In the hotel room, Joey and Chandler were making out on the bed when there came a knock at the door. "Chandler? Are you there?" Phoebe asked. "Monica?"

They lay there, hushed and absolutely still.

"Maybe I have the wrong room," Phoebe said to herself. "Better go check."

After she left, they hurriedly got up and straightened their clothes. Joey picked up his scattered belongings and kissed Chandler. "I'll, I'll go down to my room. 210."

Chandler nodded and straightened up the bed. "I'll be right there."

As Joey opened the door, he saw Phoebe on the other side and jumped. Chandler jumped too.

"Hey!" Phoebe looked surprised and mildly drunk. "That's weird! I was just here a minute ago, but nobody answered."

Chandler tried to be funny. "We-well if you were just here a minute ago, why'd you come back so soon? Did you leave your aura behind?"

"How'd you know?"

They frowned at her in bewilderment.

"Anyway, um," she came inside, "where's Monica? Did you guys make up yet?"

"No."

"But she just came up here!"

"That was you!"

While Phoebe stood there confused, Joey glanced at Chandler and hurried out the door with his stuff.

"Bye," she called after him, then turned to Chandler. "I wonder where Monica is."

He shrugged. "Yeah, well, she's probably talking to Richard."

"Would you stop that? She doesn't feel anything for him. She loves you, and she spent all our time at the bar talking about you."

Chandler was still thinking about Joey. Did he say his room number was 210?

Phoebe came over and hit Chandler.

"Ow, Phoebe!"

"What is the matter with you?! I'm talking about your girlfriend, so pay attention! This is your anniversary night, and you're sitting here talking to Joey when you should be making up with her. Go find her now."

"No, I was right, and she--"

"It doesn't matter!" Phoebe shouted. "Question is, do you love her?"

He shrugged.

She hit him again. "What kind of answer is that?! God, why does she even love you? Go downstairs and make up! She feels terrible, so don't let her suffer any longer. Go!"

"Ph--"

"Go!"

He didn't want to leave without all the stuff that he'd packed for the road trip, but Phoebe pushed him out the door and locked him out without his room key. Chandler sighed and headed off to find room 210.

***

Joey let Chandler inside and quickly shut the door. They kissed frantically and headed toward the bed, where they crawled under the covers.

"Chandler," Joey sighed. "I've missed you. I've missed you so much."

"I missed you too, Joe."

They started to get naked, and Joey gripped Chandler's arm a little too eagerly.

"Ow!" Chandler winced. "Phoebe kept hitting me there."

"She did?" Joey looked concerned.

"Yeah, she's a mean drunk! She was trying to talk me into making up with Monica."

"Oh." Joey frowned. Reminded of Monica, his conscience started to bother him.

"Joe?"

Joey felt guilty and shook his head. "It's your anniversary with her."

Chandler nodded. "I know."

Joey sighed. "Do you--do you still love her?"

He took a long time to answer. "I thought I did. Maybe. I don't know. It's just, when I saw you with that guy, it--it tore me apart."

Joey looked sad. "Why couldn't you have felt like this a year ago? Why couldn't you have got this worked up about the girls I slept with?"

Chandler shrugged. "I-I don't know. We were fooling around then." He clung to Joey and tried to kiss him.

Joey stopped him. "*You* were fooling around. Not me."

Chandler looked confused. "What, you felt something for me then?" Then the light dawned on him. "That's why you were acting strange that last month?"

Joey nodded resentfully. "And you're supposed to be the smart one."

Chandler frowned. "I'm sorry. I just--I mean, I know you said some things to me, but I thought it was just the kind of nice lies that people say in bed."

Joey shook his head. "It was never a lie. I love you."

Chandler just stared in amazement. Apparently he couldn't say it in return.

Joey turned away, and Chandler rushed to hug him comfortingly. "I'm sorry, Joe. This is--this is new to me. I told you that I didn't know what I felt, and I needed the road trip to figure things out." He kissed Joey and coaxed, "You'll still go, right? We'll write the note and leave in the morning. And, and tonight we can stay here..."

Joey was tempted, but worried too, especially after their encounter with Phoebe. "Won't Monica wonder where you are?"

He shrugged. "She hasn't yet. She might not even come back to the room."

"But what if she does? What if she finds out what room I'm in?"

"Yeah, she would look for me to be with you," Chandler sighed. "We'll have to be quiet, I guess, and not answer the door." He got up from the bed and turned out the lights.

Joey sat up in the darkness and felt worse with every minute. Monica wasn't just Chandler's girlfriend, and the person standing in their way; she was Joey's friend too. How could they treat her this way? When Chandler returned to bed and kissed him, Joey interrupted. "Maybe you should go talk to her."

"What?"

"Yeah, um, we can't just leave a note and go. I mean, a road trip is one thing when we're just friends, but if we're getting back together or something..." He realized that he didn't actually know what they were doing right now. "What are we doing, huh?"

Chandler shrugged. "I don't know. You--you started kissing me up there, and I just wanted you so badly. You know?"

Joey nodded, but frowned. "We're cheating on her. On your anniversary night!"

"I know. I--Well, she started it, with Richard!"

Joey couldn't believe him. "You're so mad at her for not telling you about Richard, but how come you haven't told her about us? How come you wanna just leave her a note and drive off?"

"I guess--I guess I don't know what to say to her."

"I'll come with you, if you want. We can explain about us. Tell her you need a break to figure stuff out."

"A break? Like Ross and Rachel's break? Somehow I don't think she'll take that very well."

"But we have to say something, you know? And if you say that, she can go back to Richard if she wants."

"Really?" Chandler grimaced at the thought.

Joey was hurt. Here he was taking the risk on Chandler's confused feelings, and Chandler couldn't stop being jealous about Monica and Richard. "I thought you were jealous about my date, Chandler."

"I was! I am. I just, um..."

Joey didn't believe he was so "torn apart" after all. "What are you doing here, Chandler? Having some sort of commitment freak-out over your anniversary? You can't have both her and me. You have to choose someone."

"I know, but I-I don't know how I feel."

"Well, find out!" Joey was fed up. "This is--this is too hard. You can't stay the night, Chandler, and we can't do that road trip. Just go, please, and don't come back until you know what you want."

"Joey!"

"Just go!"

***

Chandler reluctantly left and tried to think things through. He couldn't even go up to his room and brood on it, so he wandered around the lobby and casinos for over an hour. Part of Chandler ached to be with Joey, but another part couldn't really picture himself seriously dating a guy, instead of a girl. Joey had talked about love, too, which Chandler wasn't prepared for at all. It scared him a bit, as did commitment in general.

Maybe Chandler *was* just having a commitment freak-out. Monica was beautiful, wonderful, and had done nothing really wrong with Richard. She had been his crush for years, and they were generally happy. Chandler did think he still loved her, and it was their anniversary after all.

He finally saw Monica gambling at the craps table, apparently on a winning streak. He hesitated for a moment, then went up to her.

"Mon," he said.

She turned and looked instantly guilty. "Chandler! Oh, um, I-I-I was just about to come upstairs and see you. I just--I just got distracted, um..."

Chandler quickly dismissed it. Compared to what he and Joey had been doing, Monica getting caught up in the Vegas gambling fever was nothing. "It's fine, it's fine."

"Good," she looked relieved. "Oh Chandler, I really am sorry about Richard. I don't want to see him anymore, and I won't, I promise."

"Yeah," he nodded. "I believe you. I was, I was overreacting I guess."

She hugged and kissed him. "I know, sweetie. It's our anniversary, and that's all that matters. Let's go celebrate."

"Okay."

They started to leave the table, when the croupier said, "Ma'am, your winnings."

She laughed. "Oh, that's right! Look, Chandler, I've won enough for a really nice anniversary dinner for us."

"Oh--that's nice." Chandler was reminded of the dinner that he'd almost had with Joey, the road trip they'd almost had, and the sex they'd almost had. He felt bad about Joey waiting in his hotel room and decided to at least make a phone call.

Monica gathered up her winnings. "Let's go cash this in!"

"Um, yeah, but first I need to go to the room and get changed for our big anniversary dinner." He started to back away, but Monica stopped him.

"Chandler, I'm coming upstairs too. Just help me with this and we'll go together."

"Okay." He reluctantly went along with her, then they headed up to their hotel room.

Monica let them in, since Chandler had left his room key inside. "Aren't you glad you waited for me?" she smiled. "So where should we eat? Or do you wanna just get room service?" She lay on the bed seductively.

Chandler still needed to phone Joey. "No, since it's our anniversary, we should really go out, you know? To make up for the fight and for me forgetting your present and everything."

"Aw, you're so sweet." She kissed him. "Okay, you pick the restaurant and I'll go change."

He thought he'd have a moment to telephone Joey while she was in the bathroom, but she kept running in and out as she tried to decide what to wear. She also kept asking Chandler if he'd picked a restaurant yet, so he had to go ahead and do that. Chandler decided to wait and call Joey from the restaurant.