Chapter 2: Further Developments and Endgame
Chapter 2: Further Developments, and Endgame
Feeling more worried about Monica than she had suggested, Phoebe decided to stay the night on the couch. When Rachel emerged from her bedroom on Sunday morning, she found her getting breakfast things out.
"Well, you don't look much the worse for wear," said Rachel.
"I didn't drink as much as Monica," said Phoebe. "Have you checked on her?"
"She's still asleep; she didn't look too bad. So, you gonna fill me in on what happened last night?"
As they made coffee and poured cereal, Phoebe proceeded to do that. Rachel's eyes widened at her revelations, but before she could comment, Janice and Chandler entered. Janice, looking very pleased with herself, bid them a loud and cheerful good morning. Chandler, on the other hand, wore a hangdog expression and had trouble looking Phoebe in the eye.
"You missed out on one wild evening, Rachel," said Janice. "Got a bit wilder than I planned, in fact."
"Is that right?" said Rachel. "Monica forced herself on you against your will?"
"Ooh, Rachel's getting smart!" said Janice, and laughed raucously.
A rather wan-looking Monica, wrapped in her bathrobe, appeared at the doorway leading to the bedrooms. "Janice dear, do you have to laugh quite so loud?" she said in a long-suffering way.
"Oh, sorry, sweetie," said Janice, not sounding sorry at all. "Did I disturb your beauty sleep?"
She began to laugh again, but stopped when Phoebe, Chandler and Rachel all glared at her, muttering "Oops."
"How're you feeling, Mon?" said Rachel solicitously.
"Could be better," said Monica, moving cautiously. "Coffee should help."
She appeared to be moving randomly, but wound up sitting on Chandler's other side. "Hello, handsome," she said, smiling at him. "I haven't forgotten last night."
He smiled back at her weakly.
"Well, my advice to you is to start forgetting it," said Janice, sounding rather mad. "Maybe you've forgotten something else, which is that Chandler is my boyfriend."
Monica stared at her as if in disbelief; then her face started to crumple. "Oh, Janice," she said, blinking rapidly. "I never expected to hear you speak like that to me, after last night. Did it mean nothing to you? Were you just using me?"
She pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve and buried her face in it. Rachel and Phoebe exchanged startled glances and immediately moved to put their arms round her shoulders for comfort. They looked severely at Janice, to see something they had never expected to see, Janice looking totally at a loss.
Monica's eyes emerged from the handkerchief. "Well?" she said, glaring at Janice, "aren't you gonna say anything at all? Perhaps you liked Phoebe better than me, is that it? She has experience, she was a better lay!" She was sounding almost hysterical at this point, and began to sob wildly as she hid her face again.
"Monica!" gasped Rachel, sounding really shocked, while Phoebe moved away from them with an offended expression.
Janice jumped up. "Monica, get a hold of yourself," she said, "and stop trying to build up last night into more than it was!"
Monica wailed, but Janice ignored her, and turned to Chandler. "See me to the door, sweetie."
She stomped off, and Chandler, who had appeared to be in shock since Monica's first outburst, got up and followed her. What Janice said to him by the door could not be heard, but seemed rather fierce. After he had kissed her goodbye, Chandler looked at his three friends, his face a study in discomfort.
"I …" he began, then stopped.
Monica looked up, still holding her handkerchief to cover most of her face. "Yes, Chandler?" she said in a neutral tone.
He swallowed, then appeared to screw his courage up. "I apologise for Janice's behaviour," he said, then, after a pause, "and mine hasn't been much better."
"Well," said Monica, slightly more warmly, "maybe you want to go think about what you're gonna do now, with Janice tangled up with more than one of us. Just don't ask Ross for advice; he must not know about all this."
Chandler shuddered. "If Ross knew about this, he'd kill me." Slowly he left the room.
Once the door had shut, Monica lowered her handkerchief fully. Her eyes were bright and tearless as she looked from Rachel to Phoebe, grinning. "Looks like I fooled you both, as well as them," she said.
"You mean … that was, like, an act?" said Phoebe. Monica nodded and giggled.
"You might have warned us," said Phoebe reproachfully.
"It wouldn't have worked so well," said Monica. "I'm sorry I had to bring you into it, Pheebs, but it seemed the way to go. Did you see how uneasy it made her?"
"I did," said Rachel rather gleefully. "Oh Mon, I'm so glad you're not really in love with her."
Monica sniggered. "If I was going to have an affair with a woman, it certainly wouldn't be her." She eyed Rachel speculatively, then cracked up as Rachel flushed and looked away. "Relax, sweetie, I'm kidding you. It's Chandler I want. What I'm trying to do is get him to see Janice as she really is, and start him thinking about whether he can go on with her."
"Brilliant," said Phoebe with conviction. "Do you want my help? I could act like I was putting the moves on her, or trying to cut you out with her. That would be so cool."
Monica nodded. "That would be very helpful, Phoebe."
They sat in harmonious silence for a while. Finally Rachel said, frowning a little, "Well, I wonder what's keeping Ross. He's usually here by now."
"Perhaps he worked so late, he's sleeping late," Monica suggested.
Rachel's brow cleared. "Of course! Think I'll go round to his apartment and give him a wakeup call he won't forget." She grinned at them and got up, then bent down to kiss Monica on the cheek. "I hope your plan works. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help."
--
Chandler sat in his apartment and moped. For once he really missed Joey's cheerful insouciance, his almost complete inability to be serious for more than ten minutes together. He badly needed to have his mind taken off things. Who knows, Joey might even be able to offer some advice, or at least help him to work out who Monica was in love with, him or Janice – or neither of them.
When Janice had first brought up the idea, suggesting that a little variety might spice up their love life, which, she said, had been getting into a rut, it had seemed harmless enough. But clearly Phoebe and Monica had not been expecting to do more than a strip; Janice had been a little deceitful there. At least it had not produced any embarrassment at the time. Indeed, Monica had seemed positively eager, although this could be partly attributed to the wine she had drunk. He sighed. He had certainly not expected that making love to her would be so exciting, or seem so right.
Then Janice told him that he must forget it all, that it had been a mistake. How could he erase from his mind the vivid picture of Monica rushing into his bedroom, her eyes ablaze with excitement, somehow completely innocent in her desire? How could he forget the tender look in her eyes after they had made love first? The intensity of feeling that had developed between them so quickly was almost frightening at the time. It seemed a relief to return to the familiarity of a loving Janice. But now he realised that he wanted that intensity. Also, Janice's behaviour was worrying him more and more.
"You keep away from that slut," she had said. "It's all over between us if you lay another finger on her." She did not seem to consider that it was largely her own actions, especially seducing Monica, that had brought the whole situation about. It was amazing that Monica might actually have feelings for her, though he could understand it in a way. If he could love Janice, why couldn't Monica? It had surely been her first time with a woman, which might well have a profound effect if the woman was as skilled at lovemaking as Janice was.
Joey's return interrupted his thoughts. He came in grinning, to stop short as Chandler looked up at him.
"What's up, man?" he said. "You look like hell."
"I feel like hell," said Chandler. "I'm in a real mess, Joe."
Joey sat down on the other lounger, looking serious. "Then tell me about it. Maybe I can help."
Slowly at first, Chandler told him everything, as far as he knew it. After early comments of a ribald kind, Joey became quiet as the story unfolded; by the end, he was looking at Chandler with considerable respect.
"You mean, you made love to Phoebe, Monica and Janice all in the same evening?" he said. "Way to go, man! I'm impressed. I never thought – "
"Can't you see how serious this is, Joe?" Chandler interrupted angrily. "Okay, with Phoebe it was just fun, though we can't act quite the same around each other – but with Monica …" He put his head in his hands. "I think, no, I know I'm getting real feelings for her, but she seems to have feelings for Janice, who certainly doesn't want her."
Joey moved to sit beside him, and put an arm round his shoulders. "No way Monica could prefer Janice to you," he said. "But you have gotta decide who you want most. I say, don't hide away. Go to Monica's apartment, and Central Perk. Be nice to her, but not especially so. Just watch how they both behave – to you, to each other, to us." He breathed out. "Man, I never talked so much! Why don't we go see who's in Central Perk now? I haven't had anything to eat since last night."
"Thanks, Joe, that's pretty good advice," said Chandler. "You're a pal."
"Well," said Joey. "I'm hoping for some pay-off. You gonna give me any details?"
Chandler sighed. "Back to normal," he said resignedly. "I don't think I should do that, but I will buy you whatever you want to eat in Central Perk."
--
When Chandler and Joey entered Central Perk, only Monica and Phoebe were there, sitting on the couch. Joey greeted them cheerfully and they responded the same way; Chandler could only manage a weak "Hi", which went apparently unnoticed.
He took the chair closest to Monica, and tried to smile at her; her look back at him was hard to interpret. While Joey was ordering lavishly, he leaned over and said, "I've told Joey. I thought you ought to know."
"Everything?" said Monica coolly, raising her eyebrows.
"Everything that happened where I could see it," he said, "but I didn't go into detail."
She gave a small smile. "Well, okay."
There was a pause which seemed awkward to Chandler, though Monica looked relaxed. Presently she asked, "When do you expect to see Janice next? Is she coming here?"
Chandler thought about it. "She didn't actually say." He swallowed. "Look, Monica – and Phoebe too – I just want to say …" – he almost dried as both of them looked at him gravely – "I feel bad about last night. I mean, it's not that you weren't both great, but … I feel I took advantage of you. I'm hoping it won't stop us being friends."
Monica smiled more warmly. "You didn't take advantage of me, Chandler: I took advantage of you. Don't worry about it."
"Yeah," said Phoebe, "and I, like, knew what I was doing. I could have said no." She grinned wickedly. "And I wouldn't mind doing it again. So you don't know when the lovely Janice is getting here? That's something else I'd like to repeat." She licked her lips.
Monica's expression changed. "Don't rub it in, Pheebs," she said. "From my point of view, this is serious."
"Sorry," said Phoebe, hugging her.
All this time Joey had been paying strict attention to his food; now he looked up. "Is Janice that good?" he asked.
"Joey!" said Monica angrily.
He shrugged. "Well, I gotta say, I'm surprised that you two went with her, when you used to find her as hard to take as I did."
"Well, now we've gotten to know her better, she's not so bad," said Phoebe. "In fact – "
"Phoebe!" said Monica threateningly. Phoebe clapped her hand over her mouth in pretended fear, but her eyes glinted in fun over it.
"Let's talk about something else," said Chandler rather desperately.
"You guys never explain anything," Joey grumbled.
"What's to explain?" said Phoebe airily. "We had some great sex. We don't expect you to explain youraffairs."
"That's different," said Joey. "I'm a guy. Guys behave differently than girls."
"That's what you like to think," said Monica fiercely.
"Just leave it, Joe," said Chandler. "They'll tell you when they're good and ready, if they think there's anything you need to know."
Joey returned to his food, looking discontented.
Chandler looked at Monica and Phoebe, who again looked back seriously. Rather hesitantly he voiced one question that had been in the forefront of his mind. "So, um, what did you do after Monica left me?"
"We had some more wine," said Phoebe.
"I got drunk, if you want the honest truth," said Monica.
Chandler nodded. "That's why you looked so bad at breakfast."
"Yup," said Monica shortly. Then she seemed to make a decision. "Do you wanna know why I got drunk, Chandler?"
Phoebe looked at her in surprise. "You're gonna tell him already?"
"Yes," said Monica, "I think it's best."
"It's to do with me, obviously," said Chandler apprehensively.
"Nothing bad," said Monica. "At least, I don't think so. Only that I'm getting feelings for you." She smiled.
"But … that scene with Janice …" Chandler protested.
"That was all a front," said Monica. "Partly to pay her out for taking advantage of me. But don't tell her, or I'll kill you before Ross can."
"You should think a bit about the way Janice has behaved with us," said Phoebe. "I mean, okay, she's very attractive and a great lover, but, like, how nice is she as a person? If she cared about you so much, would she have gone with us?"
Chandler was looking very uncomfortable. "Well … I did."
"But you're our friend," said Phoebe, "and you've been around us a long time, plus you're a guy. You're bound to be tempted."
"Yeah!" said Joey, seeming to imply that they should do something about the temptation they created for him. But Monica and Phoebe both ignored him.
"We certainly added to the temptation," said Monica, "and if anything showed Janice in her true colours, it was that. I don't know what she said to you, but she was clearly after us."
Chandler had gone red. "She said, it might spice up our love life."
"And did it?" Monica pursued.
Chandler looked down and mumbled, "Yes."
"Poor Chandler," said Phoebe. "You do let women manipulate you, y'know. But you'd be better off being manipulated by Monica; she's a nicer person."
Chandler looked up at Monica, who was smiling at him gently.
"You have a point," said Chandler, trying to sound lighthearted, but the look in his eyes told a different story. To Monica it seemed like misery, and it wrung her heart.
"What's up, Chandler?" she said sympathetically. "You look so unhappy."
He looked around uneasily. "I can't talk about it here. Can we go back to your apartment?"
Monica looked at Phoebe, who nodded. "Sure," she said. "Just let us finish our coffees." She gulped hers down.
"Hey, I'm still eating," said Joey through a mouthful of cinnamon toast.
"That's okay, Joe," said Chandler. "You've already given me some advice that, believe it or not, was good. Here" – he passed him a twenty – "this should cover everything. Have some more if there's any over."
"But I wanna be in on this!" Joey protested. "You and Monica – that's huge, man."
"It's true, he ought to be in on this," said Phoebe. "Get a doggie bag from Gunther for what you haven't eaten, Joey."
Shortly they were all sitting in the apartment, looking at Chandler expectantly. He looked nervously back at them.
"This is gonna be hard to say," he began, "but it has to be faced. Monica, I've had this crush on you for so long. Last night" – he swallowed – "last night I had a dream come true. But … but Janice is my girlfriend. I owe a lot to her, and she has made me happy." He spread his hands. "I can't just dump her, like Ross did Julie. That would make me feel very bad. What do you think I should do?"
Monica bit her lip to keep from bursting out crying. "If that's how you feel, Chandler," she said, making a great effort to keep her voice from trembling, "we should try to forget last night. I don't want you to feel bad because of me."
He looked at her intently. It was very hard to hold his gaze and keep the tears at bay, but she managed it, just.
"You really mean that?" he said.
"Yes," she stammered, then more confidently, "yes, I do. You're my friend, and I don't want you to feel bad."
He suddenly smiled in a way that made her heart turn over. "That does it," he said. "You know what Janice said to me? If I touched you again, it was all over between us. She was completely ignoring the fact that she set the whole thing up," – his voice began to sound angry – "that she seduced you, and that she positively encouraged you to go to me. I'm just supposed to forget all that! Well, I'm not going to." He held out a hand. "Phoebe was right. You have generous instincts; Janice does not. I am sorry to have put you through that just now, but it seemed a way to find out which of you was the nicer person."
"You mean – " said Monica, hardly daring to believe what she thought he was saying.
His smile deepened. "Yes. I choose you, if you'll have me."
"Oh Chandler!" She almost threw herself at him, hugged him so hard that he gasped, and kissed him extremely fervently.
"Hey hey hey!" said Joey. "There are other people here, you know."
"Oh hush! I think it's cute," said Phoebe. "So, guys, what are we gonna do about Janice?"
Monica very reluctantly pulled her mouth away from Chandler's and moved around to sit next to him on the couch. "I have no ideas, beyond going on pretending I have feelings for her," she said.
"Let's build on that," said Phoebe, "like we thought of doing …"
--
It was not until Monday after work that Janice arranged to meet Chandler at Central Perk again. She looked slightly surprised to see only Chandler, Joey and Rachel there.
"Where are the others?" she asked, as she kissed Chandler on the cheek and sat down next to him.
"Oh, Ross is working late," said Rachel, who had been brought in on the plot, "and as for Monica and Phoebe – well, they won't both be here, will they?"
Janice's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"
Rachel looked surprised. "Why, they're fighting over you, of course."
"Over me?" Janice almost shrieked.
"Yeah, like either of them had any claim that outweighed mine," said Chandler bitterly. "I tell you, it makes me mad." He put an arm around Janice. "How could you possibly prefer one of them to me?"
Janice looked extremely uneasy. "But I told Monica …" she began, only to stop when Monica came into Central Perk.
"There you are, darling," she said to Janice. She went over, took a hand, and kissed it. "I know what you said, but I just can't forget you, and I can't believe you don't have feelings for me, not after that night." She clasped Janice's hand to her bosom and looked at her fondly. "Why try to keep it going with Chandler, when you can have me?"
"Now see here, Monica," Chandler began angrily, but before he could get any further, Phoebe burst in.
"This is just what I suspected," she cried, pointing at Monica. "You're sneaking around behind my back, trying to get Janice away from me!"
She came over and grabbed Janice's hand away from Monica, to hold it close to her own bosom and stroke it. "We're meant to be together, Janice. You know it in your heart of hearts. You just don't know you know it yet. You can't prefer this neat freak to me."
Janice looked from one to the other with her mouth open, wearing the dazed expression of an animal caught in a car's headlights.
"Better a neat freak than an aura freak!" said Monica fiercely.
"What the hell do you two think you're doing?" Chandler almost shouted. "Janice is my girlfriend, and a very loving one. She's not gonna be interested in a love affair with either of you."
They looked at him contemptuously.
"You go on telling yourself that, Mr. Can't-Commit," said Monica.
"Yeah, Mr. Insecurity," said Phoebe. "Why would anyone want you when they could have the love of a confident, mature woman?"
"Which would be me," said Monica smugly. "I've been through enough to know when I've found my soulmate. Janice, you're the only one for me." She put a hand on her shoulder and caressed it. Janice wriggled out from under, pulled her hand from Phoebe's, and opened her mouth to speak, but Phoebe got in first.
"You've been through enough?" she said to Monica, forcing herself into the couch next to Janice and grabbing her hand again. "One lousy eating disorder! My mom died, I've lived on the streets. I'mthe one who's mature around here."
"Yeah, the one who believes every weird idea anyone ever came up with," scoffed Chandler. "I can provide Janice with security as well as love. Stick with me, Janice: I'll look after you." He took her other hand.
Janice pulled her hand away from him and jumped to her feet. "Oh – my – God! Will you people stop grabbing me! None of you seems at all concerned with what I want."
"Well, what doyou want, Janice?" said Rachel coolly. "You can't make things go back to the way they were before the strip, can you? Can't just wipe out what you did."
Janice looked around at them all, her face working. "What do I want? I don't want any of this!" she almost screamed. "It's bad enough you acting like you owned me, Chandler, but what I reallydon'twant is these two mauling me every chance they get." She choked and pulled out a handkerchief. "Now you're gonna have to choose, Chandler: it's me or your friends." She almost spat the last word out. "We can put the rest right once that's settled." She sat down and started her mannerism of waving hands in front of her face, as if to cool herself down.
Chandler looked at her, seeming very shocked. "You're asking me to give up my friends, just because two of them think they're in love with you, as a result of your own actions?" he said. "I can't do that. I won'tdo that."
"Then it's goodbye!" she snapped, jumping to her feet again. She looked down at him, evidently expecting him to protest.
When he did not, her face changed, and she gave a great sigh. "So it's goodbye," she said in a different tone, rather quiet. "I'll never forget you, my Bing-a-ling." Handkerchief to her eyes, she almost ran out.
"You know," said Monica, when she had gone, "I almost felt sorry for her there."
"She did love me," said Chandler a little wistfully, "but not enough, or she would never have wanted to fool around with you two."
Gunther, who had been warned to expect fireworks, now came over. "So that's the end of Janice?" he said.
"Looks like it," said Phoebe cheerfully.
Gunther looked very relieved. "I don't know how you could stand all her mannerisms – and that awful laugh! So, do you want to order, Monica and Phoebe? Anyone else for a refill? Rachel?" He gazed at her lovingly.
"No thanks," she said obliviously.
Chandler said, "I'll buy whatever anyone wants." He took Monica's hand. "In fact, let's all go out to dinner. I feel like celebrating."
When Ross arrived a few minutes later, Chandler and Monica were still holding hands and gazing at each other fondly. "Hi, everybody," he said, then catching sight of Chandler and Monica, "Hey, what's this?"
"I've finished with Janice," said Chandler, "or rather, she's finished with me. Monica and I have realised that we have real feelings for each other, and I'm inviting everyone out to dinner to celebrate."
Ross frowned. "Well, that's … great, but how did you and Monica get together so quickly? What's been going on that I don't know about?"
"Sweetie, come sit by me," said Rachel hastily. "You haven't even kissed me yet."
This attempt to distract Ross appeared to work. "Oh baby, I'm sorry," he said, and sat down beside her to give her a kiss, to which she responded enthusiastically.
With a grateful glance at Rachel, Chandler said, "Okay, where shall we go for dinner?"
--
Much later, Ross and Rachel were in bed together in his apartment.
"You know," said Ross, "I still feel surprised about Chandler and Monica. I mean, it's so sudden."
"I think it's been close to the surface for some time," said Rachel, "and Janice has been jerking Chandler around a bit recently. Monica was bound to show up well by contrast. You've been working so hard, honey, that you've missed a lot of this." All of which was true, in a manner of speaking, she thought to herself, but she hoped that he would not keep probing. She ran a hand lightly over his chest and stomach.
"Oh Rachel," he said throatily, turning to her, "I am so glad that we finally got together."
"Oh, so am I," she said, embracing him enthusiastically.
Chandler and Monica were also in bed. Monica lay with her head on Chandler's shoulder, feeling utterly content. "I can't believe I feel so good," she said.
"You can't feel as good as I do," said Chandler, hugging her against him. "Despite everything that was said about me, I might add."
"Oh sweetie, you know we didn't really mean it," said Monica, "and besides, we said just as bad things about each other."
"Well, there was some truth in it," Chandler acknowledged, "but I feel that I can change, now that I have you. And if you never throw Phoebe in my face, I'll never throw Janice in yours. Deal?"
"Deal," said Monica happily, leaning over to kiss him again.