Standard Lines

Chapter 13: Did You Know I Miss You?

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It seems like the longer I'm back here, the longer my fics are getting…hmmm…

Also, bonus points to whoever can guess my favorite song of all time based on the chapter title :) One person should get this. Although, hardly anyone ever participates in my guessing games, so….

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Chandler hurried down the street on his lunch hour, planning on stopping at the deli down the street quickly before working on a presentation for that afternoon which he should have already finished. In the few weeks since his relationship with Rachel had ended, Chandler had been working hard and working long hours, needing both a mental and physical distraction. It was working, too, for the most part. Working early and late kept him from having to run into Rachel, and working hard kept his mind occupied, so thoughts of Rachel were kept to a minimum. And, on what may be seen by some as another plus side, he was also being considered for a promotion, which he was pretty sure was more or less a result of his hard work the past few weeks coinciding with one of his managers leaving.

Walking through the door and heading towards the end of the line, Chandler froze, his stomach falling.

"Rach," he whispered, taken back by the sight of her less than a foot in front of him. He had literally seen her only two times since they broke up. Both times had been as they were both leaving their apartments. Neither of them had stopped to speak, only offering a slight smile, afraid of what a conversation might lead to. A conversation seemed inevitable today, though.

"Hey," Rachel replied quietly. "Ho-how are you?" she continued on, clutching both her purse and the bag with her food in it tightly, awkwardly looking down before looking back up, wishing for some kind of escape but unable to find it.

Chandler shrugged. "Okay," he breathed out, willing himself to speak. "How are you?" he asked, awkwardly and sincerely all at once.

"Okay," Rachel nodded as well, holding eye contact though it hurt. God, did it hurt.

Chandler dug his hands deeply inside of his pockets, the hurry he had been in all but forgotten. "I miss you," he continued on, not having planned on being that honest with her, but unable to hold it in.

Rachel bit her bottom lip, her face falling. "I miss you, too," she replied. "We haven't seen you much lately," she added as an afterthought, since the others had mentioned his absence lately, too.

"I've been working a lot," Chandler replied honestly. "I'm actually up for this pretty big promotion in the next couple of weeks," he shrugged modestly, feeling like he should care about it a lot more than he did.

"Really? Congratulations, that's great," Rachel smiled sincerely, causing Chandler to smile as well.

"Yea, well," he again shrugged, the two staring at one another, not sure what to say next. "Is this going to get easier?" Chandler finally vocalized what they were both wondering, and Rachel could only shrug.

"I don't know," she replied.

"With you and Ross, it got easier," Chandler continued. "Right?" Rachel nodded, not offering anything else. "This doesn't feel the same, though, does it?" Rachel shook her head, obviously close to tears. Chandler looked down, praying she didn't start crying in the middle of the restaurant. "I should go," he whispered, and Rachel only nodded, biting her bottom lip as she attempted to regain her composure. "It was really good to see you."

Rachel took a deep breath as she nodded. "It was really good to see you, too, Chandler," she replied quietly, both of them holding each other's gaze for a moment longer before turning in their separate directions, both fighting themselves not to look back.

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"Are you avoiding me again?"

Chandler turned around in his Barca Lounger to see Monica in his doorway, arms crossed. Chandler closed the laptop on his lap, standing up as he shook his head.

"No, I'm not avoiding you, Mon," he took a couple of steps forward. And, for once, it was the truth.

"Oh," Monica closed the door behind her, letting her arms hang at her side. Chandler took note that now that he wasn't lying, she believed him when he said that. "I just, I haven't seen you much since…" she trailed off, knowing he knew she was referring to when she kissed him.

"I've been working a lot," Chandler shrugged. "I'm up for this kind of big promotion, and…I've been working a lot…."

Monica nodded. "That's what Rachel said."

Chandler tried hard not to flinch at her name. Did Monica ask Rachel about him, or did Rachel talk to Monica about him? Not that he should hope for either.

Looking at Monica, actually looking at her, he noted that she seemed nervous. She was picking at her nails, avoiding eye contact. God, why couldn't he have picked Monica over Rachel when he had the chance? Not that he had much choice in the matter, but he could have forced himself to believe there was nothing there with Rachel before he got hurt. He could have.

Yea, maybe if he repeated that enough times, he could forget the feeling that being with Rachel gave him. Kind of like how being with Rachel had made him forget what being with Monica had been like, though he was almost certain his feelings for her hadn't been the same as towards Rachel. Not that they couldn't have been, but he hadn't gotten there yet.

"Can we start over?" Monica finally looked up, cutting into Chandler's thoughts.

"Sure," Chandler shrugged, looking at her in amusement as he extended his hand to her. "Hi, I'm Chandler. I think I was roommates with your brother in college? You live across the hall, right?"

Monica swatted at his hand, shaking her head. "Not start over that far," she laughed. "Just…pretend like London never happened. And everything after."

Chandler looked at her for a moment, not sure what to think of that. "Do you…want to pretend like London never happened?" he asked rather uneasily.

Monica looked him in the eye at that, and he knew her unspoken answer to that was no. However, she nodded. "I think we need to. I miss you. I miss seeing you everyday and talking to you. I don't want you to purposely sit as far away from me as possible whenever we're in the same room. I just…I miss you, Chandler."

Chandler held her eye contact as she took another small step closer, suddenly realizing something. He'd spent so long trying not to be with Rachel, being with Rachel, and missing Rachel, that he never noticed how much he missed Monica. She had been one of his best friends up until a few months earlier.

Chandler finally nodded. "I miss you, too."

"So…friends again?" Monica asked, slight smile on her lips.

"Did we ever officially stop being friends?" Chandler asked, attempting a joke, and Monica humored him, laughing slightly as she stepped forward and hugged him. "Yea, we can be friends again," he added more sincerely, hugging her back. He let the hug linger a moment longer than he should have, praying that Monica was being sincere and wasn't going to kiss him again. Because if she did kiss him right then, he was probably vulnerable enough that he would have kissed back. And he didn't want that right now.

He didn't need that right now.

Luckily, Monica was the one to actually pull back. "I'll let you get back to work," she motioned towards his computer, and Chandler nodded. "You should come over for dinner tonight. Even if it's not for long. We haven't seen you in a long time…."

Chandler nodded. "Come get me before you guys eat."

"See you in a little bit, Chandler," Monica offered one last smile before leaving.

Chandler smiled in return, watching her go. "See you later, Mon."

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"So, if you don't fill out the new data sheets until Monday instead of finishing them by the end of the day Friday, it completely throws our WENUS out of whack," Chandler explained, hating that he was the one having to lecture a group of interns-recently-turned-employees who seemed to be getting careless now that they felt they had a bit of job security. He was feeling more like a babysitter than a boss.

"And we don't want out WENUS to get whacked?" one of the guys asked sarcastically, causing the three girls around him to giggle.

Chandler bit his tongue. He wanted to be the one making a joke about WENUSes getting whacked. Actually, he could have made an even better joke than this kid about WENUSes getting whacked. Really, who did this kid think he was? This was not how he wanted to start his morning….

Mr. Bing, Chandler's assistant's voice came on the intercom, interrupting his internal rant. You have a phone call.

"Can you tell them I'm in a meeting, Helen?" Chandler asked, trying to hide his current frustration and wanting to finish this meeting as soon as possible and get on with his day.

It's Rachel. She said it's an emergency.

Chandler's heart dropped. Why was Rachel calling him? They weren't even speaking. What was an emergency? "Thanks, Helen," he quickly mumbled, picking up the phone in front of him and hitting the blinking extension number, forgetting in his panic that he was in a room full of people. "Hey, Rach? Wait, what?" he listened as she explained. "Where? Yea, no, give me five minutes," he hung up the phone, immediately heading out the door, all but running as he left, leaving five slightly confused employees staring at each other in his sudden absence.

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In case you hadn't noticed, I've run into some free time this week. Said free time will be nonexistent starting next week, though, so enjoy a few more quick updates while they last.

Reviews, please and thank ya :)