I think I've finally sorted out when my friends and I can go to matthew in London! yay me! Been a nightmare...there had better be some tickets left!
Rivals At First SightChapter Five – Having Fun
Monica waited impatiently for Chandler to arrive at 'Geller's Cuisine'. She checked her watch. It said 8.30. Chandler was half an hour late. Monica hated lateness; it was one of her 'things.' She fiddled with the equipment, angry that Chandler had obviously forgot their appointment. She realised that she couldn't pick up the phone to call him, as she didn't have his number. She didn't even know where he lived.
The door opened and in burst Chandler, throwing off his coat and hanging it up on the hook. "Sorry I'm late!" he said breathlessly, "I overslept."
Monica put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "You overslept?!" she cried, "I've been here since 7am getting everything ready. How can you oversleep?"
Chandler groaned and rubbed his tired eyes. "I'm sorry," he said, yawning, "But what you don't realise is that I was working until 11pm last night at my restaurant. I worked 15 hours yesterday, you were lucky that I had the time to make you that offer yesterday lunchtime."
"Why are you working that amount of hours?" Monica asked in surprise, softening her tone of voice slightly.
"The new business is so hectic that I've been forced to be a maitre de' at that place as well as working at my other one on Long Island," Chandler explained. He yawned again and put on an apron.
"Why don't you hire someone to work at Long Island for you so that you can just work in this area?"
"I wish I could but working at Long Island requires extra attention and I can't put all that pressure on a new guy. The waiters and waitresses over there are a little…inexperienced. They're still trainees and still don't know how to treat their customers right…and that's all I'm saying." He grimaced.
"I know what you mean. My friend Rachel used to be a waitress at Central Perk and even after three years she still didn't know where to put the trays!" she chuckled slightly.
"Hey I think I remember her!" Chandler exclaimed, laughing, "The girl with short, light brown hair who served rude people sneezes?"
"That's her!" Monica confirmed, laughing harder.
The two fell silent for a moment, suddenly feeling awkward at the friendly moment that they had shared. "Um…shall we get started?" Monica asked hesitantly.
"Yes…yes of course!" Chandler replied, "Shall I help you with the soup?"
****
"The trick is to put in a little extra of everything," Chandler explained a couple of hours later. "More vegetables and meatballs." He watched Monica stir the watery liquid in the saucepan. "We need something to make that thicker," he murmured. He saw a bag of flour on a shelf and grabbed it. He handed it to Monica.
"How much of this should I put in?" Monica asked, pouring the flour in the soup.
"Whoa! Whoa!" Chandler exclaimed, grabbing the bag from her hand, "Too much!"
Monica and Chandler watched the liquid turn lumpy. "That's…ok." Chandler said hesitantly, trying not to laugh. Monica glared at him and tried to stir the lumps out.
"I'm trying my best!" she muttered, scowling.
"Maybe we should throw that out and start over." Chandler suggested. "Because change the colour of that meal and you've got yourself porridge for your breakfast!" he chuckled loudly only to stop when he saw the look on Monica's face.
Monica sighed in frustration and poured the lumpy liquid down the sink. "Maybe we should concentrate on your cheesecake now." She snapped, grabbing a bowl and a handful of ingredients.
"I thought we were doing that tomorrow," Chandler said in surprise, "We need to get your soup right today."
"Well I'm not likely to if you're just going to play the fool all the time!" Monica retorted, raising her voice a little. She grabbed a handful of eggs and started to break them into the bowl.
Chandler scowled, "Well excuse me for trying to make this fun!" he responded angrily.
"What you were doing before wasn't fun…at least not to me. You were making fun of me when I was really trying my best." Monica told him.
"My jokes were not intended to upset you," Chandler said in surprise, "I was just trying to make a joke out of the situation. I was seeing the funny side!"
"Well it wasn't funny!" Monica exclaimed, gripping an egg tight in her fist. She heard a crack and felt cold, slimy liquid slide down her wrist. She looked down and saw that she had broke the egg.
Chandler let out a huge laugh and handed Monica a towel. "You were right, what happened before wasn't funny," he admitted, giggling, "This is."
"Right! That's it!" Monica yelled, fuming. She grabbed the bag of flour and threw a handful of it at him. The powder landed on the front of his apron.
Chandler stared at the angry woman in shock before raising his eyebrows and grabbing another bag of flour. He ripped it open and threw a handful back at her where it hit her neck.
For the next few minutes, all hell was let loose as Monica and Chandler chased each other around the kitchen throwing flour at each other. When there was no flour left, they grabbed the remainder of the eggs and let them fly at each other. Monica grabbed Chandler and wiped egg slime all over his forehead. He pulled her to the floor and they rolled around together on the tiles, which was by now covered with flour dust and broken eggs.
"You think this is fun now?" Monica asked, gritting her teeth as she tried to wipe a mixture of flour and eggs on his shirt.
"What the hell are you two doing?!" a voice yelled behind them. Monica and Chandler froze and looked up from the floor. By the doorway, they could see Ross glaring at them with a mixture of shock and disgust. Just a few feet behind him Phoebe, Joey and Rachel stared at the scene with amusement.
"Well?" Ross asked, continuing to yell.
"Well…um…" Chandler and Monica mumbled, looking embarrassed. They sat up and glanced at each other before looking back up at Ross.
"You're not twelve year olds anymore!" Ross exclaimed in disgust, "What are you playing at?"
"Well…um…we were just having fun." Chandler responded, shrugging his shoulders. He glanced at Monica and they both broke into giggles, laughing harder as they both saw the hilarity of the situation. They stood up, trying to wipe off the slime from their clothes. They stared at their friends and broke into more snorts and laughter.
Ross rolled his eyes and backed away from the pair. He walked out of the kitchen and left the restaurant. Joey, Phoebe and Rachel grinned at Monica and Chandler who were now gazing at each other with affection and ease.
"We're going to go now," Joey said. He walked out of the restaurant with Phoebe and Rachel.
Chandler smiled at Monica and held out his hand. "I know it's a weird thing to make friends with someone who just wiped egg slime all over my shirt but…truce?" he looked at her hopefully.
Monica broke into a smile and shook his hand. "Friends," she corrected him, "I think we called a truce when we decided to do this deal in the first place."
"Friends." Chandler repeated softly. He let go of Monica's hand and looked round at the chaotic kitchen. "I think we've got to clear up this mess." He added.
"And ourselves," Monica pointed out, wiping egg out of her hair.
*****
Several hours later, Monica and Chandler were back at Monica and Rachel's apartment. "You can use my shower to clean yourself up," Monica offered.
"Thanks. I didn't really want to walk through the neighbourhood with flour in my hair." Chandler said appreciatively, smiling. He walked into the bathroom.
Monica smiled to herself as she took off her coat and placed it carefully around the chair. She walked over to the TV and switched it on. On a entertainment news channel, Rick Morrison, the psychologist that analyzed Chandler and Monica the previous week was speaking. "Every week I'll be writing a column about the two rivals. I think readers will be very interested on how this relationship develops." Monica widened her eyes as she listened to the shocking announcement. She imagined the look on Ross' face if he was watching it right now. Already protective of his sister, Ross would not like the new attention from the media.
Chandler stuck his head out of the bathroom door and stared at Monica with a mixture of shock and amusement. "What was that I just heard?" he asked slowly. Before Monica could answer, he shook his head and rolled his eyes. "I don't think you'd better tell your brother." He added, shutting the door.
*****
"Out of control!" Ross yelled in fury as he finished watching Rick Morrison on the TV. "I knew this was a mistake!"
Rachel sighed and switched off the TV, looking at Ross with concern. "Honey, don't take this the wrong way but I really think you should consider seeing your shrink at work again. Your behaviour is reminding me of your 'mental geller' phase."
"I am not in that phase again!" Ross disagreed, trying to sound calmer. "I'm just worried about my sister, that's all."
"You're obsessing over a silly little article in the paper!" Rachel exclaimed, "You're behaving exactly like when that guy stole your sandwich. It's stupid...there's nothing to worry about. Monica is old enough to look after herself and she can date whomever she likes. Chandler is a sweet, funny guy."
"They're dating?!" Ross yelled, shock spread over his face.
Rachel sighed, "No, not right now but it could happen," she replied, "They seemed to have stopped fighting. Will you just calm down a sec...please.
"How can those two start dating?" Ross demanded, trying to sound calmer again, "They're in competition with one another!" he paused and frowned, "They were rivals at first sight!" he added.
END OF CHAPTER FIVE: more coming soon and please review!: