"Can you come over?" He received her text message late that night. After working at the museum for 10 hours, he just wanted to change and go to bed, but Rachel wanted him to come over.
"Is it urgent? I'm really tired…" He texted back.
"Yes." She answered 10 seconds later.
He got changed into his sweat pants and went out of the door.
He knocked on the door but no one answered. He opened it just after hearing someone crying. He rushed to the couch and squatted down to hug Rachel.
"Hey, I'm here…" He tried to calm her down, touching her smooth hair, putting it out of her face. She was also on her sweatpants. "What happened…?"
"Ma—Mark, he's an ass." She said regaining her ability to breathe normal.
"I already knew that." He whispered mostly to himself but also to her. "What did he do?" He sat beside her and made her look at him by putting his hand under her chin. Her eyes were beautiful, he felt bad for thinking that, but she was stunning and he got lost in them for a moment.
"—and he left…" She explained.
"What an ass." He said automatically. She turned to the tv, even though it wasn't even on. She wanted to avoid his gaze. They stayed silent for several minutes.
"I'm sorry I made you come." She says quietly.
"Don't ever—feel sorry for that." He joked trying to make her laugh; he got a pretty smile from her.
"Monica isn't here I don't really know why, Chandler is gone, too, and Joey… I think he's hooking up with someone right now." She looked down ashamed. She had to call her ex-boyfriend to calm her down because she just broke up with her new boyfriend. "Gosh, I'm so embarrassed right now." She says hiding her face with her hands. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm sorry—"
"Hey, don't." He comes closer to her putting his arms around her one more time. He was crossing a line, he knew that, but he didn't care, he wanted her to be okay, he needed her to be okay.
"He insulted you." She says not moving away from his arms yet. "That's how the fight started."
He moved. He stopped hugging her and she looked at him confused.
"What are you saying?" He doesn't want to get his hopes up. He needs to hear it from her.
"I'm… I don't know Ross…" She stands up and he follows her. Face to face. "I'm… I'm not over you. I wanted Mark to be the one who made me forget about you, but I—I can't."
"Rach." He takes a breath. "I need you to be clear. I need you to say it. Because I don't want to do something you don't want me to do. I don't want to hurt you."
"Kiss me."