Emily arrives at the apartment

The evening after his marriage broke up, Ross was sitting alone in his new apartment filled with not quite enough new furniture. He hadn't been able to get any of his old furniture back to make up the deficits yet, although tomorrow he'd have another try at persuading Gunther.

Apart from getting his furniture back, he didn't know what he was going to do next. He'd given up his old apartment and he'd come here, at Emily's insistence. It wasn't a bad place, in fact it would be a great place, if it was somewhere else. Closer to everyone else. But distance had been the point. It had turned out to be for nothing.

Any minute now he expected that he would be told to leave. He could imagine the cousin saying,

Why should I let you live in my flat now that you're no longer family?' He was pretty sure that everyone in Emily's family must hate him. If he got kicked out, he supposed that he could stay with Chandler and Joey. The thought depressed him. Squeezing into a flat with those two - where would all his stuff go? Even if he had no furniture at all, he still had an enormous amount of stuff.

He heard a knock on the door. Who could it be at this time of night? If it had been one of the others, they would have called first. There was no way that they'd come all the way across town on the chance that he'd be there - although the way he was feeling, why would he go anywhere else? Slowly, he got up to answer the door.

To his shock, Emily was standing in the doorway with a suitcase in each hand.

Emily,' Ross stared.

Hello,' she said nervously.

What are you doing here?' he asked. She was still standing in the doorway.

I, I came to see you.' Ross noticed her bags.

To see me?'

I came to ask if you'd give this another chance. I know what I said over the phone butYou told me you don't trust me.' He remembered what he'd gone through since he last spoke to her. 'You think you can just turn up, and say, say you've changed your mind?' She backed away from him. 'You know, it hurts when someone doesn't trust you.'

'I'm sorry.'

'You can't just walk in here and say "Sorry," you have to say more than that, you have to say you trust me, and mean it and not make any conditions at all.' Emily had retreated to the opposite wall under his verbal onslaught.

'Yes,' she said quietly.

'What?' He had expected some kind of argument. What did she mean by just saying 'yes'?

'I want to make this marriage work. I don't want to throw it away. So-so I've come to ask if you will try again, make a new start. I won't say anything about who you see, I, I'll trust you.' Ross stared at her in shock. Complete capitulation was not what he'd expected. He had fantasised about it yes, but not expected. 'Is it really too late?' Her mouth was trembling.

No, no of course not. I — I'm glad you came.' He just wasn't prepared for it. She had sounded too definite. She was still holding her bags, looking down at the floor. 'Here, I'll take those, come in, come in.' He took her bags and ushered her into the flat. He was stunned and surprised, but suddenly filled with hope for the future. What he felt like doing right now was ringing up everyone and shouting,

'Woo hoo! I'm still married.' But he'd leave that until tomorrow.