Part 2. A couple of days after Ross's party.
-
"Guys, look!" exclaimed Joey, ushering his friends over to the window. "Ugly Naked Guy is wearing clothes!"
Phoebe peered through the window. "Oh yeah. He's showing Chandler the place."
Ross, Rachel and Monica joined Phoebe and Joey at the window. "Wow," Rachel mused, "He looks so different wearing clothes."
The group could see Ugly Not-So-Naked Guy go into another room, and Chandler turned to them and waved, crossing his fingers. They waved back, and he smiled.
"I hope Chandler gets the apartment," said Ross. "It'd be so cool to hang out with him."
"Yeah, he IS really nice," Phoebe agreed, casting her eyes momentarily towards Monica, who didn't notice. The group returned to their seats.
"So, if he did does get the apartment, he could be hanging out with us alot," Rachel realised aloud. The others contemplated this and nodded in an approval kind of way.
"He's gay," Joey stated, as if making an important declaration.
"Your point being...?" Ross prompted.
"I hope he isn't a drag queen or something."
The others rolled their eyes and looked at Joey in disgust.
"He's just a regular guy!" Monica told him.
"Yeah," said Rachel, "So what if he's gay?"
Joey shrugged. "I dunno. He seems okay....What if he comes onto me?"
The others didn't even bother answering Joey's question, he was just acting immature. They all knew Chandler was a perfectly nice guy, gay or straight.
"I guess it would be kinda weird if he bought a boyfriend home to meet us..." said Phoebe.
"No it wouldn't," Ross said. "Grow up, the world is full of gay people."
"How long has he been gay, do you know?" Monica asked Ross.
"Umm, I remember for awhile in college he seemed to be...I dunno, confused. His dad's gay, and he was always worried he would turn out like him. Actually, to tell you the truth, there was this gay guy who I think had a thing for Chandler, and they spent quite alot of time together, so I thought maybe..." Ross trailed off, leaving the rest for the others to figure out.
"Ohh..." they chorused.
They left it at that. Rachel mentioned some movie and the others welcomed the change of subject. They talked about whatever for awhile, when there was a sharp knock on the door.
"I'll get it," Monica volunteered, standing up. She opened the door to see Chandler, a smile on his face. She returned his smile.
"Hey," he greeted.
"Hi, come in."
Chandler did so.
"How did it go?" Monica asked him, shutting the door.
"Oh, I think it went pretty well," said Chandler, proudly. "He said I could move in on Tuesday, so I took that as a fairly good sign."
A wave of "Oh that's great"s filled the room as Chandler sat down.
"This is awesome, man, we can be friends again," Ross smiled.
"Ooh, okay, I have to make a speech!" Phoebe cleared her throat, "OK, I hereby declare that Chandler...um...?"
"Bing," Chandler provided.
"Chandler Bing is officially a member of our group."
"Aw, thanks, Phoebe," Chandler grinned.
"And don't worry, we're all cool with the gay thing," Joey told Chandler re-assuringly.
Ross, Phoebe, Monica and Rachel gave Joey a look that said, 'Uh-oh, you've done it now.'
Chandler just laughed. "Thanks, Joey, that sure didn't create an akward atmosphere," he said in a friendly sarcastic way.
"You're gonna have to ignore Joey. He's been like this ever since they removed the mass of dead nerve tissue from his head," Ross joked.
Joey just looked confused. "Was that an insult?"
"Shh, you just rest, you know you're not supposed to think too much," Phoebe said gently.
Joey pouted a little, but laughed along with the rest of them.
"Well, I'm gonna go now, I wanna get an early start on packing, but I'll catch up with you guys tomorrow?"
"Sure."
Chandler stood up. "See ya."
As soon as he left, Joey said, "Is anyone else really gonna miss Ugly Naked Guy?"
-
Monica wiped her brow. It had been a bad morning at the resturaunt. They'd run out of lettuce, a waitress spilled a plate of curry, and that was all on top of Monica's co-workers putting her down every chance they had. So when a waitress entered the kitchen and told her some guy wanted to see her, Monica was both suprised and relieved to be getting away from it for a few minutes.
"Send him in," she instructed.
The waitress rolled her eyes and did as she was told. Monica didn't care, she was used to rude people. She started to look busy.
"Hey there."
Monica looked up and was suprised to see Chandler standing in the doorway, smiling.
"Chandler, hi. What are you doing here?"
"I hope you don't mind. Ross told me you worked here, and since I have absolutley nothing to do today, I figured I'd come and see if you wanted to do something in your lunchbreak...Only if you want to," he added, suddenly worried Monica didn't like him that much.
Monica found she liked this idea very much. "No, I'd love to. Can you wait ten minutes, I'm just gonna finish up some stuff in here."
"Sure."
Monica quickly finished off a few things and hung up her chef's coat. She grabbed her bag and headed out to find Chandler waiting for her.
"Hey," he said warmly.
"Hi. Thanks for coming, you actually rescued me, I've had the worst morning!"
Chandler extended his arm. "Tell me all about it."
As they walked down the street, Monica couldn't help but think what a gentleman Chandler was. He was polite, he actually listened to what she was saying and he was able to make her feel better without even trying. Monica laughed to herself when she remembered Phoebe saying almost the exact same thing when she was in love with Duncan, the gay ice dancer.
'But I'm not in love with him,' Monica reminded herself. Still, what Phoebe had said back then was true, all the good ones were gay.
They didn't know where they were going to go for lunch, but ended up in quite an unoriginal place--Central Perk. They got some cake and coffee to go and took them over to the park. It was fun just sitting and talking, finding out more about each other.
Monica was laughing after Chandler had told her a funny story, in a non-flirty way, she'd made sure, when he looked down for a moment, then back up at her and asked, "So, how about you? Is there some guy out there who's gonna get jealous if he sees his girlfriend sitting in Central Park talking to another guy?"
"Nope," Monica said with a sigh. Chandler's look told her to go on, so she said, "Well, there was till about a year ago. He left me...for a guy."
Chandler's eyebrows raised in suprise. "Ouch."
Monica shrugged. "That's what I thought."
"I guess I can identify with that," he said sympathetically. "What happened?"
"Well, we had a good relationship. Everything was fine, we had a healthy sex life and everything, and then one day he told me he'd been seeing alot of some guy, and as it turned out, he'd fallen in love with this guy, and was leaving me to be with him."
"Oh...that's...that's gotta suck."
Monica sipped her coffee and licked her lips. "Yeah."
"My last relationship actually started something like yours ended...the guy had a girlfriend, and didn't realise he was gay...until something seemed to be happening between him and me..."
"Ah."
"Yeah, he left his girlfriend right away and we started dating," Chandler paused. "So I guess it's almost the exact same situation, from different perspectives."
"Are you still with him?"
"No. Actually, breaking up with him sealed my desicion to accept the transfer. He was cheating on me."
"Oh my God, that's awful!"
Chandler nodded. "Cheating IS awful. It makes you eat ice cream and repeatedly say that men suck."
"Exactly!"
The look of total agreement on Monica's face caused Chandler to laugh. "So, what's the deal with Ross and Rachel, then?"
Monica exhaled, this was a long-ish story. "Hmm. Well, it started it ninth grade..."
"Yeah, I can remember Ross telling me all about her in college, but I guess after college I lost track of the daily episodes of the Ross and Rachel Soap."
"They got together awhile after Rachel moved in with me. They fought quite alot. They're currently broken up for the third time, which is sad since they were almost at the point of getting engaged."
"That serious, huh?"
"Yeah. I'm not worried, though. They'll get back together."
Chandler nodded his head understandingly. "Ya think?"
"Yeah. They can never stay apart too long."
"If they were that close, I hope for their sake they can make it work."
Monica agreed. "That's about how serious I was with Richard, you know, until his new-found sexualtiy hit."
Chandler paused for a moment. "What's his last name?"
"Burke. Why?"
Suddenly Chandler looked away, lightly ripping grass from the ground.
"What?"
"Tall guy? 50-ish? Moustache?"
Monica was intruiged. "Yeah, that's him. Why?"
"I guess he never told you the name of the guy he left you for, huh?"
"No...why?"
Chandler just looked at her. It suddenly seemed to click.
"No!" she gasped. "Oh my God!"
"Sorry..."
"What-no! I don't believe this!" she cried. "This is unbelievable, it's-it's...ew!"
"Ew?"
"No! No, of course not, no it's not ew. It's just...I never would've pictured you with him!"
"Yeah, he wasn't really my type to begin with."
Monica was silent, in awe of what she'd just learned.
"Are you pissed at me for breaking up your relationship?"
Monica frowned. "I-no. No, I just...woah! I still can't believe it. And...no. I'm not pissed at you, the relationship wasn't exactly destined to be, anyway...oh my God, this is hard to register."
"I still feel guilty. I mean, I always did, knowing I broke up a relationship, but if it's any consolation to either of us, he never told me he was involved with anyone until after he broke up with her. You. After he broke up with you."
Monica sighed, staring into space. She looked back at Chandler and smiled, relieving the worried expression on his face. "This is weird...how long were you two together for?"
"We broke up almost four months ago...well, I dumped him after I found out he cheated," Chandler answered, muttering, "Asshole."
"Were you serious about him?"
Chandler thought about this for a moment. "Not really. I always thought he was cool. He was fun, but...definitly not someone I'd picture myself with long-term."
"That's kinda how I felt, even if I didn't realise it at the time."
"I guess we both got screwed over by him."
"Yeah..." Monica trailed off again, looking down.
"Hey," Chandler touched her face, making her look up, "No hard feelings, right?"
"No hard feelings," she smiled.
"I really wanna be your friend. I don't want the past to ruin that."
"It won't."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
Chandler held out his hand, and they shook, as if sealing the deal. "OK, you should probably go back now. I don't wanna be responsible for getting you in trouble."
"I'm the boss," she grinned, and they stood up to go.
-
"Guys, look!" exclaimed Joey, ushering his friends over to the window. "Ugly Naked Guy is wearing clothes!"
Phoebe peered through the window. "Oh yeah. He's showing Chandler the place."
Ross, Rachel and Monica joined Phoebe and Joey at the window. "Wow," Rachel mused, "He looks so different wearing clothes."
The group could see Ugly Not-So-Naked Guy go into another room, and Chandler turned to them and waved, crossing his fingers. They waved back, and he smiled.
"I hope Chandler gets the apartment," said Ross. "It'd be so cool to hang out with him."
"Yeah, he IS really nice," Phoebe agreed, casting her eyes momentarily towards Monica, who didn't notice. The group returned to their seats.
"So, if he did does get the apartment, he could be hanging out with us alot," Rachel realised aloud. The others contemplated this and nodded in an approval kind of way.
"He's gay," Joey stated, as if making an important declaration.
"Your point being...?" Ross prompted.
"I hope he isn't a drag queen or something."
The others rolled their eyes and looked at Joey in disgust.
"He's just a regular guy!" Monica told him.
"Yeah," said Rachel, "So what if he's gay?"
Joey shrugged. "I dunno. He seems okay....What if he comes onto me?"
The others didn't even bother answering Joey's question, he was just acting immature. They all knew Chandler was a perfectly nice guy, gay or straight.
"I guess it would be kinda weird if he bought a boyfriend home to meet us..." said Phoebe.
"No it wouldn't," Ross said. "Grow up, the world is full of gay people."
"How long has he been gay, do you know?" Monica asked Ross.
"Umm, I remember for awhile in college he seemed to be...I dunno, confused. His dad's gay, and he was always worried he would turn out like him. Actually, to tell you the truth, there was this gay guy who I think had a thing for Chandler, and they spent quite alot of time together, so I thought maybe..." Ross trailed off, leaving the rest for the others to figure out.
"Ohh..." they chorused.
They left it at that. Rachel mentioned some movie and the others welcomed the change of subject. They talked about whatever for awhile, when there was a sharp knock on the door.
"I'll get it," Monica volunteered, standing up. She opened the door to see Chandler, a smile on his face. She returned his smile.
"Hey," he greeted.
"Hi, come in."
Chandler did so.
"How did it go?" Monica asked him, shutting the door.
"Oh, I think it went pretty well," said Chandler, proudly. "He said I could move in on Tuesday, so I took that as a fairly good sign."
A wave of "Oh that's great"s filled the room as Chandler sat down.
"This is awesome, man, we can be friends again," Ross smiled.
"Ooh, okay, I have to make a speech!" Phoebe cleared her throat, "OK, I hereby declare that Chandler...um...?"
"Bing," Chandler provided.
"Chandler Bing is officially a member of our group."
"Aw, thanks, Phoebe," Chandler grinned.
"And don't worry, we're all cool with the gay thing," Joey told Chandler re-assuringly.
Ross, Phoebe, Monica and Rachel gave Joey a look that said, 'Uh-oh, you've done it now.'
Chandler just laughed. "Thanks, Joey, that sure didn't create an akward atmosphere," he said in a friendly sarcastic way.
"You're gonna have to ignore Joey. He's been like this ever since they removed the mass of dead nerve tissue from his head," Ross joked.
Joey just looked confused. "Was that an insult?"
"Shh, you just rest, you know you're not supposed to think too much," Phoebe said gently.
Joey pouted a little, but laughed along with the rest of them.
"Well, I'm gonna go now, I wanna get an early start on packing, but I'll catch up with you guys tomorrow?"
"Sure."
Chandler stood up. "See ya."
As soon as he left, Joey said, "Is anyone else really gonna miss Ugly Naked Guy?"
-
Monica wiped her brow. It had been a bad morning at the resturaunt. They'd run out of lettuce, a waitress spilled a plate of curry, and that was all on top of Monica's co-workers putting her down every chance they had. So when a waitress entered the kitchen and told her some guy wanted to see her, Monica was both suprised and relieved to be getting away from it for a few minutes.
"Send him in," she instructed.
The waitress rolled her eyes and did as she was told. Monica didn't care, she was used to rude people. She started to look busy.
"Hey there."
Monica looked up and was suprised to see Chandler standing in the doorway, smiling.
"Chandler, hi. What are you doing here?"
"I hope you don't mind. Ross told me you worked here, and since I have absolutley nothing to do today, I figured I'd come and see if you wanted to do something in your lunchbreak...Only if you want to," he added, suddenly worried Monica didn't like him that much.
Monica found she liked this idea very much. "No, I'd love to. Can you wait ten minutes, I'm just gonna finish up some stuff in here."
"Sure."
Monica quickly finished off a few things and hung up her chef's coat. She grabbed her bag and headed out to find Chandler waiting for her.
"Hey," he said warmly.
"Hi. Thanks for coming, you actually rescued me, I've had the worst morning!"
Chandler extended his arm. "Tell me all about it."
As they walked down the street, Monica couldn't help but think what a gentleman Chandler was. He was polite, he actually listened to what she was saying and he was able to make her feel better without even trying. Monica laughed to herself when she remembered Phoebe saying almost the exact same thing when she was in love with Duncan, the gay ice dancer.
'But I'm not in love with him,' Monica reminded herself. Still, what Phoebe had said back then was true, all the good ones were gay.
They didn't know where they were going to go for lunch, but ended up in quite an unoriginal place--Central Perk. They got some cake and coffee to go and took them over to the park. It was fun just sitting and talking, finding out more about each other.
Monica was laughing after Chandler had told her a funny story, in a non-flirty way, she'd made sure, when he looked down for a moment, then back up at her and asked, "So, how about you? Is there some guy out there who's gonna get jealous if he sees his girlfriend sitting in Central Park talking to another guy?"
"Nope," Monica said with a sigh. Chandler's look told her to go on, so she said, "Well, there was till about a year ago. He left me...for a guy."
Chandler's eyebrows raised in suprise. "Ouch."
Monica shrugged. "That's what I thought."
"I guess I can identify with that," he said sympathetically. "What happened?"
"Well, we had a good relationship. Everything was fine, we had a healthy sex life and everything, and then one day he told me he'd been seeing alot of some guy, and as it turned out, he'd fallen in love with this guy, and was leaving me to be with him."
"Oh...that's...that's gotta suck."
Monica sipped her coffee and licked her lips. "Yeah."
"My last relationship actually started something like yours ended...the guy had a girlfriend, and didn't realise he was gay...until something seemed to be happening between him and me..."
"Ah."
"Yeah, he left his girlfriend right away and we started dating," Chandler paused. "So I guess it's almost the exact same situation, from different perspectives."
"Are you still with him?"
"No. Actually, breaking up with him sealed my desicion to accept the transfer. He was cheating on me."
"Oh my God, that's awful!"
Chandler nodded. "Cheating IS awful. It makes you eat ice cream and repeatedly say that men suck."
"Exactly!"
The look of total agreement on Monica's face caused Chandler to laugh. "So, what's the deal with Ross and Rachel, then?"
Monica exhaled, this was a long-ish story. "Hmm. Well, it started it ninth grade..."
"Yeah, I can remember Ross telling me all about her in college, but I guess after college I lost track of the daily episodes of the Ross and Rachel Soap."
"They got together awhile after Rachel moved in with me. They fought quite alot. They're currently broken up for the third time, which is sad since they were almost at the point of getting engaged."
"That serious, huh?"
"Yeah. I'm not worried, though. They'll get back together."
Chandler nodded his head understandingly. "Ya think?"
"Yeah. They can never stay apart too long."
"If they were that close, I hope for their sake they can make it work."
Monica agreed. "That's about how serious I was with Richard, you know, until his new-found sexualtiy hit."
Chandler paused for a moment. "What's his last name?"
"Burke. Why?"
Suddenly Chandler looked away, lightly ripping grass from the ground.
"What?"
"Tall guy? 50-ish? Moustache?"
Monica was intruiged. "Yeah, that's him. Why?"
"I guess he never told you the name of the guy he left you for, huh?"
"No...why?"
Chandler just looked at her. It suddenly seemed to click.
"No!" she gasped. "Oh my God!"
"Sorry..."
"What-no! I don't believe this!" she cried. "This is unbelievable, it's-it's...ew!"
"Ew?"
"No! No, of course not, no it's not ew. It's just...I never would've pictured you with him!"
"Yeah, he wasn't really my type to begin with."
Monica was silent, in awe of what she'd just learned.
"Are you pissed at me for breaking up your relationship?"
Monica frowned. "I-no. No, I just...woah! I still can't believe it. And...no. I'm not pissed at you, the relationship wasn't exactly destined to be, anyway...oh my God, this is hard to register."
"I still feel guilty. I mean, I always did, knowing I broke up a relationship, but if it's any consolation to either of us, he never told me he was involved with anyone until after he broke up with her. You. After he broke up with you."
Monica sighed, staring into space. She looked back at Chandler and smiled, relieving the worried expression on his face. "This is weird...how long were you two together for?"
"We broke up almost four months ago...well, I dumped him after I found out he cheated," Chandler answered, muttering, "Asshole."
"Were you serious about him?"
Chandler thought about this for a moment. "Not really. I always thought he was cool. He was fun, but...definitly not someone I'd picture myself with long-term."
"That's kinda how I felt, even if I didn't realise it at the time."
"I guess we both got screwed over by him."
"Yeah..." Monica trailed off again, looking down.
"Hey," Chandler touched her face, making her look up, "No hard feelings, right?"
"No hard feelings," she smiled.
"I really wanna be your friend. I don't want the past to ruin that."
"It won't."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
Chandler held out his hand, and they shook, as if sealing the deal. "OK, you should probably go back now. I don't wanna be responsible for getting you in trouble."
"I'm the boss," she grinned, and they stood up to go.
