A/N: Gonna be a bit angsty and sad. But I'm hoping it's worth it :)

Monica sighed as she looked at the large engagement ring on her finger. It had been a week since Dr. Roger had proposed to her and she had said yes. It wasn't that he was a horrible guy; quite the contrary. Dr. Roger is the kind of guy she, or any woman for that matter, should dream of marrying. The only problem is that he bored her to tears and she was in love with one of her best friends.

To be fair she'd only recently discovered it. It happened one night when Dr. Roger had been beeped by the hospital and Chandler had come over to eat the remains of what she had made for dinner. Somewhere between him chowing down on spaghetti and comforting her with kind words the realization washed over her. She was in love with him and there was nothing she could ever do about it.

Every time she looked at him she felt a weird twinge of excitement and self-loathing. He was a different person now than he was when they were teenagers on that terrible Thanksgiving, but she still knew that the chances of him returning her feelings were zero to none. She'd been motivated at first by his words to lose weight and stick it to him good, but sadly her motivation died as that year had went on and she stopped caring. She was about ten pounds thinner now and she was thankful she was able to keep that off but she knew that if she wanted to lose weight it should come from her own motivation; not to prove something to someone.

Her musings of Chandler and her future were interrupted by a bracing laugh emitting from the hallway. Knowing that Janice was nearby she quickly busied herself cleaning around the living area; hoping to use it as an excuse not to talk to her when she stopped in. Monica wanted to like Janice, or at least feel civil towards her. After all, it wasn't her fault she was dating Chandler instead of her; she'd really done nothing to her. It's just that laugh and how she seemed to flaunt Chandler around unconsciously that drove her mad.

"Monica!" the shrill voice carried as she opened the door without knocking, "Let's see that ring!"

Monica braced herself before pivoting around to face the woman, "Hello, Janice."

"Janice, I'm sure Monica is busy, we can come back after our date," Chandler motioned behind her, obviously trying to save Monica from having to converse with her.

Monica shot him a grateful look for trying but held out her left hand regardless.

Janice grabbed her hand forcefully and slapped her free hand to her chest while gasping, "Oh. My. God."

"Yeah, I know," Monica mustered a smile, "it's beautiful isn't it?"

"This," she began, turning to look at Chandler, "is what doctor money will get you. Who knows what kind of ring you're gonna be able to get me with data computer man money."

Shock fell over Chandler's face followed by a series of jumbled words. Monica assumed it was his attempt to change the subject from marrying Janice. She and Chandler had been going out off and on for about two years and it was getting obvious that she wanted commitment and Monica knew he wasn't going to be able to keep the dodging attempts up forever. It looked like they were both going to have to settle.

Janice cackled loudly, "I love that freaked out look he gets on his face every time I bring up marriage!" She let go of Monica's hand and crossed the room to give Chandler a peck on the cheek and fondly ruffled his hair.

Chandler smiled at her weakly before glancing back up at Monica. She could have sworn she saw his smile widen when he looked at her but she shook her head dismissively; she had to be imagining it.

"Well, I'm gonna go get my coat from your apartment and freshen up. I'll meet you in the hallway in five minutes," she said, leaning up to kiss his cheek once more. Jealously raged through Monica but she could do or say nothing about it so she just smiled politely in their direction then continued fake clean her already immaculate living room.

"Alright, see you in a few minutes," she heard Chandler say behind her. When she heard the door close behind Janice she suddenly felt dreadful to be alone with him. She'd been carefully avoiding being alone with him the past few months; ever since she realized she had more than friends feelings for him. She was convinced that he would see right through her the moment they were alone together again.

She quickly walked past him to grab cleaning supplies from the cabinet and crossed back in front of him just as quickly to return to the living room.

"Mon," he took a few steps closer to her, "are you alright?"

"Yeah," she said a little too chipper, "Never been better."

"Then why won't you look at me?"

She snapped her eyes up to his lightning fast to make a point, "Chandler, I'm fine."

He looked at her skeptically, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," she gave him her best fake smile, "why wouldn't I be? I'm absolutely fine."

"I just," he paused to walk around the couch and stand next to her, "I haven't seen much of you lately. And every time I do see you, you just look so sad. I've just been worried about you."

She crossed her arms and cocked her head to the side, "Chandler, would I lie to you?" She hoped he was gullible.

A smile creeped its way onto his face, "Nah, I guess you wouldn't."

"See? You're being paranoid. I'm fine."

"I'm sorry, but I didn't really catch that, did you say you were fine?" he joked, causing her to chuckle.

Lightly smacking his arm she crossed the room to put her cleaning supplies up.

"How about you? Are you fine?"

His eyebrows raised, "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know, Janice is on the marriage path. You looked a little freaked out there for a minute."

"Yeah, she's been hinting around more than usual these last few months. I don't know. Sometimes I think I should just go ahead and marry her but other times.." he trailed off.

That got her attention. "Other times, what?"

"Other times I feel like I was meant to wait for someone, you know?"

"Like who?" she edged.

"I don't know, someone who makes me happy at my lowest points. Someone who knows when to push me to do things I'll regret not doing. Someone who actually knows what I do for a living."

She smiled.

"But, you know what I'm talking about. You already found your Mr. Right," he told her, leaning on the counter, "oh, I'm sorry, Dr. Right."

She leaned on the counter beside of him, "Yeah, right." She looked up at him to find that he was looking down at her. Their eyes locked and it made her heart stop beating. He was looking at her so intensely but she had no way to know what he was thinking in that moment. Before she could pluck up the courage to inch herself closer the door opened with a flap.

"Chandler," Joey announced, making his way over to his friends, "I just saw Janice in the hall. She says she's ready for your date."

He cleared his throat and began to shuffle awkwardly away from Monica. "Oh, yeah. I'd almost forgotten about Janice."

"Yeah, I wish I could," Joey deadpanned.

Chandler shot him a glare but it didn't seem to have much force behind it. He waved goodbye to the pair and left for his date. Knowing that Joey's presence usually meant he was hungry Monica began to pull food from the fridge to fix the Italian man dinner.

"Hey, Mon," Joey tapped her on the shoulder, "are you alright?"

She craned her neck over her shoulder and smiled at him, "Yeah, I'm fine."