Author's Note: If you haven't read Chapter 1, you should. Otherwise the characters and scene won't make as much sense.
Chapter 2: Monday June 3rd
Elise stepped off the BART train at 8:30AM and began her walk to the address of Dr. Peters' laboratory. Since it was her first day, they had arranged to meet outside the lab's delivery door. Doctor Peters had explained that the building had no lobby or formal visitor's entrance because it was never open to the public.
When Elise arrived at the address, she noticed that the building was gigantic and nearly windowless. It occupied an entire city block. She gave the metal doorway marked 'Deliveries' a firm yank, but it seemed locked.
"Well," she thought, "I guess I am a few minutes early."
Elise dropped her backpack onto the cement loading ramp and hoped up onto the metal handrail to wait. She'd worn a conservative pair of blue jeans, old sneakers and a simple cotton blouse. Doctor Peters had said he didn't care how she dressed, so she had assumed casual attire would be okay. In any case, she reminded herself, she didn't own any business attire. But waiting there, alone in the early morning sunshine, it suddenly crossed Elise's mind that Doctor Peters had always worn a tie during their Skype chats. Her heart flashed with sudden self-doubt. What if she'd screwed up already?
A loud bang from behind the metal doorway made Elise jump off the railing. The double-doors swung inward on heavy motorized hinges. Doctor Peters strode out wearing a big smile, corduroy slacks, a white dress shirt, a red tie and highly polished loafers.
"Hi Elise!" Arthur beamed, thrusting his right hand toward her. "Welcome aboard!"
"Hi Doctor Peters," Elise answered cautiously, feeling tiny, young and unserious in her battered sneakers. The doctor's firm handshake swallowed her hand entirely.
They exchanged pleasantries and Elise apologized for her shoes. She was relieved when Doctor Peters brushed that off without any hesitation. He even offered to carry her backpack for her.
"Oh, no worries, Doctor Peters" Elise demurred, "I've got it. It's mostly empty anyhow. I just brought it since I figured I'll need to drag all those clothes back to my friend's apartment tonight."
"Sure, sure," Arthur replied with another broad smile. "Well, anyway, come on in and I'll show you around."
Arthur led Elise inside. The heavy motorized doors swung shut behind them as they walked inward along a wide concrete hallway. Elise followed a few steps behind, taking in the full measure of how large Doctor Peters was. "He must be over a foot taller than me," she thought to herself, "and double my weight!"
The tour was brief. It covered only the first floor because Dr. Yamamoto's section was upstairs. First Arthur led Elise into a huge laboratory occupied by six long tables that were piled high with equipment. Loud fans twirled on the ceiling above. He introduced her to his two research staffers; middle-aged men who looked like they hadn't seen sunlight in years. Then there was an office kitchen, one conference room, various service corridors lined with utility closets, and a large unisex restroom.
Lastly, on the far side of the main corridor, was Doctor Peters' private office. It was huge. It also looked, to Elise's eyes, very homey -- almost lived-in. There were tables and desks of various sizes scattered about, a large leather sofa against one wall, a television on the opposite wall, storage and filing cabinets beneath the TV and a stationary exercise bike in the middle. Doctor Peters' personal desk was at the far end, overlooking the room. The wall behind it was lined with overflowing bookcases.
"Wow," Elise said, "You've sure made yourself comfortable in here."
Doctor Peters smiled in reply. Then he pointed to the least-cluttered desk in the room and declared it to be hers. "The computer on there is for you, too. It's got internet, but it's not connected to our private network, so there's no corporate espionage in your future I'm afraid."
Elise laughed. She was feeling more comfortable with each passing moment. Doctor Peters seemed really easy-going for a scientist type, and she liked the way his huge bear-like hands were always gesturing. She watched him talking and almost giggled because he looked like he was trying to draw pictures in the air of every word that came out of this mouth.
Elise dropped her bag onto her new desk and then followed Doctor Peters around the room as he explained his various filing systems and the projects she'd be working on over the summer. They reviewed her daily schedule and some of the more mundane office-tasks he wanted her to handle. Eventually that brought them to the pile of little UPS boxes on the floor.
"Aha!" Arthur joked with a smile, "Here's the part you've been waiting for: your new clothes!"
"Yeah," Elise answered with a wry smile and a roll of her eyes, "Lucky me!"
"I didn't open them. I figured you'd want to do that. But, you better get moving because Dr. Yamamoto is coming down at 10:30 to meet you."
"Shoot! Okay, yeah, I better get started. I sure hope all this stuff fits after all that work we did."
"Here's a box-cutter. I'll let leave you to it."
With that, Arthur retreated to his desk and pretended to read his email. He had installed thick carpeting wall-to-wall across the back third of the office, under his desk and bookcases, in an effort to warm up the room and soften the load on his feet. In the process he had built an elevated wooden dais to raise the carpeted area a few inches up off the concrete floor. His desk therefore had a commanding view of the entire room. It was easy for him to keep one eager eye on Elise as she sat cross-legged on the floor cutting open the boxes and unwrapping her new clothes.
Arthur was delighted with her so far. Her beauty matched his most optimistic hopes. She had wide hazel irises flecked with radial streaks of feline gold. A constellation of pale freckles decorated her little nose and cheeks. And the compactness of her torso allowed her legs to be far longer than her 5'3" height would have otherwise permitted. Arthur also noticed the amazing way her slim lower body animated her jeans; so dexterous and supple-jointed.
As he watched Elise unwrap a frilly pair of stockings he felt the need to remind himself that there could be no funny-business between them. He had screwed up his life once already with a younger woman. He wasn't about to make the same mistake again. Especially not with a girl who now worked for him... and extra-especially not with Sylvia's daughter! No, this time he would be very content just watching the show... without, so to speak, touching the merchandise. He forced himself to open an email and actually get started on his workday.
"Ugh..." Elise groaned a few minutes later from within a growing circle of packing materials and clothes. "I still can't believe this part is actually real. These clothes are just wrong!"
"That door there," Arthur said, pointing to the nearest of the three doorways on the south wall of his office, "is a walk-in closet. Feel free to try stuff on in there if you need some privacy."
Elise held up one of the mini-dresses for Arthur to see.
"Look at how short this is Doctor Peters," she exclaimed. "It's a size zero... It was supped to be a 2!"
Arthur feigned surprise. Elise kept working her way through the boxes. Soon she had all the clothes unpacked and neatly folded into piles on her desk. Then she began breaking down the torn packages and carrying the paper and cardboard out to the recycling bins in the hallway.
By the time she finished it was nearly ten o'clock and her skin glowed with a light sheen of sweat. Partly, Elise knew, she just had a case of the nerves. Doctor Yamamoto was coming downstairs to meet her at 10:30AM and that didn't leave her much time to pull together her first uniform.
Elise recognized that it wasn't only her impending near-nudity that was freaking her out. After all, her body was in great shape -- she had worked hard to achieve that and was proud. Her physical conditioning had become quite central to her self-confidence and motivated her interests in yoga, dance and massage. And she'd had the confidence during her final years of college to wear skimpy outfits when she went out dancing. So that wasn't it.
No, what made her uncomfortable was failing to live up to the expectations of others. Her most humiliating memories had all been self-inflicted navigational errors that exposed her to the cruel verdicts of social norms she didn't recognize. She felt she had a blind spot a mile wide when it came to complex social interactions. And she hated public speaking. Debate class in high school still gave her nightmares.
"Boundary-issues," her mother constantly remind her, were the source of all her mistakes. And for Elise the price of those mistakes so far had been high. In the year leading up to this internship she had graduated from college and turned twenty-two but she felt nearly friendless. Guys, she reflected, had always been easy to get along with initially but then it always went badly as soon as they misinterpreted her physicality as flirtation. That made other girls jealous of course, and panicked guys into either stupid come-ons or terrified avoidance.
She felt she had been accused of being a tease by more people than she could remember... including every guy-friend she hadn't slept with. The ones she had hooked-up with, on the other hand, became obsessive. But none of them ever held her interest for long, so she'd had to initiate all her own break-ups. That, combined with girls being generally predisposed to hate her out of sheer competitiveness, left her with only a handful of real friends.
This coming summer was a chance to break that cycle. A fresh re-start after her disastrous senior year at college. A new job in a new city would allow her to mingle with normal (she hoped) adults. No more college geeks and sorority bitches... and especially no more married Professors to get entangled with! She was determined to handle this next three months with care.
"Um, Elise?" Doctor Peters called out from behind his wide desk, "Aren't you going to get changed? It's 10:15."
"Shit!" Elise blurted, derailing her own mental train, "I lost track of time!"
