The Experiment © [Completed]

Chapter 28 - Holding Her Ground

"Matt, what's up?" RJ asked as he and Dei walked into his office.

Matt looked up from his laptop and motioned for them to take a seat and wait, his expression unreadable. RJ led Dei by the waist to one of the chairs and he settled on another, waiting for Matt to speak.

"Okay, I need to speak to you about a couple of things. First, what's this?" Matt asked, showing a picture on his phone.

Dei looked closer to see what it was and found that it was a screenshot of a latest post on their snapchat.

That picture was taken yesterday but she didn't know that RJ had posted it recently. The caption made her blush and she looked at RJ as she struggled to keep her face from showing the giddy feeling she felt inside.

"It's my latest snap," RJ answered directly.

Matt's mouth quivered as if he was trying to suppress a smile himself. "Well, I thought we agreed on just giving the followers subtle hints and not letting them know the real score? Nothing screams 'we are an official couple' more than this post, with this caption, just after posting that picture of your names inside a heart. Are you guys planning to officially announce it?"

"Well I'd love to, if that's okay with Dei," RJ said, looking at her.

She glanced back at him, surprised at the seriousness in his tone. He raised his eyebrows at her, asking silently for her permission.

"Well, we don't necessarily need to announce it right? I mean, how do you say that exactly, especially to people you don't know personally?" she asked, looking at them both.

"Well you have a point," Matt said. "Plus the followers might lose interest once they find out the real deal. I mean that's the end game, they've got nothing else to look forward to. They love the subtlety. You should see their discussions on the comments, they love guessing what the real score is."

"I honestly don't care about what the followers think, Matt." RJ said frankly. "I'm okay with not making an official statement but I want to be able to express this freely without limitations."

"What have you done to this guy?" Matt asked Dei, pointing his thumb at RJ, clearly in awe at his transformation.

Dei smiled and looked at RJ but he had suddenly become more preoccupied with his nails.

"There's something else," Matt said. "I was able to remove Dei from her current roster and I'm already in the process of getting her transferred to your team," he announced.

RJ looked up looking excited. "Wow, Matt, thanks!"

"Wait, what?" Dei asked, confused.

"I asked Matt to remove you from Christine's team and hopefully be transferred to mine, and he did it," he said, unable to believe it still.

"Why would you do that?"

"I wanted you to be as far away from Christine as possible, Dei. I don't want her messing with you or hurting you," RJ explained. "And now I get to see you more often since we will be on the same floor, if not the same cubicle -" he looked at Matt to find out if being in the same cubicle was possible but he shook his head no.

Dei sighed. "RJ, I appreciate what you're trying to do... but I hope you'd stop treating me like a weak and naive girl."

"What?" RJ asked. This was clearly not the reaction he was expecting.

"I can take care of myself, I thought we already talked about that," she told him.

RJ frowned. "Don't you want to be with me?"

She sighed again. "RJ, we're already living together. We even eat lunch together most of the time. It wouldn't hurt to be away from each other at least during our shift. We need that space away from each other from time to time."

"I see..." RJ pursed his lips and leaned back on his chair.

"Errr... What do you guys want to do?" Matt asked carefully, looking at them both. He grabbed the French Toast from the small plate on his table and started taking small bites.

"Please don't remove me from my current team. I can handle Christine, plus it'll be so much of a hassle to adjust to a new team." she said.

"Yea, whatever she says," RJ said coldly and Dei looked at him, fully understanding that they were having another misunderstanding, but she couldn't let him keep making decisions without asking her, nor let him treat her like someone who couldn't take care of herself.

Matt sighed. "Talk about this well guys. Let me know what your final decision is."

RJ nodded and left, and this time Dei let him go. She needed to give him time to think about this.