A Nuisance
The next day, he resolved to carry out his resolution of not changing his behaviour. He reminded himself that she had once made demands that he should change who he should see, his home and his furniture, which proved impossible. Oh, he'd said the wrong name, but he couldn't live like that and in the end, they couldn't continue with the marriage because She Wouldn't Trust Him. That, as well as the whole failure of the marriage had hurt so much at the time, although of course, it wasn't an issue any more.
That day, he came across another reason for doing something about her.
'Are you having problems with your student?' Professor Slattery asked Ross. He had called Ross in to his office to talk to him about what was going to happen while he was away.
'No, not at all,' Ross said surprised. He wondered where that had come from.
'It's just been noted that the two of you don't seem to have hit it off,' he said. 'You seem to be avoiding her from what I've heard. I'm just wondering what your supervisory relationship with her is. If it's not working out, I'll have to reallocate her to someone else.' That would solve all his problems, he realised. There would be no need to have anything to do with her at all. He could just act like she wasn't there at all. But there was a subtext to Professor Slattery's words. He was a busy man. He'd be going overseas in a few days. He did not want to be put to the trouble of reallocating a student at this stage. Ross would be letting him down if he said things were not working out.
'Well, she's just settling in,' Ross said. 'We haven't had many discussions about what she's going to be doing here. But there's not problem. I've got no problem with her. Why would I?'
'Have you spoken to her at all about her project.'
'Oh yes,' Ross said.
'That's good,' Professor Slattery said, already moving on to another topic.
That made Ross realise that he had to establish a professional relationship with Emily and that might mean touching on some issues from the past, just to get them out of the way. Then they could move on. When he was sure that no-one else was in her office, he knocked on her door and walked in.
'Emily, we need to talk about your project.'
'There's no need. I've put an outline of my plans in your letter box,' she said, looking up from the desk where papers were spread out in front of her. 'You can let me know what you think in writing.' She could hardly make it clearer that she wasn't seeking him out, and he felt, for undefined reasons, offended.
'No, I mean, we need to talk about us,' Ross insisted.
'What?' Emily hadn't been looking at him until now. She stared at him.
'You, you know. Us.'
'What "us" is this, Ross?' Emily asked.
'You and me. The past. Can I sit down?' She frowned, but nodded, so he pulled up a chair.
'I don't understand. The last time I wanted to talk, you chose not to call me back. Unless you didn't get the message? Maybe whatshername erased it?' He felt a sting of annoyance at her reference to Rachel but since her guess had been correct, even though the erasure had not been the whole story, he felt self conscious about taking her up on it. Beside, he did not want the conversation between them to degenerate into a sideshow about Rachel.
'No. I mean yes. I mean, I got the message.' That was the main thing.
'And you chose not to call,' Emily said flatly.
'Yes.' It was the only answer he could give.
'So that's the end of it,' she said. She stood up and turning her back on him, began arranging things on her shelves, in the sort of mindless rearrangement activity that serves only as a distraction.
'Okay, yes, yes I know that was the end,' Ross said.
'So there's nothing to talk about. We've gone our separate ways and our lives have nothing to do with each other any more,' Emily said, stacking the few books she had upside down. Ross suppressed an urge to get up and turn them up the right way.
'But they do, now that you're here. We need to talk how we're going to deal with each other now. We can't pretend that there's nothing in the past,' Ross said. Emily started rearranging some of the models of fossils that were on the shelf. Someone had left them behind years ago and they went with the office along with the rest of the furniture.
'I don't see why not. The past isn't the slightest bit relevant to my PhD,' she said emphatically, turning to face him. They stared at each other, registering what she'd just said. She had in her hand a cast of a Trilobite. She looked at it, blushed, and put it back on the shelf. 'If it's more recent than 65 million years ago, I don't want to know about it,' she said. She returned to her desk and sat down.
'That's very cute Emily, but the more recent past affects us both. We still have to figure out a way to work together.'
'I'd have thought that was perfectly obvious. I do my work, you do yours. As a matter of fact, I'd like to get on with my work now.'
'No but I mean,' he began, just as his phone rang. He answered without thinking, 'Rachel!' And seeing Emily's face across the desk, he felt as though he'd just been caught cheating.
