PART FOUR
The morning after the 'meeting', Chandler arrived at Central Perk, looking for Rachel. Rachel worked at Central Perk as a waitress, so it was usually pretty easy to find her. He spotted Gunther, the waiter, behind the counter and went over to him.
"Hi Gunther," he greeted, "Seen Rachel around?"
"No. She's not working today."
Chandler spotted Joey on the couch and went over.
"Hey Joe."
"Hey." Joey looked up at him and grinned at him. "So…how did the meeting with Lizzie go then?" he asked.
"Well, she never turned up but…"
"She stood you up?!" Joey interrupted, "You got stood up by a woman over the radio…" he chuckled, choking on his coffee.
Chandler glared at him and sat down. "She wasn't somebody over the radio…she was a listener." He paused, "Anyway, the evening wasn't entirely lost…"
"Why?"
"I met an old friend. Her name is Monica and we went to college together. We had coffee here and talked about the old times."
"Wow…are you seeing her again?" Joey winked at him.
Chandler nodded. "She knows Rachel and Ross, so I'm going to arrange a little reunion."
"Cool. Can I come?"
"Sure. Just don't eat all the food, ok?"
"Phoebe, are you ready?" Monica called, picking up her jacket.
Phoebe came out of her bedroom and smiled at her friend. "You look nice," she commented, looking at Monica's dress.
Monica looked down at herself. "Do you think this will be ok?"
"Sure, you look fine."
"Ok," Monica smiled nervously and opened the door. They left the apartment and made their way to the exit.
"Chandler's going to love it." Phoebe assured her, grinning a little.
Monica blushed. "That's not the only reason I'm dressing up," she protested, "Restaurants are very picky about what their customers should wear…"
"Ok, whatever you say Mon."
Chandler, Ross, Rachel, and Joey waited patiently for the guests. Joey's stomach growled. Everyone turned to look at him.
"Hey, I'm hungry." He protested.
"I realise that, but for a second I thought the restaurant was over-run by dogs…just keep it down, hmm?" Chandler told him.
A few minutes later, Monica and Phoebe arrived. They went over to the table.
Rachel leaped up and flung her arms around Monica. "Oh my god," she squealed, "You look great!"
"So do you!" Monica let go of Rachel and turned around to Ross, "Hi, 'sibling'," she joked, giving him a hug.
"Hey, Monica," Ross replied, grinning at his old friend, "Good to see you again."
Monica turned to Chandler. "Hi." She said smiling shyly at him.
Chandler gave her a quick, friendly kiss on the cheek and grinned back at her, "Chaotic, huh?" he laughed, looking around the group.
"This is my friend Phoebe," Monica said, gesturing to her, "Phoebe, this is Ross, Rachel and Chandler."
Phoebe grinned at Chandler, "I've heard a lot about you." She told him, causing him to blush a little.
Monica looked at Joey, who was still sitting at the table reading the menu. "Hi, I don't know you," she quipped.
Joey looked up and smiled. "Hey, Joey Tribbiani." He greeted, "Professional actor at your service."
He turned to glare at Chandler, who was chuckling to himself.
"Professional actor…" Chandler murmured, turning to Monica, "Only about once a month mind…the rest of the time he lives on my money."
Monica giggled, settling herself in a chair at the table. Chandler sat next to her and the others joined them.
"I see you wasted no time in getting a menu." Ross said to Joey, "What about the rest of us?"
"Hold on a sec…" Chandler signalled to the waiter, "Five menus please…" he called.
"…Can I have another one as well please?" Joey asked, "This one is no good."
Chandler rolled his eyes at Monica, "He's just mad there's no pizza," he whispered, making her laugh.
"I work at the museum," Ross told Monica, as they all started to eat their meals.
"Great. What do you do there?"
"Well, I'm a palaeontologist, so I study fossils…it's quite interesting what we get sometimes…"
"Do you want to put us to sleep before we've even finished our starters?" Chandler asked, groaning.
Ross glared across the table at him.
"I'm a waitress," Rachel cut in, trying to stop a argument from taking place, "…but I'm hoping to get into the fashion industry."
"Have you told Monica about ditching Barry at the altar yet?" Joey asked, chuckling.
Rachel glared at him. "Oh good…I'm so glad this came up." She muttered.
"What happened?" Monica asked.
"I was going to marry this man called Barry Farbar," she explained, "Then on the day, I realised I just didn't love him." She shrugged her shoulders and concentrated on eating her meal.
"…And the fact he looked like Mr Potato Head," Chandler reminded her.
"I see…" Monica said.
After the meal, the girls went into the public bathrooms. Monica came back out into the hallway and saw Chandler standing by himself. She walked over to him.
"Waiting for the others," he explained to her.
"Aah." Monica nodded. "I just wanted to thank you for a really great evening, it was so nice to see Ross and Rachel again after all this time…and Joey seems great too."
"Yes, he's unique isn't he?" Chandler joked. He smiled warmly at her. "It really was a great evening." He added.
"It's so sad what happened to Rachel," Monica said thoughtfully, "I've always gone by the idea that if you want to marry somebody, it's because you love them."
Chandler put his arms around her, giving her a hug. "I don't know why, but you remind me of somebody." He commented, holding the hug.
"Really?" she asked, puzzled, "Who?"
Chandler furrowed his brow. "I don't know," he murmured, and then smiled. "Maybe just somebody off the TV."
"I get that a lot." Monica chuckled.
They stayed in their embrace for a long time, neither wanting to break from it. Finally, Chandler stepped back.
"So…um…I'm going to get a cab home…do you want to share one?" Chandler looked at her hopefully.
She shook her head at him. "No, that's ok," she assured him, "I'm with Phoebe."
They walked out together and Chandler whistled for a cab. Rachel, Ross and Joey poured out of the entrance door, and let out cries of mock dismay.
"You were going to leave without us?" Rachel screeched, getting into the cab and tripping over the seatbelt.
"She's a little drunk," Ross explained to Monica, "Ignore her."
"Oh just get in, dinosaur man!" Rachel called. He got in, followed by Joey.
"Bye everybody!" Phoebe called, "It was really nice to meet you!"
"Yeah, you too!" Rachel yelled out of the window, "Maybe I could get one of those number-thingies from you and we can talk?"
"She means 'can I have your phone number?'" Chandler translated, squeezing in next to Joey, "I have it already, remember? How else did we arrange tonight?"
Monica stifled a giggle as a look of realisation appeared on Rachel's face.
"Is everyone in now?" the cab driver asked wearily.
"Yes," Ross replied.
The cab pulled away from the curb, and everyone waved out of the window.
"Interesting people…" Phoebe said. She grinned, "I don't think they should let Rachel drink too much in the future."
"No…" Monica murmured, too busy thinking about Chandler. Like she reminded him of somebody, he reminded her of somebody…but whom?
END OF PART FOUR