Chapter 14

The sweet and cheerful song of the birds perched on the windowsill succeeded in waking Stacy from a peaceful dream. The sun shone through the glass windows and the rays of sunshine concentrated on her face, creating an irresistible sparkle in her chocolate brown eyes. She rolled onto her side, getting jumbled up in the sheets in the process of doing so, to manage a glance at the digital clock on the nightstand. The short green slits of light displayed the early morning hour of nine o'clock. With no hesitation, Stacy blinked sleepily, positioned herself onto her stomach with her face in the pillow. Sure, she would stay in bed all day if she could, but then she'd never find out what she'd missed.

Detecting the empty space next to her, Stacy made her greatest effort to lift her head in order to find out Randy's whereabouts or at least if he was in the room. Indeed, he was. The swish of the water rhythmically beating down onto the white porcelain of the bathroom sink gave it away. The blonde figured he'd already taken a shower and he was shaving at the moment, so she decided to let him know she was up.

Apparently that was merely a mental decision, since no progress had been made after roughly ten minutes.

'Thinking about it is so much easier than actually doing it,' Stacy told herself. Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she groaned and fumbled with the sheets in a failing attempt to unwrap her tangled self. Actually standing up turned out to be a challenge in itself.

'Okay. Note to self: Don't let anyone mummify me when I die.' Her messy blonde hair whirled around all over the place as Stacy spun in every which direction, concluding her intense efforts with a thud as she collapsed to the floor. 'Ow.' With a forfeiting sigh, she realized all that hard work wasn't a complete waste; the satin sheet fell into a pool of fabric around her feet when she finally managed to get up.

"Good morning," Stacy whispered in a drowsy voice, leaning in the doorway of the bathroom.

"Morning," Randy replied with his eyes still glued to the mirror as he continued to shave.

"When'd you get up?"

"Maybe about a half hour ago, I don't know," he said as his eyes traveled outside the confinements of the mirror, looking at his girlfriend for the first time that morning. "Whoa. What happened to you?" he snickered.

An inexpressible icy glare was fired in Randy's direction, which only caused him to laugh harder.

"That look is so much more evil in the morning," he grinned.

All Stacy could do in retaliation was grunt and walk off to change into some other clothes. Clearly, she wasn't awake yet.

She slipped out of the tank top and pair of shorts she wore to sleep and tossed them onto the unmade bed. After rummaging in her bag for what seemed like a much longer time than two minutes in a desperate search of something cute, Stacy ultimately settled on a pair of light blue jeans and a pink baby tee.

"Okay, pretty boy. It's my turn in front of the mirror!" she yelled, skipping to the bathroom entrance once again.

Randy chuckled as he dried his face and left the bathroom to get himself clothed. As he unzipped his bag the sound of Stacy's soft humming traveled to his ears, so he sat down on the bed and took a moment to just look at the woman who'd been a completely different person days before. While Stacy was dancing around and applying mascara in front of the mirror, Randy realized just how happy she really was. This wasn't the same girl with the indescribable fear in her eyes every time someone made a brisk movement; now, she seemed absolutely ecstatic, she was being her fun, crazy self, and knowing that he'd caused that change in the woman he loved was a feeling beyond anything that could be depicted with words.

Completely oblivious to the fact that he'd been staring at Stacy during the entire time, Randy awoke from his trance when his girlfriend took his face in her hands, looked at him straight in the eyes and whispered, "You know it's not very polite to stare. Besides, you should stop before you start drooling." With that said, she walked around the bed with a smile attached to her face to pick up the ringing phone.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Um, hello, Miss Keibler?" replied the concierge at the front desk.

"Yup, that'd be me."

"There's someone waiting to speak with you in the downstairs lobby. They said it was about work and requested that you come alone."

"Okay, I'll be right there. Thank you," Stacy said and hung up the phone.

"Is everything all right?" Randy questioned.

"Yeah, I think so. They said someone was here to see me about work. Maybe it's Linda or Vince," she shrugged.

"They don't make house – hotel calls, rather."

"You never know, there's a first time for everything."

"I don't know, Stace," he replied, obvious concern apparent in his eyes, "I'll come with you."

"No, I have to go alone. I'm telling you, don't worry, everything is fine. If it's about work, it won't be that big of a deal, baby."

Randy let out a sigh and reluctantly responded with, "Okay."

"All right, I'll be back in ten," Stacy said, grabbing her purse off the nightstand and turning in the door's direction. Randy stood up in front of her, wrapping his arms around her and giving her a gentle kiss.

"Be careful."

"I will, promise," she responded and walked towards the door. She blew a kiss to her boyfriend, who watched helplessly as she disappeared from the room.

Author's Note: YAY! It's finally up! So sorry for the long wait. I hope you liked this, let me know what you think. Please review (if you're still out there!). OH! And! You guys! Over 100 reviews! Oh, God, that is so awesome. Lord, all the squealing that took place was… yeah, we'll leave it at that. Thank you sooo much!