The day before the interview
Ross met Chandler for lunch. He had to set up dates to meet his friends now that he was no longer able to just drop into Central Perk. For one thing, that was where Rachel hung out, and he wasn't allowed to see Rachel. He would have thought that after a month of this, Emily would not worry about who he saw but just the other day he had mentioned a Rachel he worked with, Rachel Rickard. Emily had frozen at the mention of the first name, until he had told her it was the work colleague.
'You don't have anything to worry about sweetie,' he had told her, in preparation for bringing up the whole prohibition.
'I can't help it, she scares me.' Then Emily burst into tears so it was impossible to reason with her. Normally she was so happy, so robust but on this one point she would become fragile and needy. He really wasn't sure how to handle it. So he'd leave it for another month and in the meantime his friendships were difficult.
He knew that his friends strongly disapproved of his behaviour but what could he do? He couldn't make Emily cry. He still wasn't sure that if he pushed the issue hard enough, that she wouldn't pack up and leave.
'You should be firm Ross. She's just being manipulative,' Monica said. He felt it was more than that. She really was afraid but he didn't want to discuss Emily's probably feelings with Monica or anyone else.
The other reason he couldn't just drop by Central Perk was that they had moved so far away. It wasn't really on his way home and as it was he was getting home so late.
'You look tired,' Chandler said at lunch.
'I am,' Ross admitted. 'This travel is wearing me out. Thank God we're moving.'
'You are?' Chandler sounded pleased. 'Closer to us.'
'Closer to work, which is sort of the same.' He made sure that this similarity was not pointed out to Emily. 'I fell asleep at dinner last night — so we're looking pretty hard.'
'Well that's good,' Chandler said. He was only relieved to see some evidence that Emily was doing something for him.
'But anyway, I'm also looking for a new job. I feel a bit limited at the museum and there's this great teaching job coming up and its within walking distance of the area we're thinking of moving to.'
'That's fantastic,' Chandler said.
'Yeah. I'll be able to do research too, which is what I really want to do. The job interview's tomorrow afternoon.'
'You'd better not fall asleep in the interview,' Chandler said.
'I won't. I'm going to take the day off work so that I can be fresh,' Ross said. He'd thought it all out.
'You look worried,' Chandler said.
'Well I'd really like this job. Emily's been testing me on questions all weekend,' Ross said.
'And you're getting the answers right?' Chandler asked.
'Yeah, but I'm nervous. I really want this job.'
'So OK, why should we give you this job?' Chandler asked.
'What?'
'I'm testing you. Answer.'
'Oh, Okay. I'm really interested in the work this department does. I would value the opportunity to work with a person such as yourself. I particularly admire your latest theory on the forage patterns of the Diplodocus.'
'Well I didn't understand that last bit but it sounded okay,' Chandler said.
'I hope so,' Ross said. He finished his rather substandard sandwich.
'So that guy's got a theory?' Chandler said.
'Yeah, it's ground breaking and very controversial. Everyone's talking about it. I'm being interviewed by Professor McFadyen who is credited with the theory, but Dr Max Quist is also credited with that theory by other people.'
'They came up with the idea at the same time?' Chandler asked.
'No, or maybe yes. See they used to work together. It was a very successful partnership, they did lots of papers together, but they had a very bitter falling out. Now each one of them is claiming credit for the theory and saying the other one's a liar.'
'Oh.'
'This is very serious in academic circles I can tell you,' Ross said. 'You can't even mention Dr Quist's name in Professor McFadyen's hearing, he goes ape, so I hear. And it's the same with Dr Quist. The other way around.'
'So which of them is telling the truth?' Chandler asked.
'I don't know. I mean they're both great guys. Dr Quist used to teach me, and I've got a lot of respect for Professor McFadyen.'
'But?'
'Well I still don't know,' Ross said. 'I don't want to take sides.'
'They must be able to prove it.'
'Not necessarily. Some ideas are the product of joint effort so you can't say it's all one person's idea,' Ross said. 'Ideally you know, research is a co-operative thing, sharing ideas influences and so on.' In reality he knew that it was fiercely competitive, secretive and backstabbing.
'So they won't share the credit.'
'It was a big falling out,' Ross said. 'Still I'll have to make sure I don't mention Dr Quist at all. That would ruin the whole interview.'