Voilà

No More Reticence

LUCAS’S PERSPECTIVE

          I was at my desk looking through the final edited copy. I was extremely tired today and I was waiting for the day to get over. Judy was continuously introducing something new or deleting something or the other from the edited copy. In the morning, Stacey and I had gone to her to submit the final document. She looked at it and scowled at us over her half moon spectacles. She always scowls, whether there is a mistake or no.

          “Humph.” She grunted and I threw Stacey a puzzled glance. Had we made a mistake? Did we miss a comma anywhere? After hours of scrutinizing, she didn’t find any mistake but there were a load of improvements to be carried on. She piled on us some more extra work and I let go of my wish to go to the bar later, after work was done.

         “Stacey, give this over to Judy pronto. I’ve done everything she said.” I said and looked at the list of stuff she had asked me to do. Angry, red tick marks glared back at me. Each and every sentence was ticked, much to my satisfaction. Stacey took the file without a word and glanced through it quickly. Satisfied, she turned towards the door and headed out of my cabin. She was extremely quiet today. She shunned company and sat alone and spoke only when necessary. She wasn’t her usual bright self. When she came into the office in the morning, I saw that her eyes were red and puffy, indicating that she had cried, a lot. Sometimes I wish I knew more about her. She was so guarded that nobody anything about her past. Everybody knows her only as Stacey Dawson, Sub-Editor of Voilà. That’s it. I had already asked her twice if everything was alright. She just nodded and turned away. When she came back in, I looked up at her.

          “Lucas, Michelle says the photograph of Ashley’s is different. Apparently, the shade of the dress she actually wore was different from what is been shown in the photograph.” She said in a tired voice. She held up a small piece of the material from Ashley’s dress and the photograph alongside. You couldn’t make out the difference even if you concentrated hard. Michelle hard high definition eyes, maybe. I saw a slight, teeny-tiny difference between the two.

          “I’ll give it to June. She’ll edit it.” I said with a sigh. Just as Stacey was about to go out, I stood up and called out to her.

          “Stacey, I’ll take you out for lunch. My treat. We’ll leave all this work for some time. You’ll forget whatever is bothering you.” I said kindly. Her back stiffened and she turned towards me with an unreadable expression on her face. “It’s not a date.” I added as an afterthought. 

           “So, this is it, huh? Now, that I think about it. All you ever wanted to do was sleep with me.” Her sharp and cold tone surprised me. Her words made me feel numb. I couldn’t move. She was infuriated and her nose flared up with anger. “Asking me out on dates was just an excuse for you to get into my pants!” she said loudly, so unlike her. I was shocked. Appalled. I couldn’t say anything. I had to admit I was hurt. I continued to look at her. Her face was pale and it held a cold expression, glaring at me. There was a stunned silence.

          “Is THAT the impression you have on me? After all these years of working together, THIS is what you think of me? This is unbelievable, Stacey.” Her expression softened when I said her name and regret flashed across her countenance. “I don’t know what else you think of me but, you have to know one thing. I love you, Stacey. I have always loved you, earnestly, no matter what. This is the truth and it is up to you to believe it or not. That thought… never even crept in to my mind. All I ever wanted to do was to make you realize how much I love you and how much you mean to me in the world. That’s all.” I wanted to say something else, but I decided against it. I picked up my jacket and looked at her for one last time. Her pretty face was masked with surprise and shock. I took my jacket and headed towards the door.