The Experiment © [Completed]

Chapter 2 - The Briefing

"What?" Dei and RJ asked in unison.

"You heard that right!" Matt said excitedly. "We'll organize a fake wedding, you'll move in together for three months, but not necessarily sleep together, and you'd get to evaluate what a married life is. All in the spirit of fun of course."

"Fake wedding?" RJ asked, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Three months?" Dei was confused too.

"Don't be overly dramatic, you guys," Matt said, rolling his eyes. "You'll be just like housemates but in essence you're a married couple so you'd have to take each other on dates, cook together, go on couples night out with a couple friend, and basically do what married couples do - except the sex part if you don't like that." Matt said bluntly, and Dei dropped her face in her hand.

"What's the purpose of this again?" RJ asked with an annoyed look on his face.

"Well, we are trying to experiment the outcome when two people, both afraid of commitment, try to live together like a married couple for a short period of time. Will it change their minds about commitments or will they finally think it's actually a good idea?" Matt explained, waving his hands dramatically.

"Three months isn't a short time," Dei said.

"Well you have the option of getting out of the marriage and the project, before the three months is up, but I would think you're a wuss." Matt said plainly.

"So you said you needed a couple afraid of commitment. Is that why you chose me?" RJ asked coldly.

"Well yea... And this -" Matt turned his laptop around to face them and showed them the comments on TrendBuzz's most recent Facebook articles. "Since that balloon incident between you guys, our articles have been blowing up with comments about the two of you. They don't even comment about the actual articles anymore. They only want you."

"I want my DeiJay ship. Give me my DeiJay ship."

"When will we see DeiJay together. I ship them so bad."

"DeiJay is real"

Matt read through the first few comments, all of them mentioning their ship name. DeiJay.

"There is a clamor for you guys and this is just the perfect assignment to kick-off your love team." Matt said enthusiastically.

"Love team?" RJ laughed humorlessly. "Matt, is there anyway I can say no to this?" RJ asked. "No offense," he added, turning to Dei.

Dei just waved her hand and rolled her eyes when he wasn't looking. I'm kinda getting a vibe that you're an actual jerk, Mr. Faulkerson, she thought to herself.

"Do you really want to say no to me, RJ?" Matt asked calmly, but there was a glint in his eye.

RJ sighed and sat back on his chair.

"How about you, Dei, are you going to do this or not?" Matt asked her.

Dei bit her lip and glanced at RJ. He wasn't looking at her but on the fringe of his jeans, and his forehead was propped on his knuckles as his elbow rested on the arm of the chair.

She sighed. "Okay, I'll do it."

"Perfect!" Matt exclaimed, clapping his hands. "Now there is actually an incentive. Since this is a huge thing, we will sponsor everything for you. You both will move in at the penthouse of Ritz," Matt said, talking about one of the expensive condominiums in the city, "your dates will be paid for by TrendBuzz, and you both get two consecutive days of time out each week. Which means you can both go back to your own homes and enjoy your own spaces for a couple of days."

"Please tell me there won't be any cameras around the house," RJ said.

"Of course there won't be," Matt said. "This isn't Big Brother, Faulkerson. You do have to have Facebook live feed sessions at least once a day though. And you need to post snapchats too. Just tell us about the progress, tell us how you're doing, tell us how you feel."

"You know I don't talk about feelings," RJ mumbled grumpily.

"Just tell us how each of your days went," Matt answered, patting his arm to pacify him. "Do you have questions? Dei?" he asked looking at her.

"What are the ground rules?" Dei asked.

"Good question," Matt said. "Well first of, no cheating. You both should be serious in making the marriage work. RJ, you can't go having dates with the parade of women you have while married to Dei" Matt told RJ.

RJ glared at him. You're testing my patience today, Matt.

"Dei, I was told you never had a boyfriend, ever, so this shouldn't be a problem, right?" Matt asked her and she blushed.

"Yep, NBSB, that's me," she muttered and RJ looked at her for a few seconds.

"Secondly, you both have to consider that this is work related so both of you have to be professional at all times. Although any one of you can get out of the marriage before the three month period is up, I really wouldn't want that. So that brings me to the third rule - respect each other. I want you both to enjoy this experience and see what outcome it will give you in the end." Matt said. "You can set your additional ground rules too if you want. Just discuss it among yourselves."

Both Dei and RJ nodded.

"Now... Since couples need to at least be friends before they get married, I want you to take your lunch break together and just get to know more about each other," Matt said.

"When are we moving together?" Dei asked.

"Well the wedding ceremony will be tomorrow afternoon so you'll have to move in the day after tomorrow." Matt answered. "Now go away, love birds and get to know each other." he said finally, shooing them away.

They walked out together and looked awkwardly at each other as they stepped out of the room and into the small corridor

"So..." RJ began, "I'm, uh, having lunch with my buddies at around 12. I'll drop by at your cubicle to... uhm... pick you up." he said, running his fingers through his hair. "You're on this floor, right?"

"Yeah. Okay, see you then," Dei answered and they both walked in different directions as Dei went to her cubicle and RJ walked towards the elevator.

Dei glanced back at him and saw him looking at her. He looked startled when he saw her glance back but he waved at her simply just as the elevator door opened for him.