Chapter 11

"Winter Storm"

Rachel was having a really bad day at work. Everything seemed not going well for her today, she was even considering getting her aura cleansed by Phoebe at some point. Her computer broke down in the most inconvenient way this morning and there was chaos at work because apparently one of her coworkers misplaced an order slip which eventually caused a huge misunderstanding with the shipping company.

The fact that she was having her PMS that week made her day much worse than it already was. She could've sworn she could chew on every living person that was trying to annoy her today. Today was a really bad day to pick a fight with her.

At times like this, there was only one thing that could cheer her up.

Shopping.

The thought of it managed to put a smile on her face for the rest of her day at work and got her through her horrible day.

After work, she picked up the kids and paid their nanny - Molly, before stopping by at Monica's apartment to pick her up. Phoebe was unavailable today, so instead, she asked Monica to come with her. The four of them walked a few blocks away to Bloomingdale, with Emma sleeping soundly on her stroller.

"Where are we going?" Ben asked as they walked together.

"We're going to Bloomingdale." Rachel informed ecstatically, already thinking about so much stuff she wanted to buy today.

"Can we grab some ice cream after?" Ben asked. Just like his dad and probably half the men in the world, Ben hated the idea of shopping, but if there was an ice cream waiting for him at the end of the day, he'd gladly tag along.

Rachel smiled. "Sure, why not?"

"Oh! I know this great gelato place that has just opened!" Monica chipped in.

"What's a gelato?" Ben asked and Monica began to explain what a gelato was as the group continued their journey to the department store.

Not long after, the group of four arrived at Bloomingdale. Rachel's eyes were sparkling with excitement as soon as she entered the building.

It was definitely her definition of heaven on earth.

The first place they explored was the children's department. Emma was almost nine months old, she outgrown most of her current clothes. So much to Rachel's delight, she was going to buy her daughter a bunch of new clothes today. And maybe a few pairs of shoes too, she mused.

"Why are you even buying her shoes?" Monica asked as Rachel started to look at a few baby shoes they had for sale. "She didn't even know how to walk yet."

"Because she can't walk yet, doesn't mean she cannot look stylish." Rachel said as she continued to shop. "Oh my gosh!" Monica heard her best friend squeal. "Isn't it the cutest thing ever?" Rachel gushed over a pair of gray snow boots and showed it to Monica.

Monica couldn't lie. It was really cute. And maybe in the next few months it was her who was able to do shopping for her future children just like Rachel. Only the thought of having a baby already sent butterflies into her stomach. She couldn't wait to have children of her own.

"And look!" Rachel gasped as she took a peek at the price tag. "It's on sale!"

Monica took the shoes out of Rachel's hand and read the price tag herself. It was really cheap for shoes from this brand, she had to admit.

"Aww.. They didn't have one in Emma's size." Rachel said dejectedly. "It was too small for her."

"Maybe I should buy it." Monica suddenly said.

"What?" Rachel asked and then gasped a few moments later. "Are you?"

"No!" Monica quickly replied. "It's just. It's so cute. You know?" She began to hug the tiny pair of shoes against her chest.

Rachel let out a warm smile. She knew how much Monica wanted to have children. It was Monica's dream and Rachel hoped that her best friend's dream would come true. Monica was going to be a great mom, she was sure of that.

"Let me buy it for you." Rachel offered.

They shopped for a couple more hours. Rachel got everything she needed for her and Emma. She even bought Ben some shirts. She was going to show Ross what she bought later. He was going to love it, she thought.

The four of them sat at a table inside the gelato shop with Emma sitting on Rachel's lap. Ben had chocolate covering most of his face and Rachel was amused at his clumsiness. He was indeed Ross' son. Though Ross was very smart, he could be very clumsy sometimes.

"Come here." Rachel said as she wiped Ben's face with a napkin.

"Thank you." Ben smiled thankfully. "Can Emma eat some?"

Rachel nodded. "Uh-hmm. But maybe just a tiny bit."

"Like this?" Ben scooped some ice cream from his cup and showed her just how much. Rachel nodded approvingly. "Okay." Ben smiled then he tried to feed Emma some of his ice cream.

As Ben tried to feed his little sister an ice cream, Emma accidentally knocked it off from Ben's grip and it landed all over his shirt.

"Oh, God." Rachel yelped. "Are you okay?"

Ben giggled. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Monica was looking at them in horror. "Go clean it up before it leaves a stain."

"Do you need help?" Rachel asked.

Ben shook his head. "No, I can do it by myself."

In public, Ben usually didn't want to look like a helpless and spoiled kid, so he would try to become more independent. Rachel knew better now that she was living with him for eight months, so she let him be.

"Okay, just put a little water on it and wipe them off with a napkin. We'll get the rest at home."

"Okay."

Rachel smiled as she watched Ben leave to clean himself up.

"Did he know?" Monica asked as soon as Ben left.

"About what?" Rachel said as she wiped some ice cream away from Emma's face.

"You and Ross."

"Oh. Not yet." Rachel replied. Now that Monica brought it up, they hadn't had a talk about the issue. "We haven't talked to Ben about it yet. How do you think he's going to react?"

Though her relationship with Ben undoubtedly had grown closer these past few months. Part of her couldn't help but expected for the worse. After all, if Ben hated the idea of her dating Ross, what would that mean for them? Did they have to break up? She knew their relationship was important for Ross, but their children mattered most - they had made themselves very clear when they started to date again.

Let's just hope they didn't have to make that kind of choice.

Monica, on the other hand, was quite sure Ben would love the idea of having Rachel as his dad's girlfriend. She watched their interaction all along and she knew Rachel had a special place in the boy's heart.

"Are you kidding?" Monica had to ask. "That boy likes you so so much. I'm sure he's going to love it!"

Rachel wrinkled her nose. "You think so?"

Monica nodded and smiled. "Uh-huh. I know so."

Rachel couldn't help but feel encouraged from her friend's words. She never told anyone about her worries over how Ben would take the news of their dating to anyone before, not even to Ross. But now that she talked about it, she could feel the burden on her heart was lighter because of it.

That moment, Ben came back from the restroom all wet from his effort to clean his shirts off.

"Oh, god." Rachel's eyes widened seeing Ben soaking wet. Thank God she bought a few shirts for Ben earlier today.

"Look at you. You're soaking wet." Monica commented.

Rachel took out a shirt from her shopping bag and handed it to Ben. "Go get change. Your dad is going to kill me if you get sick."

"I'm sorry." Ben scratched his head nervously.

Rachel let out a faint smile. "It's okay. Don't worry, I'm not mad or anything."

"Okay." Ben smiled shyly. "Thank you."

After Ben was done changing his clothes, they gathered their belongings and got ready to go home.

The sky was dark as soon as they left the place. They quickly grabbed a cab and went to Monica's apartment. The city of New York was going to be hit by a storm tonight and they needed to go home as soon as they could before the city was covered in snow and there were no cabs available.

In life, there would be days where the sky was so bright, not a single cloud were seen. But there was also a day like this when the storm hit and let out a few thunders across the sky.

And it also applied to Ross and Rachel's relationship. There would be days where they would be head over heels and overwhelmed at the feeling of love between them, but there was also a day when they would fight over certain things.

Because of the accident, their problem was briefly put on hold as they focused themselves on Ben. But now that everything came back to normal, one by one those piles of problems they hid behind their closet started to come out.

It started with a small problem at first. They each had their own complaints against each other. At first it was him who outspoken his dislike over how Rachel never washed the dishes right after she ate and how she let the kids watch cartoons that he thought was too much. She, on the other hand, thought that he needed to get rid of some of his dinosaurs' knick-knacks and finally let her decorate their apartment with a touch of 'Rachel'. Their current decoration for the apartment was 'too geeky' for her style.

Since then, they fought over small things from time to time, but nothing was that big. Their fights were mostly quick and nothing too serious. They fought, but they always made up soon after.

Until today, they finally engaged in a pretty serious fight over a very sensitive issue.

Money.

It all started when Rachel came home that evening with a handful of shopping bags, mainly for Emma and herself. Ross, who was home at the time, wasn't pleased with the amount of shopping bags she carried. It wasn't the first time that month Rachel was doing her shopping spree.

If they weren't a couple, he might not be going to meddle with her business, but they were now. Even though they did split their bills in a fair amount - and she never failed to do so, he still thought she spent too much money on something that she eventually threw away within a year.

To Rachel's defense, working in a fashion industry, it was important for her to stay on top of the game by knowing the current fashion trend. Though she did enjoy shopping, she still felt like it was a part of her job. It was something she needed to do. Or that was what she wanted herself and anyone else to believe.

Meanwhile, growing up, Ross was being taught by his parents to always have extra savings that he needed to keep in case of an emergency. He took out some portion from his monthly salary and saved it into his bank account every month diligently. He proved them very useful at the end of the day, especially when they found out that Rachel was pregnant as a result of their bonus night. Having a kid wasn't in any of their plans at that time and Ross knew raising a child required a lot of money. It was the money he saved that managed to cover more than half of what they needed during Rachel's pregnancy, labor, and other things they needed to prepare for the arrival of their daughter.

That was why the emergency fund was very important to him, especially now more than ever. If they were going to build a family together, Rachel had to try not to spend everything from her paycheck to buy clothes he thought she didn't really need.

To build their future as a family, they would need more money to afford a bigger place for them to live in for example, or for the sake of their children's education in the future. That all cost a fortune and if they didn't plan it carefully, it could bring them troubles in the future and she needed to understand that. She needed to compromise.

They weren't dating just for fun anymore, their relationship was serious to begin with. Even though they didn't have the talk about marriage yet, deep down they knew their relationship would lead into a marriage one day and one day they would be very grateful that they had those emergency funds as he proposed. One day she would thank him, he thought.

Some people might find him cheap, but he did it for the right reason. And now he felt like she needed to learn that.

"Oh god. It's snowing so hard outside." Rachel said as she put her coat away and dropped numerous shopping bags on the floor.

"You went shopping?" He asked dryly.

"Uh-hmm. I went to Blooming Dale with Monica and the kids. I sent you a text." She answered as she put her purse and gloves away, not noticing yet the look he gave her.

"Where's the kids?" Ross asked as he finally noticed she was alone.

"Monica and Chandler are watching them for a while. They rented Ben's favorite movie and Ben is so excited about it."

Trying to have kids themselves, Monica and Chandler were often offered to babysit Ben and Emma which Monica thought as a great practice for both of them, well, mostly for Chandler. Though he wanted a kid, Chandler couldn't help but to feel uneasy about the idea of becoming a father. After all, his own father didn't set the greatest example for him to follow. The least thing he wanted was for his future kids to have a distant relationship with him, just like he and his father did.

Rachel wouldn't say no to that, wouldn't she? After all, she got to spend some alone time with her boyfriend. That was all she needed after a rough day she experienced today.

"Okay." Ross nodded, thinking it was a great idea since he was planning to have a serious talk with her.

"Look what I bought for Emma and Ben." Rachel gleefully said as she grabbed one of the shopping bags and sat next to him on the couch.

He put down his book he was reading and was ready to do an intervention on her about her shopping habit.

She held it proudly in front of him, still oblivious about his feelings. "Isn't it so cute?" She gushed. "It's the newest collection and I just have to buy it as soon as I see it."

What she bought for Emma and Ben was a matching set of summer dress for Emma and a shirt for Ben. It was yellow and it got pineapple all over. It was very cute, Ross had to admit. But, he wasn't going to let go of what he had believed just for it.

He inspected the price tag and then he gasped. His eye balls literally almost fell off from his eyes when he read the price. This was ridiculous, he thought. His shirt didn't even cost this much.

"Seventy dollars for a shirt this small?!" He asked in disbelief. "Don't you think it's too much?"

She frowned. She thought he would be happy that she bought something for Ben, but instead he made a huge fuss over the price. She should've known better though, it was Ross after all.

But still, it would be nice if he appreciated it instead of yelling at her, she thought.

"Well, yeah. It's the newest collection. Do you expect them to have it on sale as soon as it is released?" She let out a small chuckle, but he didn't find it funny judging by the serious look on his face. "I don't see what's the big deal."

He almost rolled his eyes. She didn't even realize what was wrong?

"The big deal is, this." He took the clothes she had bought in his hands. "This is too much, Rachel. We can't keep spending money like this."

Again, she didn't understand what his problem was. It was her money after all. She earned it by working her ass off at Ralph Lauren and she felt like she deserved to spend every penny of it as she wanted to.

Rage, upset, and disappointment clouded her mind at this point. She felt like he was attacking her, even when he didn't mean to. Tears were welling up in her eyes, ready to burst any seconds now. She came home hoping that he would be very grateful for her, but instead, he was being so annoying and hurt her feelings.

She quickly snatched the garments from Ross' hands, feeling hurt by his words. "You know what?" She started as she stood up which was quickly followed by him. "I came home expecting a 'thank you', but all I got was this." She started yelling at him. "I was just trying to do something nice for your son but it looks like you don't even appreciate it."

"But it's too expensive!" He said, his voice matching her tone. "Let me ask you a question." He said. "How much money do you spend on Bloomingdale today?"

He was sure she probably spent half of her salary this month judging from how much shopping bags were laying around on the floor of their living room.

She scoffed and crossed her hands on her chest, feeling defensive as the anger building up inside her chest. Now he was interrogating her? What was his problem?

"Why does that even matter to you?" She asked. "It's not even your money, Ross! Have I ever asked you for any money all of these years?" She backfired.

Her brain didn't have the chance to rationalize words that came out from her mouth. She uttered words spontaneously without thinking much about it. Her words might come out too harsh than what she planned for. But again, he was hurting her feelings. She couldn't take it anymore. Truthfully, she hated the idea of having a fight with him. But why all out of those days, he chose to pick a fight with her today? She was having a hard day at work already and her raging hormones and mood swings didn't help at all.

There was a saying, 'don't poke the bear' and today what he poked was clearly the wrong bear.

It was a really really bad day to start a fight with her.

Their arguments heated off quickly as both of them stood tall on their grounds. He then let out a sigh. This fight escalated pretty quickly to the point it scared him. This wasn't how he wanted them to handle things.

Seeing how angry she already was, he proposed, "Look.. Maybe we should take a break."

A/N

I decided to add a little drama into their relationship to make it real. After all a healthy relationship isn't just full of bliss and fairy tales fantasy. *wink

I'm sorry for the cliffhanger, I just have to leave it there for now :) But I promise, I'm going to try to update it as soon as I can. And lastly, as usual, please leave a comment and tell me what you think! Thanks.