Part 4: Discoveries and Confessions

Gunther leaned on the counter and watched Emily fondly as she led the customers in a rousing rendition of Liverpool Judies. She certainly has the knack for communicating enthusiasm for her songs, he thought, and not just to the customers. Phoebe was accompanying her and singing along with an enormous grin on her face, as if she was really enjoying herself. Quite often, now, she joined Emily in her songs, their voices contrasting nicely. It made a good change from her own offbeat, if not completely weird songs, in which Emily would sometimes join her. Emily was now so popular that she had a spot almost every night. She loyally shared this with Phoebe, but it was Emily that the customers came to hear, in increasing numbers. He had to admit that Phoebe showed no signs of resenting this, but rather seemed proud of Emily, as well she might be. He had wondered if in fact she had a crush on her, but if so she was being very discreet about it.

It was no surprise now to Gunther to see Rachel joining in the songs and being friendly with Emily in her breaks; what was rather more remarkable was to see Ross doing so as well. Clearly something fairly major had gone down after Ross had set her up with Bye Bye Love – the final proof, as far as Gunther was concerned, that the man was a natural-born heel – and she had retorted with My Dear Companion, which had affected everyone, it was so obviously from the heart, but had hit Ross particularly hard – the man had actually cried, to Gunther's deep satisfaction. It now looked as if Ross had made his peace with Emily – he seemed much easier in her presence – and as if she had finally accepted that she and Ross were through, without bitterness.

In fact, if Ross was interested in anyone now, it was Rachel. Once this would have bothered Gunther, but now he found he could observe it without pain. For he found to his surprise that, almost without noticing it, he had got over what he now recognised for nothing more than a violent crush on a very attractive young woman with a lively personality, who was nevertheless so focussed on herself and her group that she barely noticed he was alive, even when he was her boss. Although Emily was not in Rachel's class, she was certainly easy on the eye, and just as lively when she was in a good mood, which she generally was these days. For that, at least, he could thank Rachel and her friends: after some initial coolness, they had warmed to Emily. He cherished the memory of the four women standing with arms around each other, singing their hearts out in The Wild Rover; it had been one of those moments that would always make you smile when you remembered it, that somehow summed up the feeling that it was great to be alive.

He had quickly realised that he had seldom made a better move than offering Emily a job. She was three times the waitress Rachel had ever been, and considerably better than most of the others too. She also had a good brain, and used it: she was far more interested in intellectual matters than Rachel had appeared to be. In slack times they often discussed all sorts of things, the arts, literature, social trends, even acting – all subjects Rachel would generally run a mile from. In fact, it surprised him that Emily should be content to remain a waitress and singer in Central Perk, but he supposed that it was because she had become quite close to the group and liked to see them. She made quite good money, also, for the tips she got were far better than Rachel had ever managed, and often patrons would leave something extra for her singing.

Glancing at the area generally occupied by Rachel and her friends, he noticed that while Ross, Rachel and Joey were there, singing lustily, Chandler and Monica were not. For a moment he wondered vaguely what they were up to – maybe Monica was having one of her laundry days and had roped Chandler in – but he was more concerned about Joey. It was hard to be sure from where he was standing, but he had a nasty feeling that Joey was beginning to take a strong interest in Emily. That would certainly mess up any plans that he might have. He decided that this time, there must be no hanging around: if he wanted to get anywhere with Emily, he was going to have to ask her for a date right away.

By a not entirely surprising coincidence, Joey was thinking exactly the same thing. It had taken him quite a while to get used to Emily, with her slightly abrupt manner that, he realised now, did not show a bad mood but was simply the way the British generally talked. Now that the situation with Ross had been resolved and she had become so much more cheerful, he could see her attractions; but even before then, he had found himself liking her, for the simple reason that she took the trouble to explain things to him. He knew he was not too quick on the uptake, and that there were a whole lot of things he didn't know. But while Chandler would simply look at him pityingly or angrily when he said something that showed his ignorance or his tactlessness, Emily, while laughing as much as the others when he truly made a boob, would take the trouble to tell him what he had got wrong or explain what he didn't know. And she produced explanations that he could understand. She even knew quite a lot about Ross's work, but she was much better at explaining it in simple language than he was. Joey felt that he had really grown in his understanding of the world and what was going on in it.

Wouldn't it be great, he thought, if he could have her around all the time as his girlfriend, educating him painlessly? Of course, Ross might choose to get mad at him for breaking the rule about not dating each other's ex-girlfriends, and this was even more serious, being an ex-wife, though they had never lived together as a married couple. But he was not about to let Ross frighten him away from trying to get to know a really interesting woman a lot better. The best part was, when you took a good look at her, she was really quite hot; but then, you had to hand it to Ross, geek or not, he did go out with some fine-looking women.

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Sitting down for a break in her set, Emily detected further signs of Gunther's interest in her, which she was not sure how to handle. She was still adjusting to life without Ross. It seemed to her as if her love for him had been like a fever, that had clouded her mind and driven her into uncharacteristic behaviour, and from which she was only now recovering. When they met again after her first singing spot, he had apologised very sincerely for the Bye Bye Love request, and thereafter had seemed much more like his old self; in fact, she had definitely got the impression that he was testing to see whether there was anything still there between them. But she had found to her surprise that on her side there was nothing left except memories and the natural attraction one might feel for an attentive and fairly handsome man. She really did seem to have sung her love for him out of herself.

But Gunther? He was polite, kind, intelligent – she enjoyed her conversations with him – but hardly what you might call exciting. Perhaps she should go out with him, to see if he had hidden depths, but the problem was that they might well prove to be unattractive. She knew the story of how he had broken up Ross and Rachel, by an act that could only be put down to pure jealousy, and while it was poetic justice that Rachel's trust in Ross should have been destroyed, when he had shown such distrust of her, it was an ugly thing to have done, which had resulted in great pain for Rachel, as Gunther could have foreseen and avoided if he truly cared about her.

So far, no other obvious options had presented themselves. She thought Joey was showing some interest, now that she was free, but that was just typical Joey, and while some of the customers flirted with her, she had not got the impression that any were working up to be serious. Of course, once she and Ross were admitted to be over, there was nothing to keep her in New York at all, but she felt reluctant to leave the group, now that she had got to know them so much better. Besides, she would like to see Ross settled – she felt she owed him that much – and the obvious person for him to settle with was Rachel. The thought of this did not bother her at all. Rachel had been so ready to meet her halfway in forgiving the past, and had been so supportive since, that Emily would be very happy to see her with Ross again.

Musing on these matters, she was gazing idly round when she noticed Chandler emerging from the restroom area, and all of a sudden it struck her that he had been there rather a long time. Then she thought she remembered that Monica had gone there too. She fixed her eyes on the restroom door, to see Monica emerge a short while after Chandler, looking even more furtive than he had. Realising what must be going on, she could not help giggling.

'What?' said Phoebe, looking round at her with a grin.

'Oh, I just thought of something,' said Emily airily. 'British comedy,' she amplified. 'It probably wouldn't seem funny to you.'

'Try me,' said Phoebe brightly.

Thinking fast, Emily described one of her favourite recurrent sequences from the Fast Show, with quotes, and Phoebe laughed like anything and said she shouldn't underestimate Americans' ability to appreciate British humour. 'I loved Monty Python and the Holy Grail.' She laughed again, and began to talk of something else.

It was next day before Emily got the chance, but when she was serving in Central Perk, Monica happened to be the first to come in. She could not resist bending down beside her and hissing, 'Fly at once! All is known!'

Monica whirled round. 'What? What? You know?' Her eyes looked panicky.

'Now I do,' said Emily evilly, her eyes twinkling. 'But don't worry, your and Chandler's secret is absolutely safe with me.'

Monica drew breath, as if to deny everything, then slumped against the couch. 'Oh hell,' she muttered. 'Joey knows, Rachel almost knows – this can't go on.'

Emily looked at her sympathetically. 'I think I can understand why you want to keep it quiet, but when you all live so intimately, I warn you, it's bound to leak out. Anyway, I hope you're happy.'

Monica smiled softly. 'Oh Emily, I'm so happy. It's going really well. How did you spot it?'

'I'm glad for you,' said Emily, giving her a warm hug. 'You deserve to be happy at last. As for how I found out, I saw the two of you coming out of the restroom area.'

Monica pulled a face. 'If you can spot it, others might. We can't do that any more.'

At that point Phoebe came in, and with a wink Emily moved away. When Chandler came in later, the looks that he and Monica exchanged were so full of love that Emily wondered why neither she nor any of the others had spotted it. They just weren't expecting it, she supposed, and there had been all that weird business with Joey. She realised that she, like the others, had accepted what now seemed very flimsy and out-of-character explanations far too readily.

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Emily would always regret that she had missed most of the amazing developments that led to the revealing of Monica and Chandler's love affair. First, it seemed, Phoebe had spotted them making love from the window of a nearby apartment that Ross hoped to rent, when she was there with him and Rachel. Then, informed of the true state of affairs by Rachel, who had indeed found out, she and Rachel had tried to pay out Monica and Chandler for keeping it from them by having Phoebe pretend to come on to Chandler. This had backfired when Monica had realised what was going on and urged Chandler to act as if he was really interested in Phoebe. But in the denouement, Phoebe had outfaked Chandler and driven him to confess his love for Monica, and now everyone knew except Ross. Phoebe had recounted her seduction strategies to Emily between bouts of helpless laughter, in which Emily had joined. She confessed that she also had found out on her own and kept the secret, but Phoebe did not blame her.

'But aren't they weird, those two?' she said. 'Imagine doing it right up against a window! It's like they wanted to be caught.'

'I think they're just completely obsessed with each other,' said Emily, going on to explain how she had spotted it. Phoebe collapsed into laughter, setting off Emily again..

'But do you think it's wise to keep Ross in the dark?' she asked when she had recovered.

'They're afraid he'll, what is it you say, "blow a gasket",' said Phoebe. 'But now he's calmed down over you, I'm not sure Red Ross is such a problem.'

Emily nodded. 'I'm going to talk to them. Maybe they'll let me tell him.'

But when Emily broached the topic with them, Chandler became remarkably nervous. 'He'll kill me,' he said. 'Emily, please don't tell him.'

'Nonsense!' said Emily firmly. 'He may be a bit annoyed that you kept it from him, but that's all. Look, I'm sure I can defuse all that. You must see, he's bound to find out soon, and it's ridiculous that all the rest of us have to keep quiet about it.'

Monica nodded. 'He'll spot something, just like the others did. Emily, I'd be very grateful if you could do this for us.'

Chandler looked unhappy, but said nothing. Emily smiled. 'Consider it payback for taking me in. A Waltham pays her debts.'

She went to look for Ross next door, but though Rachel was there he was not to be found.

'I think he's showing his old boss over his new apartment,' said Joey. 'He should be back soon. Why don't you sit down and have a "chinwag"?' He waggled his eyebrows at her.

Emily shrieked with laughter. 'I think that went out before the Second World War, if not the First,' she gurgled. 'Cor blimey, guv'nor, you don' 'arf fink us Brits talk funny!' she added in a cockney accent.

Joey managed to conceal his chagrin at this light mockery, at which Rachel laughed heartily, and offered her a drink. They were discussing this and that, when they heard what was evidently Ross coming up the stairs, roaring Chandler's name in a voice of fury.

'Oh my God, I'll bet he's spotted them!' cried Rachel, jumping up. 'I don't know why they have this thing about doing it at the window. Oh, this is bad.' She looked very worried.

'Damn, I was going to break it to him gently,' said Emily. 'Oh well, here goes.' She darted out into the hallway, just in time to come between Ross, who had reached the top step, looking very wild, and the door to Monica and Rachel's apartment.

'What are you making all this noise about?' she said sternly, folding her arms and trying to sound like one of the feared disciplinarians at her old school, Cheltenham.

'Chandler …' he gasped. 'Chandler and Monica …' He attempted to get round her, but she kept herself between him and the door.

'I had just persuaded them to let me tell you,' she said calmly. 'They kept it from you because they were afraid it would upset you.'

'Damn right!' he snarled. 'My best friend and my sister …' The very thought seemed to enrage him.

'Well, what's so odd about that?' she said with a show of surprise. 'Lots of people fall in love with their friends' sisters. For one thing, they're likely to meet them more often than other women.'

Ross looked quite taken aback. 'They're in love?'

'Of course they're in love, fathead,' she said, not unkindly. 'Don't you know your sister better than that? She wouldn't go to bed with someone just for some sex.'

'I thought I knew her,' he said, sounding angry again. 'But then there was that stuff about stalking Joey – '

She waved him down. 'That was all a blind. I'm surprised any of us believed it; it was so unlike what we know of Monica. Joey's known for a long time and he's been covering for them, but he got a bit fed up about what he was having to explain, so he put them on the spot a little.'

Ross seemed to be calming down. 'How did you find out?'

'I, um, saw them together when they didn't know they were being watched,' said Emily. 'though not the way you saw them, I suspect, which is how Phoebe found out. That was when she was looking at that flat with you.'

'Ah, that was what that was all about,' said Ross, his eye catching Rachel's as she came out of the other apartment. Suddenly he grinned. 'Phoebe certainly sounded surprised!'

'We paid them out for hiding it,' said Rachel. 'Let me tell you the story. It's pretty funny.'

'Later, Rach,' said Ross, but fairly genially. He turned back to Emily. 'So, you say they're in love?'

'Monica's very happy,' said Emily. 'You want your sister to be happy, don't you?'

Ross nodded, seeming a little grudging. 'It's hard to believe she could fall for Chandler.'

'She had a crush on him when she was a teenager,' said Rachel. 'And I think he's been keen on her for some time.'

'Why don't we go and tell them that you know?' said Emily. 'Then you can hear the whole story.'

Ross nodded. 'Yeah … I'd like that.' He tried the door, but it was on the chain. Monica peered out mistrustfully.

'This is the weather forecast,' Emily announced. 'Storm clouds have passed over, and the weather should be fair.'

Monica giggled. 'So Emily has explained, Ross …'

'I don't know everything,' said Ross grumpily, 'but she says you're in love.'

Monica's expression went soft. 'Yes,' she said simply. 'I really am.'

Ross smiled. 'That's great, Mon. Can I come in and hear all about it?'

She threw the door open. 'You're welcome, Ross.' As he went past her, she mouthed 'Thanks!' to Emily. Joey, who had also come out, went in after Ross, but Rachel paused, motioning to Monica to shut the door.

'Wow, Emily,' she said quietly. 'You handled that really well.'

'Ross can be reasoned with,' said Emily, 'at least on some things. Now, if I could get that "on a break" bullshit out of his head, I'd really be proud of myself.'

'Oh Emily,' said Rachel, and suddenly her face showed naked longing. 'Would you, could you try, please please?'

'You've decided you want him back?' Emily asked sympathetically.

Rachel nodded, tears appearing in her eyes. 'Oh yes. But I don't just want to tell him,' she said. 'I don't know how he'd take it, and I do have my pride. I don't want him to think I'll just come running if he lifts his hand.'

'Mm.' Emily looked thoughtful. 'This may take a while. Can you be patient?'

'Then you'll help?' Rachel cried excitedly. 'Oh Emily!'

Emily smiled at her. 'That was Monica's payback; this can be yours. You've been very good to me, Rachel.'

Loud male laughter was heard from inside. 'Let's go in,' said Emily. 'All you have to do for now is just keep being nice to Ross. I need a cunning plan.'

Rachel giggled, recognising a reference to Blackadder, a British TV show that Emily had told them about. Suddenly she pulled Emily into a strong hug. 'I'm so glad we've become friends,' she said, beaming at her. 'I'm so glad you had the guts to come back, even if' – her face sobered – 'you didn't get what you really wanted. Emily, won't it hurt you, if I do get back together with Ross?'

Emilty shook her head. 'I have accepted that we are over, finally and for ever. But I still want to see him happy, and I think his best chance of that is with you.'

'I like to think so too,' said Rachel. 'Well, you just tell me what I have to do.' She grinned. 'It will be far easier to take orders from you than from Monica.'

'I think Monica will be a bit more relaxed now,' said Emily. 'Her love affair with Chandler could really go somewhere.'

Rachel looked rather sceptical but said no more, and they went in to join the others.