple; a single red rose surrounded by larkspur. “The rose is supposed to be you, since your birthday is in June. And the larkspur is me, July.” Andy bit her lip. She could only hope that Miranda understood what she was trying to say. Cautiously, she looked back up at Miranda.
Miranda reached out and cupped Andy’s cheek with her hand. Slowly, she moved closer to Andy, until they were only inches apart. Their eyes met and suddenly Andy found herself in the most tender kiss she’d ever received.
When they finally broke apart, Miranda looked into Andy’s eyes. “My greatest disappointment has become my greatest joy,” she whispered. Andy smiled. This was bigger than Louboutins. Miranda had given her the greatest gift of all-love.