Adultery, Part5
INTRODUCTION: Part five in this series... There won't be many more parts. I'm ending this series soon, 'cause I've gotten so many complaints about it. Suits me right I guess, for trying to write a story like this, lol! Anyway, there will be at least three more parts after this one, but that will probably be it...
DISCLAIMER: The "Friends" characters belong to Bright, Kauffman and Crane.
Joey stared at her. He had known this moment would come sooner or later, that it would be over for good. He just hadn't expected it right now. He knew that Chandler needed her much more than he did right now, and he had no intention of asking her to stay. But it felt hard.
Monica looked sad. She gave him a warm hug.
"I like you Joey. I really do. But this has been so wrong. All the way it's been wrong. I belong with Chandler. And especially right now, my place is next to him. I'm going to devote myself entirely into this situation and to fight for him."
"Well you should" Joey agreed, trying to hold back how sad he was. "Just like I am going to. I am going to make this up to him, the great betrayal I'm guilty of. I'm going to be the best friend he could ask for now." He sighed deeply. "But Monica every day I am going to be jealous of him because no matter how hard his life will be in the future, he still has what I want."
"You'll find a woman to marry too, some day…" Monica assured him, and gently stroke his cheek.
Joey made a face. That wasn't what he had meant. What he wanted, that Chandler had, was her. But he could never let her know that.
She walked back to the living room and he followed shortly after. Chandler had come back from the bathroom and he put his arms around Monica for comfort when she sat down next to him again. She hugged him back and kissed him lovingly on the forehead.
Joey sat down opposite them and hated his life. Chandler thought he had a problem, but it wasn't as hard as Joey's problem was. Chandler now had Monica as his and only his again, she would be there for him throughout this entire thing, while Joey would be all alone.
*
It was past midnight when Chandler and Monica finally got to be alone. Lukas was in bed and everyone else had gone home. They closed the door to their bedroom and Chandler slumped down on the bed.
"Oh good god, Monica…" he said, hiding his eyes behind his hands and falling backwards on the bed. "How did I end up in this mess, huh?"
"I don't know…" Monica said, walking over to him. She sank down next to him and gently rubbed his leg. "I don't know, but we will get you out of this okay. Trust me on this, honey."
Chandler let his hands sink down from his face and he looked at her.
"Monica I could go to jail for this! If they find me guilty of insider trading I might end up in jail for more than a YEAR!"
"How could they find you guilty?" Monica objected. She leaned back so that she lay next to him and she let her hand stroke his arm instead of his leg. "Honey you did not do this. You didn't do anything wrong!"
Chandler sighed and sat back up again.
"Monica I did buy those stocks…" he said, afraid to look at her. "But I…"
Monica sat up as well and put her arm around his shoulder.
"Chandler… Buying stocks is not the same thing as committing inside trading! Several people have bought stocks, Allessandro's has restaurants in three places in New York, two in Chicago and one in some town in Maine! The restaurant has gotten a lot more successful than it was when I began working there, and owning stock would give you quite some money… It's no wonder people have bought them! But just because you bought some almost right away it doesn't mean that you've done anything ILLEGAL!"
"Then how come they're just accusing me? Why not everybody else with stocks in the damn restaurant?"
"Because you work where you do, and because one of the sections of the company you work for deals with stocks… They probably think you picked something up at work and thought it would bring in lots of money!"
"Doesn't anybody care that my wife works there and that I bought the stocks as a birthday present for her?" Chandler said, beginning to sound desperate.
"I figured that's why you bought them…" Monica said. She gently rubbed his arm and leaned in to kiss him.
Chandler put an arm around her when she kissed him, and let her comfort him. He was trying not to be scared, but he was terrified. Weather or not he had done anything illegal he might get sentenced for it. Innocent people were sent to death row and executed, so why wouldn't he be able to get sent to prison for a year or more?
Monica kissed him deeper and felt a feeling of joy and relief come over her. It was one of the worst days of her life so far, the situation with Chandler was terrible and the straw that had broken the camel's back was her ending it with Joey. But at the same time it felt good, because she knew now for certain where she belonged. She wondered if that had been the whole reason for her relationship with Joey in the first place; to get to find out for sure if she had made the right choice with Chandler. She had never doubted it as far as she knew, but maybe her subconscious knew her better.
"Chandler let me help you get through this…" she mumbled when she ended the kiss. "Let me be there for you. I want to be there for you. I want you to know you can rely on me… I want to give you comfort and encouragement."
Chandler kissed her hard. Without realizing it himself he took his frustration over the situation he was in out in the kiss. He gently pushed her back so that she was laying down again, and then he ended the kiss.
Monica rose and got off the bed. She closed the blinds and then turned to look at him.
"Let's just go to bed, huh?" she said. "I don't want to have to get out of bed afterwards just to brush my teeth and turn off lights."
Chandler nodded and got off the bed as well. He went up to her and kissed her on the neck, then he left to brush his teeth. Monica took off her clothes and pulled her robe around her while she waited for him to return. They had a very small bathroom by their bedroom and it was more comfortable to go in there one and one. Chandler came back and went out to turn all the lights off.
They met in bed five minutes later and Chandler kissed her hard again. Monica felt his frustration but didn't really know how to easen it. She figured she should just let him act it out, as long as he didn't end up accidentally hurting her. She gently stroke his back and hoped that by giving him affection she could calm him down.
His mouth left hers and he began kissing her further and further down. Monica noticed that he was pretty much on autopilot, he was just making her ready for what he really needed. She tried to clear her mind and not think about why he was kissing her and touching her with less tenderness and care than usually. She knew it was all just frustration over the arrest, but his slightly harsh way of touching and caressing her frightened her a little. She hadn't really realized just how shaken he was by what had happened earlier that day.
After a while his lips were by hers again and he was inside of her. She opened her eyes and saw that his were closed, and he had a very concentrated look on his face. She wasn't prepared for the force he was using, and she gave up trying to calm him down with just tenderness. She tapped him on the shoulder and he opened his eyes to look at her.
"I'm here too, Chandler…" she gently said. "Relax a little…"
He nodded and kissed her again, with tenderness this time. He relaxed and went over to his usual gentle way. But after just a few minutes he was getting harsh again, and his forcefulness was starting to hurt her.
"Chandler!" she said in a loud tone to get his attention. "Honey you're hurting me."
The next second he had gotten off her and swung his legs over the side of the bed and was sitting there with his face hidden in his hands. Monica sat up and moved over to him. She placed her hands around his shoulders and lovingly kissed him on the cheek.
"I'm sorry" she heard him mumble.
"That's okay" she said. "You stopped when I told you, so don't feel sorry."
She could hear him sigh deeply and she quietly waited for him to speak.
"What kind of a man am I, Mon?" he finally asked.
"What?" Monica said, confused.
"What kind of a man am I?" he repeated, letting his hands fall and turning to look at her. "Taking out my frustration on my wife like that…"
Monica couldn't help chuckling.
"Sweetheart, it's not like you were trying to hurt me" she said. "And I was just fine until the last ten seconds or so."
"You shouldn't have to be not fine at all" he said. "You should be nothing else than fine when we sleep together."
"Relax Chandler, it's okay, really it is."
"Yeah, well I'm sorry anyway…" he said and gently stroke her cheek. "I promise you, it will never happen again."
"It barely happened even this time" Monica replied and kissed him lightly. He took her in his arms and kissed her with love and tenderness this time, not with frustration.
*
"Monica…" Chandler said later that night when they were lying close together in their bed. "What will Lukas think of me?"
"About what?" Monica asked, though she knew exactly what he was talking about.
"About this whole stock thing… Especially if I go to jail…"
"Honey would you stop?" Monica said. "You are not going to go to jail! Lukas is only going to remember this as something his father was wrongfully accused of."
"But what if they do find me guilty?" Chandler asked.
"How could they when you're not?"
"They could… believe me… Otherwise there would be no innocent people in jail."
"This will all work out Chandler" Monica assured him. "They have nothing but loose accusations and vague so called evidence. So you bought stock for a restaurant, so your company handled the stock exchange-thing, so what? That doesn't mean you did anything! This is probably just a routine check!"
"Well in that case, what's with the 'you're under arrest' ting, and the $4000 you paid in bail today?" Chandler asked. "Monica I can't prove that I DIDN'T do anything illegal, there isn't really a way to prove that I never overheard anybody saying that the stocks for Allessandro's would be worth a lot! It's my word against other people's words."
"You've never done anything illegal before" Monica pointed out. "You've got a good job, you live in a nice neighbourhood, the money you'd earn from the stocks wouldn't be IMPORTANT to you. You wouldn't need it to pay off any debts, bills or anything like that, you wouldn't need it to make sure we didn't loose the house or anything like that. They have no motive for why you would do it, honey. Except for greed, but anyone who knows you can certify that you're not the greedy type."
Chandler was quiet for a second.
"But Monica, what if I actually DID do it? I've heard so many accusations today that I'm starting to believe them myself, it's like I don't know anymore! Maybe I DID overhear someone talking about it, maybe I DID buy you the stocks for more reasons than as a birthday present."
Monica lifted herself up and leaned her upper body on one arm, looking down at him.
"Chandler Bing, do you know something?" she said. "You did NOT do anything illegal. I don't believe that, not even for a SECOND. Even if you would stare me in the eye and say 'Monica, I did do it' I still wouldn't believe that you actually did. I know you, and I know that you wouldn't do something like this just to get a few more thousand a year!"
Chandler slowly turned his head and looked at her. He smiled slightly when he looked at her face. He didn't feel like smiling, but he couldn't help himself when he looked at her. His love for her brought on the smile.
"Thank you for believing in me…" he said.
"Thank you for giving me someone to always believe in" Monica replied, and kissed him lightly.
*
The following month passed by very slowly. There were interrogations here and new evidence there, and Chandler didn't know how he would get through it all if he didn't have the support of his friends.
Monica was always with him when she was allowed to during the interrogations, but it wasn't often that she was allowed to be present. She didn't do special things to cheer him up, instead she did her best to keep their lives as ordinary as possible, and Chandler appreciated it. And she never even for a second doubted his innocence.
Next to Monica, Joey was the one who gave him the most support. Joey often came by during the evenings and hung out with Chandler, assuring him that he would get out of this situation without a problem. In the middle of everything else that was going on, Chandler noticed something weird between Monica and Joey, it was like they didn't want to be around each other. Monica often excused herself and left when Joey came by, and then let the two men hang out by themselves, and Joey seemed thankful. But he dismissed it as a paranoid feeling and didn't think about it much.
Phoebe, her husband and her two year-old daughter came by twice a week to offer support and to just hang out. Rachel and Nigel did the same. Ross came around every now and then, and he talked to Todd every day to find out what the current situation was. Even Jack and Judy stopped by once a week, but Chandler had the feeling that they mostly came by for Monica's sake.
*
Three weeks after they called their affair quits, Monica and Joey were alone together again for the first time. Joey had stopped by to see Chandler, but Chandler had gone by at his office to pick some stuff up. He had been fired earlier that day, since his company didn't want any lawbreakers working for them. The fact that he hadn't been proven guilty or that he had worked there for years with no bad remarks, didn't matter. "Corporate Policy" was the term they had used when they had called and fired him.
Joey sat down on one of the couches in the living room. Monica sat down in the other. An awkward silence spread.
"So…" Joey said.
"So…" Monica echoed.
"So how is Chandler today? Worse or better?"
"A lot worse. The company called and fired him" Monica reported, feeling sorry for her husband. "Over the phone, Joey! How low is that, really? He's been there for seventeen years, and they can't even tell him he's fired to his face!"
"Yeah, that is low…" Joey agreed.
"You know, we've got to sort a few things out, you and I" Monica said. "Like for example that our friendship doesn't need to be over just because of this!"
"Can our friendship survive this, Monica?" Joey asked.
"It should be able to" Monica said. "Ross and Rachel are still great friends."
"We're not Ross and Rachel" Joey commented. "And they didn't have to carry the burden of knowing that they'd betrayed someone so close to them by just being together. We both knew that our affair was WRONG, but that didn't stop us! I lay awake every night for two reasons Monica. One is that I can't just make sense of it all, how we could DO such a thing! And the second is even worse, because it makes the first reason worse. Because I also miss you--"
"Joey don't!" Monica cut him off. "Don't. You just think that you miss me. You miss IT, not ME. The affair, not the woman you had it with."
"So what are you saying, I should go screw some other married woman?"
"Joey shut up!" Monica hissed. "You don't need to remind me that I'm married, and you don't need to call it 'screwing', you know I hate that term!"
"How do you feel, Monica?" Joey asked coldly. "How does it feel to lay down next to him every single night?"
"It feels just fine!" Monica hissed. "What, you think I miss you? Think again, Joey. There was nothing emotional in our affair, not for me! My love is for CHANDLER. And you know that it is."
"I wasn't talking about that. How does it feel to lay down next to him and know that just a few weeks ago you were having sex with his best friend? Knowing that he trusted you so, and still does, when you've betrayed his trust in the worst possible way!"
"It feels terrible, okay?" Monica said. "I feel so terrible! We were a MISTAKE, you and I! And yet we continued making the same mistake over and over. But it's OVER now, for good! And I try not to think about it. We have to put it behind us. Chandler needs me 100% now. And he needs you. I think you and I should just try and patch up our friendship and move on with our lives. You and I are never going to be a couple for real, both of us know that, so the only other alternative is friendship. I can't lead a double life as Chandler's wife and your lover, and Chandler is not stupid, he would have found out sooner or later! He's suspected me of seeing someone else this summer, I'm quite sure of it! He just hasn't said anything, but I could tell sometimes from the look in his eyes. It was as if he was asking me where I had been, what I had been doing and with whom. Joey it's pointless to discuss the thing you and I had, all we can have is friendship and we'd better work on saving that! I don't want to loose you as a friend!"
"I don't want to loose you either, Monica" Joey said. "But this is all hard for me. I like you, Mon. I don't love you like Chandler does, but I still have some sort of--"
"No you don't" Monica said, cutting him off again.
She rose and went to greet Chandler, who had come home right when she had cut Joey off. Joey looked at her back as she left the living room, and he wondered if she had cut him off because she didn't want to hear it, or because she did want to hear it.
Please review. I would btw like to send a special thanks to all of you who have in mails or reviews supported me since I began writing this series, I know a lot of people dislike the plot but knowing that many of them still support me with this series is great! Thanks to all of you (especially Ashlee), I hope I won't let you down with the rest of the series.
INTRODUCTION: Part five in this series... There won't be many more parts. I'm ending this series soon, 'cause I've gotten so many complaints about it. Suits me right I guess, for trying to write a story like this, lol! Anyway, there will be at least three more parts after this one, but that will probably be it...
DISCLAIMER: The "Friends" characters belong to Bright, Kauffman and Crane.
Joey stared at her. He had known this moment would come sooner or later, that it would be over for good. He just hadn't expected it right now. He knew that Chandler needed her much more than he did right now, and he had no intention of asking her to stay. But it felt hard.
Monica looked sad. She gave him a warm hug.
"I like you Joey. I really do. But this has been so wrong. All the way it's been wrong. I belong with Chandler. And especially right now, my place is next to him. I'm going to devote myself entirely into this situation and to fight for him."
"Well you should" Joey agreed, trying to hold back how sad he was. "Just like I am going to. I am going to make this up to him, the great betrayal I'm guilty of. I'm going to be the best friend he could ask for now." He sighed deeply. "But Monica every day I am going to be jealous of him because no matter how hard his life will be in the future, he still has what I want."
"You'll find a woman to marry too, some day…" Monica assured him, and gently stroke his cheek.
Joey made a face. That wasn't what he had meant. What he wanted, that Chandler had, was her. But he could never let her know that.
She walked back to the living room and he followed shortly after. Chandler had come back from the bathroom and he put his arms around Monica for comfort when she sat down next to him again. She hugged him back and kissed him lovingly on the forehead.
Joey sat down opposite them and hated his life. Chandler thought he had a problem, but it wasn't as hard as Joey's problem was. Chandler now had Monica as his and only his again, she would be there for him throughout this entire thing, while Joey would be all alone.
*
It was past midnight when Chandler and Monica finally got to be alone. Lukas was in bed and everyone else had gone home. They closed the door to their bedroom and Chandler slumped down on the bed.
"Oh good god, Monica…" he said, hiding his eyes behind his hands and falling backwards on the bed. "How did I end up in this mess, huh?"
"I don't know…" Monica said, walking over to him. She sank down next to him and gently rubbed his leg. "I don't know, but we will get you out of this okay. Trust me on this, honey."
Chandler let his hands sink down from his face and he looked at her.
"Monica I could go to jail for this! If they find me guilty of insider trading I might end up in jail for more than a YEAR!"
"How could they find you guilty?" Monica objected. She leaned back so that she lay next to him and she let her hand stroke his arm instead of his leg. "Honey you did not do this. You didn't do anything wrong!"
Chandler sighed and sat back up again.
"Monica I did buy those stocks…" he said, afraid to look at her. "But I…"
Monica sat up as well and put her arm around his shoulder.
"Chandler… Buying stocks is not the same thing as committing inside trading! Several people have bought stocks, Allessandro's has restaurants in three places in New York, two in Chicago and one in some town in Maine! The restaurant has gotten a lot more successful than it was when I began working there, and owning stock would give you quite some money… It's no wonder people have bought them! But just because you bought some almost right away it doesn't mean that you've done anything ILLEGAL!"
"Then how come they're just accusing me? Why not everybody else with stocks in the damn restaurant?"
"Because you work where you do, and because one of the sections of the company you work for deals with stocks… They probably think you picked something up at work and thought it would bring in lots of money!"
"Doesn't anybody care that my wife works there and that I bought the stocks as a birthday present for her?" Chandler said, beginning to sound desperate.
"I figured that's why you bought them…" Monica said. She gently rubbed his arm and leaned in to kiss him.
Chandler put an arm around her when she kissed him, and let her comfort him. He was trying not to be scared, but he was terrified. Weather or not he had done anything illegal he might get sentenced for it. Innocent people were sent to death row and executed, so why wouldn't he be able to get sent to prison for a year or more?
Monica kissed him deeper and felt a feeling of joy and relief come over her. It was one of the worst days of her life so far, the situation with Chandler was terrible and the straw that had broken the camel's back was her ending it with Joey. But at the same time it felt good, because she knew now for certain where she belonged. She wondered if that had been the whole reason for her relationship with Joey in the first place; to get to find out for sure if she had made the right choice with Chandler. She had never doubted it as far as she knew, but maybe her subconscious knew her better.
"Chandler let me help you get through this…" she mumbled when she ended the kiss. "Let me be there for you. I want to be there for you. I want you to know you can rely on me… I want to give you comfort and encouragement."
Chandler kissed her hard. Without realizing it himself he took his frustration over the situation he was in out in the kiss. He gently pushed her back so that she was laying down again, and then he ended the kiss.
Monica rose and got off the bed. She closed the blinds and then turned to look at him.
"Let's just go to bed, huh?" she said. "I don't want to have to get out of bed afterwards just to brush my teeth and turn off lights."
Chandler nodded and got off the bed as well. He went up to her and kissed her on the neck, then he left to brush his teeth. Monica took off her clothes and pulled her robe around her while she waited for him to return. They had a very small bathroom by their bedroom and it was more comfortable to go in there one and one. Chandler came back and went out to turn all the lights off.
They met in bed five minutes later and Chandler kissed her hard again. Monica felt his frustration but didn't really know how to easen it. She figured she should just let him act it out, as long as he didn't end up accidentally hurting her. She gently stroke his back and hoped that by giving him affection she could calm him down.
His mouth left hers and he began kissing her further and further down. Monica noticed that he was pretty much on autopilot, he was just making her ready for what he really needed. She tried to clear her mind and not think about why he was kissing her and touching her with less tenderness and care than usually. She knew it was all just frustration over the arrest, but his slightly harsh way of touching and caressing her frightened her a little. She hadn't really realized just how shaken he was by what had happened earlier that day.
After a while his lips were by hers again and he was inside of her. She opened her eyes and saw that his were closed, and he had a very concentrated look on his face. She wasn't prepared for the force he was using, and she gave up trying to calm him down with just tenderness. She tapped him on the shoulder and he opened his eyes to look at her.
"I'm here too, Chandler…" she gently said. "Relax a little…"
He nodded and kissed her again, with tenderness this time. He relaxed and went over to his usual gentle way. But after just a few minutes he was getting harsh again, and his forcefulness was starting to hurt her.
"Chandler!" she said in a loud tone to get his attention. "Honey you're hurting me."
The next second he had gotten off her and swung his legs over the side of the bed and was sitting there with his face hidden in his hands. Monica sat up and moved over to him. She placed her hands around his shoulders and lovingly kissed him on the cheek.
"I'm sorry" she heard him mumble.
"That's okay" she said. "You stopped when I told you, so don't feel sorry."
She could hear him sigh deeply and she quietly waited for him to speak.
"What kind of a man am I, Mon?" he finally asked.
"What?" Monica said, confused.
"What kind of a man am I?" he repeated, letting his hands fall and turning to look at her. "Taking out my frustration on my wife like that…"
Monica couldn't help chuckling.
"Sweetheart, it's not like you were trying to hurt me" she said. "And I was just fine until the last ten seconds or so."
"You shouldn't have to be not fine at all" he said. "You should be nothing else than fine when we sleep together."
"Relax Chandler, it's okay, really it is."
"Yeah, well I'm sorry anyway…" he said and gently stroke her cheek. "I promise you, it will never happen again."
"It barely happened even this time" Monica replied and kissed him lightly. He took her in his arms and kissed her with love and tenderness this time, not with frustration.
*
"Monica…" Chandler said later that night when they were lying close together in their bed. "What will Lukas think of me?"
"About what?" Monica asked, though she knew exactly what he was talking about.
"About this whole stock thing… Especially if I go to jail…"
"Honey would you stop?" Monica said. "You are not going to go to jail! Lukas is only going to remember this as something his father was wrongfully accused of."
"But what if they do find me guilty?" Chandler asked.
"How could they when you're not?"
"They could… believe me… Otherwise there would be no innocent people in jail."
"This will all work out Chandler" Monica assured him. "They have nothing but loose accusations and vague so called evidence. So you bought stock for a restaurant, so your company handled the stock exchange-thing, so what? That doesn't mean you did anything! This is probably just a routine check!"
"Well in that case, what's with the 'you're under arrest' ting, and the $4000 you paid in bail today?" Chandler asked. "Monica I can't prove that I DIDN'T do anything illegal, there isn't really a way to prove that I never overheard anybody saying that the stocks for Allessandro's would be worth a lot! It's my word against other people's words."
"You've never done anything illegal before" Monica pointed out. "You've got a good job, you live in a nice neighbourhood, the money you'd earn from the stocks wouldn't be IMPORTANT to you. You wouldn't need it to pay off any debts, bills or anything like that, you wouldn't need it to make sure we didn't loose the house or anything like that. They have no motive for why you would do it, honey. Except for greed, but anyone who knows you can certify that you're not the greedy type."
Chandler was quiet for a second.
"But Monica, what if I actually DID do it? I've heard so many accusations today that I'm starting to believe them myself, it's like I don't know anymore! Maybe I DID overhear someone talking about it, maybe I DID buy you the stocks for more reasons than as a birthday present."
Monica lifted herself up and leaned her upper body on one arm, looking down at him.
"Chandler Bing, do you know something?" she said. "You did NOT do anything illegal. I don't believe that, not even for a SECOND. Even if you would stare me in the eye and say 'Monica, I did do it' I still wouldn't believe that you actually did. I know you, and I know that you wouldn't do something like this just to get a few more thousand a year!"
Chandler slowly turned his head and looked at her. He smiled slightly when he looked at her face. He didn't feel like smiling, but he couldn't help himself when he looked at her. His love for her brought on the smile.
"Thank you for believing in me…" he said.
"Thank you for giving me someone to always believe in" Monica replied, and kissed him lightly.
*
The following month passed by very slowly. There were interrogations here and new evidence there, and Chandler didn't know how he would get through it all if he didn't have the support of his friends.
Monica was always with him when she was allowed to during the interrogations, but it wasn't often that she was allowed to be present. She didn't do special things to cheer him up, instead she did her best to keep their lives as ordinary as possible, and Chandler appreciated it. And she never even for a second doubted his innocence.
Next to Monica, Joey was the one who gave him the most support. Joey often came by during the evenings and hung out with Chandler, assuring him that he would get out of this situation without a problem. In the middle of everything else that was going on, Chandler noticed something weird between Monica and Joey, it was like they didn't want to be around each other. Monica often excused herself and left when Joey came by, and then let the two men hang out by themselves, and Joey seemed thankful. But he dismissed it as a paranoid feeling and didn't think about it much.
Phoebe, her husband and her two year-old daughter came by twice a week to offer support and to just hang out. Rachel and Nigel did the same. Ross came around every now and then, and he talked to Todd every day to find out what the current situation was. Even Jack and Judy stopped by once a week, but Chandler had the feeling that they mostly came by for Monica's sake.
*
Three weeks after they called their affair quits, Monica and Joey were alone together again for the first time. Joey had stopped by to see Chandler, but Chandler had gone by at his office to pick some stuff up. He had been fired earlier that day, since his company didn't want any lawbreakers working for them. The fact that he hadn't been proven guilty or that he had worked there for years with no bad remarks, didn't matter. "Corporate Policy" was the term they had used when they had called and fired him.
Joey sat down on one of the couches in the living room. Monica sat down in the other. An awkward silence spread.
"So…" Joey said.
"So…" Monica echoed.
"So how is Chandler today? Worse or better?"
"A lot worse. The company called and fired him" Monica reported, feeling sorry for her husband. "Over the phone, Joey! How low is that, really? He's been there for seventeen years, and they can't even tell him he's fired to his face!"
"Yeah, that is low…" Joey agreed.
"You know, we've got to sort a few things out, you and I" Monica said. "Like for example that our friendship doesn't need to be over just because of this!"
"Can our friendship survive this, Monica?" Joey asked.
"It should be able to" Monica said. "Ross and Rachel are still great friends."
"We're not Ross and Rachel" Joey commented. "And they didn't have to carry the burden of knowing that they'd betrayed someone so close to them by just being together. We both knew that our affair was WRONG, but that didn't stop us! I lay awake every night for two reasons Monica. One is that I can't just make sense of it all, how we could DO such a thing! And the second is even worse, because it makes the first reason worse. Because I also miss you--"
"Joey don't!" Monica cut him off. "Don't. You just think that you miss me. You miss IT, not ME. The affair, not the woman you had it with."
"So what are you saying, I should go screw some other married woman?"
"Joey shut up!" Monica hissed. "You don't need to remind me that I'm married, and you don't need to call it 'screwing', you know I hate that term!"
"How do you feel, Monica?" Joey asked coldly. "How does it feel to lay down next to him every single night?"
"It feels just fine!" Monica hissed. "What, you think I miss you? Think again, Joey. There was nothing emotional in our affair, not for me! My love is for CHANDLER. And you know that it is."
"I wasn't talking about that. How does it feel to lay down next to him and know that just a few weeks ago you were having sex with his best friend? Knowing that he trusted you so, and still does, when you've betrayed his trust in the worst possible way!"
"It feels terrible, okay?" Monica said. "I feel so terrible! We were a MISTAKE, you and I! And yet we continued making the same mistake over and over. But it's OVER now, for good! And I try not to think about it. We have to put it behind us. Chandler needs me 100% now. And he needs you. I think you and I should just try and patch up our friendship and move on with our lives. You and I are never going to be a couple for real, both of us know that, so the only other alternative is friendship. I can't lead a double life as Chandler's wife and your lover, and Chandler is not stupid, he would have found out sooner or later! He's suspected me of seeing someone else this summer, I'm quite sure of it! He just hasn't said anything, but I could tell sometimes from the look in his eyes. It was as if he was asking me where I had been, what I had been doing and with whom. Joey it's pointless to discuss the thing you and I had, all we can have is friendship and we'd better work on saving that! I don't want to loose you as a friend!"
"I don't want to loose you either, Monica" Joey said. "But this is all hard for me. I like you, Mon. I don't love you like Chandler does, but I still have some sort of--"
"No you don't" Monica said, cutting him off again.
She rose and went to greet Chandler, who had come home right when she had cut Joey off. Joey looked at her back as she left the living room, and he wondered if she had cut him off because she didn't want to hear it, or because she did want to hear it.
Please review. I would btw like to send a special thanks to all of you who have in mails or reviews supported me since I began writing this series, I know a lot of people dislike the plot but knowing that many of them still support me with this series is great! Thanks to all of you (especially Ashlee), I hope I won't let you down with the rest of the series.