Intersection

The two young women caught sight of the Chapel of Love. They had been walking around looking at the glitter of Las Vegas. They'd avoided losses at the roulette table, Elvis impersonators, and had just given a persistent admirer the slip.

'Oh, look,' said one, 'Let's go in.' Both were a little drunk but at least one of them was with it enough to say,

'Much as I love you Felicity, I don't love you like that.' Both, as their accents proclaimed, were English.

'I'd just like to see if anyone really does get married here, and what kind of people they are.'

'How would you get to see a wedding?'

'We could volunteer to be witnesses. Witnesses to the world's shortest marriages, that would be something,' Felicity said.

'You already have been a witness to the world's shortest marriage. I didn't even make the honeymoon.'

'Oh Emily,' said Felicity contritely, 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring that up.' Emily was looking stony faced, and Felicity took her by the arm, 'I really am sorry, it was stupid of me. Clumsy and thoughtless.' Emily was still not looking at her, and Felicity really feared that she had upset her cousin deeply. It was surprising that she was still so affected by it all.

Then she realised that Emily wasn't giving her the cold shoulder, she was simply staring past her and Felicity turned to look for herself. A man, tall dark haired was walking, arm in arm with a woman with light brown hair. They were both absorbed in each other, giggling and whispering to each other. Felicity frowned,

'Isn't that…'

'My ex husband. And that's the woman he really wanted to marry,' Emily said in a hard voice, as Ross and Rachel, oblivious to them, went into the Chapel of Love. 'I wonder what took them so long? We were divorced months ago.'

'Come on,' Felicity said, turning Emily around, leading her away, 'I'm sure there's a cabaret or something we can see.' She was regretting her idea of coming to have a look at the chapel, though how was she to know that they'd see Emily's ex there?

'You're going to have to trust me,' Emily said, as Felicity led her along, 'That's what he said.'

'Yes, he's a liar,' Felicity said, 'You're better off without him.'

'That's why he never returned my call. Ha,' Emily said, stumbling slightly, because too much Cointreau will have that effect, 'She was probably living with him by them and erased my message anyway.'

'She looks the type who would,' Felicity said. 'Now let's try the roulette table, or black jack.'

'No,' Emily said stopping suddenly, giving Felicity a jolt. 'Let's go back and be witnesses! How about that? Wouldn't they be surprised to see me!' Felicity grabbed hold of her arm again to stop her going back.

'No Emily, that's a very bad idea. They've got nothing to do with you any more. We've come to get away from it all remember? It's just bad luck they've come here. Appalling in fact.' She got Emily facing the right way and nearly crashed into another couple walking arm in arm.

All four stared at one another. Monica and Chandler had, like Ross and Rachel, been too absorbed in each other and what they were planning to do, to give much thought to who they might see along the way. At this moment, the idea that anyone else existed in the world was just a silly rumour, not worth bothering with, so there was a momentary shock that first, there were other people. This was followed by the bigger shock of recognising who one of these particular people was.

'Emily!' Monica exclaimed, 'what are you doing here?' If Ross and Rachel were around, it was not surprising to Emily that Monica and Chandler should be there. What was surprising was that they were arm in arm. That they were an item was not something that she remembered. The surprise and her slight disinhibition made Emily blurt out the question,

'Are you getting married too?'

'Married?' Chandler asked, guiltily, because it was to be secret from everyone, including from women he had no expectation of ever seeing again, and also because to hear someone else say it out loud was confronting.

'Too?' Monica asked. 'what do you mean, "Too"?'

'I saw Ross and Rachel go into the Chapel of Love,' Emily said, pointing vaguely backwards.

'Are you sure?' Chandler asked in amazement while Monica stared in surprised.

'They went in all right,' Emily said, 'Don't ask me what they're doing. Maybe they went in to paint the ceiling, not to get married.' She gave a little shrug. She might be a little tipsy but she knew what she had seen.

'When was this?' Chandler asked.

'Just now,' Felicity said.

'We'd better hurry,' Monica said, 'er, nice to see you Emily and…' she knew she'd seen the other woman before but she couldn't remember her name.

'Felicity,' Felicity said.

'Felicity, but we'd better go,' Monica said.

'See you,' Chandler said as he and Monica hurried away.

All thought of what they had been planning to do was pushed out of their heads.

'How could they do this?' Monica asked in wonder. It seemed to her that Ross and Rachel's time had well and truly been and gone. If there was a chance, it was before Ross met Emily, more than a year ago, or perhaps the crucial time had been even earlier. What had made them do this? Had they really thought all of this through?

'Maybe they've been keeping things a secret,' Chandler said, unconvincingly. When he and Monica had kept things a secret, it had been a very badly kept secret indeed. In any case, both Chandler and Monica believed that they could spot the signs of such deception, since they had practiced it themselves.

'No, it must be some kind of mistake,' Monica said. At one time, this would have been her dearest wish, to see her best friend marry her brother, but now her dearest wishes were bound up in Chandler. She also knew that it was what Rachel and Ross wanted to do that mattered, not any pretty picture in Monica's head.

They reached the doors of the Chapel of Love, just in time to see Ross and Rachel emerge and immediately start off in different directions.

'They haven't got married,' Monica said, breathing a sigh of relief, 'They've – ' but they hadn't argued, they were drunk, almost paralytic. Ross and Rachel found each other and eventually set off in the same direction. They hadn't noticed Monica and Chandler, who didn't feel like breaking in on them. They had no idea what they would say if they did.

'So what do we do now?' Chandler asked, of no-one in particular.