The Experiment © [Completed]

Chapter 23 - You and Me

RJ couldn't stop himself. He quickly stood up and walked over to Christine, and she smiled as he approached, but he grabbed her fiercely by the elbow. "What are you doing here?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"Well, hello to you too, RJ," she said smoothly.

"What are you doing here," he repeated, pulling her closer.

"I came to work," she answered.

"Why here, Christine? Why now?"

"You're not the only one who misses the Philippines, RJ," Christine said, rolling her eyes and pulling her arm away.

"Bullshit, Christine, you've never even been to the Philippines before!"

She smirked. "I have, when I was about three."

"You came here to ruin everything, didn't you?" RJ accused, his voice dripping acid. "You just couldn't handle seeing me finally happy."

"Oh please, RJ. They were looking for a new editor to transfer here because they couldn't find one locally in a short period of time, so I volunteered." she said matter-of-factly while crossing her arms over her chest. "I've always wanted to work here and see my mom's place."

"Bullshit."

"Fine." Christine said staring at him with a smile. "It's true, I came for you. I missed you." she said softly.

RJ chewed on his lip, seething. "Yea right, Christine. Does Darren know you're here?"

"We broke up," she answered. "Five months ago. And I realized that it was you who I wanted all along. It's always been you, RJ, and that's why I kept coming back to you before," she moved closer and touched RJ's chest and he stepped back.

"Never again, Christine," he said, shaking his head.

She scoffed. "That's what you said before too, RJ, but you still kept wanting more."

"Now it's different," he said coldly. "Stay away from me Christine, and stay away from Dei."

He left her standing there with her mouth half open, and he quickly walked to the elevators. He took long, determined strides towards Matt's office as soon as the elevator door opened to the third floor.

He didn't bother knocking when he got there and just got in quickly. "Matt, what's going on?"

"I don't know!" Matt answered, looking stressed. "She just showed up here this morning and said she was the one assigned by the HQ as a temporary replacement. I just got off the phone with the New York EIC and he confirmed it."

"Damn!" RJ cursed, running his hand through his hair. "How long is she staying?"

"Three months. And that's not all, she'll be handling Dei's team." Matt told him, flipping his hand over his face.

"What? You can't let that happen, Matt." RJ said fiercely.

"It's Dei's team that is needing the editor, RJ, and I was not the one who assigned her," he pointed out.

"Then transfer Dei. Transfer her to a different team. Transfer her to mine," he said desperately.

"You know I can't do that. Conflict of interest." Matt said.

"Matt, don't you freaking use all these rules to me now. I need you to help me as a friend. Forget that you're my boss for now, please."

Matt sighed and placed his head on his hands. "This is seriously stressing me out, I need my sugar fix!"

"Matt," RJ insisted.

"I'll see what I can do, RJ." Matt finally said. "But until I'm able to find a solution, Dei is gonna be stuck with her."

"At least try, please. And I have to tell Dei" RJ said, pulling the threads from the fringes of his jeans.

"You better," Matt said and he looked truly worried. "I think Christine meant trouble the way she was asking questions about you and Dei. In turns out she had been following your project in New York."

"What did you tell her?"

"The truth. That you and Dei are now together."

"Thanks, Matt. I'll go and talk to Dei. Please promise me you'll do something."

"I promise I'll try." Matt said as RJ walked out the door.

RJ walked towards Dei's cubicle but paused when he saw their team huddled around Christine who had her back to him. Dei saw him right away. Her eyes lit up and her face broke into a sweet smile.

He returned her smile and quickly walked over to her, grabbing her hand and pulling her away from their huddle.

"Faulkerson, what do you think you're doing?" Christine demanded, clearly pissed.

"Matt needs us for the project," he told her flatly and pulled Dei away.

"Woah. Are you ok?" Dei asked, looking at him as they walked over to the conference room.

He checked if it's empty and led her inside.

"What's going on?" Dei asked, confused.

RJ chewed on his lip and ran his fingers through his hair as he decided how to tell her. "Christine is here," he finally said after heaving a huge sigh.

Dei opened her mouth to say something but paused as the realization hit her. "RJ, is she my new boss?"

RJ nodded and held both her shoulders. "Dei, she's probably gonna cause trouble, but I need you to trust me. Please trust me. I'm all yours, ok?"

Dei studied his face for a few moments before nodding. "Okay," she whispered and RJ quickly wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.

"And please don't ever think that there'd be any reason to be insecure. It's just you and me, Dei, I promise." he whispered, planting a kiss on her head.

"I trust you," she whispered against his chest.