Not in Love

The next morning, Rue stays home from work, and Tisha calls her to say that she left a friend’s house keys in Rue’s car. Rue is still upset about Florence’s lies and is angry that Eli did not tell her about the connection sooner, but she doesn’t want to tell Tisha about this issue just yet. She works all day without talking to anyone. In the evening, there is a knock at the door. She hopes it is the landlord coming to check on the AC, but when she looks through the peephole, she sees that it is her brother, Vincent. He yells at her through the door, and Rue eventually tells him that she is trying to find a lawyer to help her buy his half of the cabin so that he will receive some money for the property. Vincent is impatient and aggressive and begins kicking her door. She does not want to call the police because she doesn’t want Vincent to get arrested, but she is scared, so she calls Eli for help.

Eli arrives at Rue’s apartment and finds Vincent sitting on the floor in the hallway. He tells him to go home, but Vincent resists. Eli tells Vincent that Rue called him because anyone else would have already called the police. Eventually, Vincent leaves, and Eli enters Rue’s apartment for the first time. She is shaken and upset, and he holds her while she cries. Eli looks around Rue’s apartment and is amazed at all the plants.

She tells Eli that she feels bad that her relationship with Vincent is so strained; she is embarrassed at her inability to stand up to her brother. Eli comforts her and describes how hard it was when he first got custody of Maya at age 25. He had a bad relationship with his parents and barely knew Maya because he left home as soon as he could, and when he first got custody of her, she was very angry. He also struggled due to a lack of funds.

After Eli’s story about his past, Rue feels better and wants to have sex with him. They go into her bedroom and sleep together.

Rue wakes up several hours later; it is now after 11 o’clock at night. She asks Eli if he needs to take care of his dog, but he is able to stay. Rue tells him her story; even though she believes that he won’t like her anymore when she tells him, she is determined to be honest.

She states that her father left the family when she was six and Vincent was three. After that, their family became much less stable. Her mother had trouble keeping jobs and she struggled with addiction, depression, and relationship issues. Sometimes, there would be no food for several days at a time, and Rue and Vincent would have to fend for themselves, even stealing food to survive. Tisha’s family sometimes gave her food to share with Vincent. She and her brother always ate quickly and were always anxious about where their next meal would come from. When Rue left home for college, she felt guilty for leaving Vincent behind with their mother, and her relationship with him has been strained ever since. She feels ashamed because her childhood was similar to Eli’s, but Eli took care of his sister, while she left Vincent behind.

Eli comforts her without judgment or blame, saying that she did the best that she could and should not blame herself. He holds her for a long time, and they fall asleep together.

Rue is vaguely aware when Eli wakes up the next morning and leaves, but she quickly falls asleep again. When she does wake up, she sees that he left her a note telling her to call him. She decides not to go to work that day because there is something else she needs to do.

When Eli gets to work that morning, an administrative assistant tells him that Rue is here to see Hark. He expected Rue to want to know more about Florence’s past with them, but he is hurt that she is asking Hark instead of him. Minami tells Eli that she has never seen him act the way he does around Rue. He admits that Rue is not ready to hear how he feels about her, but he wants to be the one to tell her about Florence so that he can help her recover from the shock.

When Eli sees Rue in the waiting room, he feels a flash of anger and tells her to come into his office. They nearly have sex again, but Eli pulls back, and Rue can tell that he is upset about her meeting with Hark. She explains that she wanted to hear about Florence from Hark because she does not trust Hark as much as she trusts Eli. If Hark were to tell her something upsetting, it would be easier for her to choose not to believe it. With Eli, however, she knows that he would never lie to her.

Eli tells Rue the whole story about his, Minami’s, and Hark’s relationship with Florence. Florence became their academic advisor, then dropped them after stealing Minami’s fermentation tech invention and passing it off as her own. She built Kline on the basis of Minami’s technology, and this is why Harkness is now going after Kline. When Florence fought for the patent, she framed her case by stating that she was a woman in a STEM field who was fighting against the male-dominated institution of UT; at the time, no one knew that she was patenting a stolen idea.

Rue asks Eli about Harkness’s long-term goals for Kline. He replies that ideally, they would take over Kline in order to gain access to the patent, and they would appoint a new board without firing any employees. Rue thanks him for telling her the truth, but he knows that she is saddened by the information about Florence’s past actions. He watches her as she walks out of his office and leaves the building.

Rue sees Minami in the lobby on her way out of the Harkness building. Minami tells Rue that Eli has been one of her best friends for over a decade. She also warns Rue to be very careful with Florence. Next, Rue goes to Florence’s office. By the time she gets there, Eli has already emailed Florence to let her know that he has told Rue his version of the story. Now, Florence tells Rue that no one from Hark has spoken to her without a lawyer involved until this moment; Eli is taking a risk for Rue. Florence tries to get Rue to see her past actions from her point of view and claims that when she betrayed Eli, Hark, and Minami, she hated her job at UT, and her marriage was not going well. She needed a breakthrough in research to get to the next level in her career, and when she started working on Minami’s idea, she saw her opportunity and took it.

Rue knows that it is difficult to be a woman in a STEM field, but she does not condone Florence’s behavior and believes that the real victim in this scenario is Minami. Rue tells Florence that the only way to make amends is to give Minami credit for her work. Florence insists that if she hadn’t fought for the patent, UT would have owned it, not Minami. She hopes that Rue can appreciate her point of view and forgive her, but Rue asks for Minami’s forgiveness, not hers. She walks out of the office.

Rue goes to Tisha’s place and tells her everything that she now knows about Florence. Tisha is shocked that Florence has admitted to any wrongdoing. They agree to try to fix the situation for Minami, but they don’t know how. Suddenly, Rue has an idea about someone who can help them.