Emma Gets to Know Her New Partner

Emma immediately noticed how spotless it was as she was ushered into Derek's apartment. Not a speck of dust in sight. 'Jeez, he's even more meticulous than Aiko,' she thought. Her eyes darted around the room, taking in the details. As for decorations, if you could even call them that, scrap and electronics were strewn about as if Derek didn't have time to put them away correctly. It looked more like an overflowing storage shed than an apartment. 'Must be hard to live here if he's constantly working,' Emma thought.

Emma felt a subtle unease as she observed the stark contrast between Derek's meticulously organized apartment and his haphazard approach to work. She glanced at him discreetly as he shut the door. He was neatly groomed, not particularly handsome, but clearly someone who cared for his appearance. While Emma was accustomed to looking up to others, literally and figuratively, something about the height difference with Derek intensified her nervousness. This, coupled with the dissonance in his personal and professional spaces, left her feeling slightly off-balance.

She was so lost in thought that she didn't even realize Derek had made a gesture to take her backpack. "Let me take your backpack," Derek said, extending his hand from Emma's peripheral. She jumped back instinctively, startled by the gesture.

Emma let out an awkward laugh. "Sorry, it just takes me a little time to get adjusted to new places..." she said to Derek. However, internally, she was reprimanding herself for the odd behavior. 'Why am I so jumpy? He's just being nice. Pull yourself together, Emma.' She paused before passing her backpack to Derek. "Oh god, my hands are shaking again," she mumbled. 'That's not good, why am I freaking out?!' she thought. Her hands crossed over her chest as she hugged herself to try and calm down. Her therapist had given her techniques to stay grounded in stressful situations, but she found none of them worked, as well as her preferred coping method. She was relieved when Derek spoke up.

"Well, feel free to treat the place like your own..." Derek said, but Emma stopped listening. Instead, her focus was on Derek's confident demeanor. It made her self-conscious of her own nervous nature, and she suddenly felt incredibly underdressed. 'I bet he's judging me for my sweatpants right now,' she thought as she instinctively tried to turn away from Derek. He gestured toward his couch, and Emma took a seat, putting her backpack beside her.

Oh, before I forget," Derek said, "If you get hungry, let me know. I can order us some food later. Just thought I'd offer since we'll probably be working late."

Emma was the furthest thing from hungry but shook her head regardless, "thanks for the offer, I'm happy to pay since you're letting me-"

"Don't worry about that," Derek interrupted. "We can split it. That is if you want." He paused, waiting for her response.

"Yeah, okay. Sure," Emma said, giving him a nervous half-smile. 'That was a little rude... did I do something wrong? I feel like he's judging me, but what for? Am I acting strange? Does he hate me already?' she thought to herself.

"So, uh, let me give you the tour; that might help you get comfortable," Derek said, his voice uncertain.

Emma got a bit excited; getting familiar with a new area always relaxed her. Her initial impressions of the apartment were pretty positive. She wasn't much for decorating and certainly didn't keep things organized as well as Derek did, but something was charming to Emma about how Derek alphabetized his spice rack or sorted his books by year of publishing. Overall, there wasn't much to see. A dated but clean bathroom with a step-in bathtub shower, a small bedroom with a neatly pressed blanket, and finally, the kitchen. It was barely big enough for one person to move around comfortably, but the whole place was functional and clean.

The world froze momentarily as Emma locked eyes on the framed picture of a dog. The photo looked almost professional, with a headshot of the dog towards the left, showing his snout and nose clearly. It was perfectly cropped, only including the dog's face and neck.

"Awww. Who's this cute guy?!" Emma said, a giggle breaking out. It had been ages since she saw an adorable, well-behaved, and fluffy dog like that. Emma flashed back to her cat Oreo, a black and white Tuxedo cat she had left behind at her parents' house.

"That's Laika," Derek said. There was a fondness in his voice that instantly caught Emma's attention. Her heart sank a bit at Derek's expression; despite his cold attitude, Emma saw a glimmer of warmth in him when he talked about the dog. 'Oh no, is this a touchy subject?' Emma thought. She immediately regretted bringing it up, 'Oh god, he's going to hate me and the whole night is gonna be awkward now-'

"That's Laika," Derek said while picking up a framed picture of the dog. We adopted him when I was in high school. I'm not really sure where he came from; he just showed up one day, and I begged my Mom to let me keep him."

"He's super cute, we only had cats growing up," Emma laughed.

Derek smiled shyly and set down the frame, "Yeah, Laika was the best. The vet said he was some mix of Husky, Terrier, and Samoyed."

"Was cute? What happened to him- I- If you don't mind me asking?" Emma asked, but internally, her mind reeled. "If he didn't hate me before, he sure does now," she thought to herself.

Derek frowned and replied quietly, "He got cancer; surgery was too expensive. You know how it goes." He returned the picture on the shelf, "Anyway, that's pretty much it for the tour. Let's get to work."

At that moment, all Emma wanted to do was embrace Derek in a warm hug. She could see the pain in his eyes and wanted nothing more than to take it away. Her heart ached at the loss of his dog, but she couldn't think of what to say. The weight of his grief was not lost on her, as she could feel the dull throb of empathy seeping into her soul. She had never experienced loss like that before, having always been a sheltered child, even after leaving home for college.

"I- I'm sorry for y- your-" she tried to say, but it was too late. Derek wasn't paying attention and simply wanted to get to work. She followed him to the bench and tried to change the subject. She hoped it would ease the tension, but deep down, she knew there was nothing she could say or do to take away the pain of a lost loved one.

. "So, what's the plan?" she asked, trying to change the subject.

Derek smiled slightly, grateful for the topic shift. "Well, I was thinking we could use Pavlov's experiment with his dogs as a baseline and then modify it with the goal of breaking habits, you know?"

"Wait, that's a great idea! We could build something to compare the long-term effects of positive vs. negative reinforcement. You know, like what breaks a habit faster and what avoids relapse," Emma said excitedly.

"Exactly," Derek replied with a grin. "One of us could pick a habit we want to break, and then we find a way to send positive and negative stimuli to break it," he continued, getting more animated.

Emma took a moment to review her thoughts: "He's smart, but... he's not really getting the point of the project. Sure, it's about breaking habits, but that's not the primary goal." Her mind wandered for a moment before she added, "Or maybe we do both positive and negative? That way, we can compare results."

"Good point," Derek agreed.

Emma let out a quiet sigh of relief; she knew she was right but wasn't confident that she could have defended her opinion to someone as strong-willed as Derek. Despite that, Emma was amazed at how well they were collaborating. This was the first partner she felt a genuine connection with, at least in terms of academic discussions.

"One of us could be the subject, to break a habit, and the other could do the work of monitoring vitals and writing up the report. You know, gather data," Emma added, pulling out her laptop to write notes.

Derek nodded. "Okay, but who's gonna be the subject? Any preference? I'd rather be the monitor if I'm being honest."

Emma's mind raced with worry. "Oh god, I really don't want to be the subject... Should I tell him the truth? I don't want to come off as rude by refusing to participate," she thought, scrambling for a solution. Opting for what seemed like the path of least resistance, she said, "Hmm, I kind of want to be the monitor too... How about we just leave it up to chance?" Internally, she scolded herself, "Chance? Really, Emma? He's going to think that's a terrible idea—" but her train of thought was abruptly cut off.

"Sounds good to me," Derek replied with a shrug. "Coin flip?"

"That was easy. Now I just need to hope I get lucky," Emma thought to herself as she agreed to the plan.

Derek got up to get a coin from the kitchen, "Heads, you're the monitor; tails, I'm the monitor," Derek called out from the other room. He returned, holding the quarter between his thumb and index finger. "Sound good? Ready?"

"Yup," Emma replied, leaning forward slightly. Her heart felt like it would beat right out of her chest as Derek flipped the coin. But then, the quarter flew off into nowhere, landing out of sight.

"Eeep, where'd it go?! Oh my god, this can't be happening," Emma said frantically. She scanned the ground for the coin, looking in all directions. Her heartbeat was going faster and faster with each passing second. She looked everywhere on her side of the workbench, even under the table and chairs, but nothing. She quietly walked over to Derek, whose arm was partially extended under the couch. She took a deep breath and whispered nervously, "Did you find—" Emma noticed the position she was in, with Derek's body beside her, and almost instantly panicked. "Oh god," she thought, "Is he- his hand is- Did he touch the coin? I have to check, I'm screwed if I don't-"

"Looks like it's tails. Go look for yourself," Derek said, getting up and standing next to Emma. Emma looked away from Derek, a skeptical look on her face. Something felt off, but he had given her no reason to distrust him since they met. She even thought back to her roommate, Aiko, who said, "Just give him a chance."

She got down and held her hand to snag the coin, examining it closely. She did so, verifying the coin's position for herself.

"Oh," Emma said apathetically, "Well, uh, looks like I'm the subject. Alright, well... let's get to work!" Her voice was uncertain and nervous. She so desperately hated being the center of attention that the thought of being monitored, let alone observed by someone she barely knew, made her feel nauseous.

"Yeah, let's start brainstorming ideas," Derek said, reaching into his bag to grab his laptop.