The Love Assignment

Chapter 25

Alex POV.

Life had completely changed for Vallerie and me. All of a sudden we had become big time celebrities. People recognized us wherever we went, they wanted to take selfies with us, know every bit of our lives, our plans and stuff. According to them we were lovers, the Romeo and Juliet of this fast paced era.

As much as I enjoyed all the attention that we were receiving some part of me felt guilty. All this at the cost of Val losing the one person she loved. I was the one who forced her to find someone so she could fall in love and complete the article and now I'll be the one who'll help her mend it.

With this in mind I walked into Stacey's office. I usually didn't knock the door whenever I walked into Vallerie's or Stacey's office. Initially they would fight with me over this behavior of mine but now they seemed to have come to terms with this.

Or so I thought.

The second I walked in, Stacey looked flustered. She gawked at me in shock. I looked back at her scanning the rest of her surroundings that's when I noticed her head with all her hair pushed into the hair cap and she was holding a wig in her hand. Her facial expression kept changing from shock to disbelief and then to anger. Before she could find words to shout at me, realisation dawned on her face and she ran towards me with her hands outstretched. And that my friends was my cue to escape from the room.

She looked like a zombie when she ran with her hands stretched out that way. I turned around instantly to run out of her room, only to be pulled back by the collar of my shirt. The next thing I knew I had fallen on my butt. I had to admit it Stacey was strong and my butt sent me sharp shots of pain. While my brain was still processing the pain I felt Stacey slam the door that I had opened earlier.

She let out a sigh of relief and turned around slowly. She looked every bit a villain, with her malicious eyes staring hard at me. Every step she took I pushed my already hurt butt away from her. I winced every time I scraped my butt against the floor.

"You, never really learn to knock, do you?", Stacey said the words through her teeth. Angry evident in every word she spat out.

"I am sorry, I.. I thought you are used to my entry this way by now", I replied softly. If you had told me few hours ago that I would be scared of Stacey I would have surely laughed straight at your face but now. Now all I could think of was, if only I had made my exit faster. With all this running in my mind I noticed a small strand escape out of the hair cap.

"Used to?" Stacey said still walking towards me. Her hands almost reaching my throat.

"What's with the hair cap" I asked. Curiosity taking over my fear. After all I am journalist.

Stacey's expression changed from anger to sadness and she collapsed next to me. A few minutes back she was ready to kill me but now she was sobbing softly. Every now and then she gasped for few more bits of air and continued to sob even more. A part of me wanted to go over and pull her into a hug but the part that was scared for its life made me sit in my place. She looked at me through her tear filled eyes and shouted,"Console me, you moron".

Given the situation, I wasn't supposed to laugh but never before was I forced to console someone. Laughing I pulled Stacey into hug who herself giggled through her tears.

"So what happened",I asked Stacey pulling out her hair cap slowly. She straightened her back away from my hug and let me pull the whole hair cap out. And that's was when I realized her once long waved up hair was no longer there. In its place was messily cut hair with few strands cut extremely shorter than the rest.

"Oh"

"Yea, I know", Stacey said holding her hair looking at it.

"Did you by chance get into a cat fight?", I asked still looking at her hair.