Author's Note: This has been a long time in updating. Sorry 'bout that. Actually, I lost interest in it for awhile, but thanks to JenniGellerBing for the momentum I needed to start it up again. And thanks to everyone else who reviewed! Keep it up!! I really don't like this chapter as much as the others, but I hope you do!! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own any of them. And none of them are being held captive in my closet for my own personal pleasure and enjoyment. I promise. (Matthew and Matt, get back in there!! I told you not to come out until they were gone!)
Copyright 2003 MusicCityDiva
Rachel: First Impressions
It was the third time in one hour that Rachel's ears had been assaulted by the signature high-pitched squeal of her best friend Mindy. She really should be oblivious to it by now, but today Mindy's brand of enthusiasm was beginning to grate on Rachel's nerves. Although prone to bouts of girlish shrieks and giggles herself, Rachel prided herself on the fact that she was nowhere near as annoying as Mindy. Not that she would ever comment on this fact out loud, of course. After all, Mindy was her best friend.
'Not my first best friend, though.' Rachel frowned as the unbidden thought floated through her memory. She hadn't thought about Monica in ages. In fact, she wasn't even sure where Monica was now. The thought was pretty sobering, considering the girls had once vowed to be "best friends forever no matter what." An uncharacteristic wave of guilt washed over Rachel, and she made a mental note to ask her parents if they had heard from the Gellers recently.
An insistent tug on her arm pulled Rachel back to reality. Mindy was looking expectantly at Rachel, apparently waiting for an opinion. Rachel struggled to feign interest, but, to her surprise, found herself wishing she were currently standing in the middle of Bloomingdale's with Monica instead of Mindy.
"Rachel? What do you think?" Mindy's voice cut through Rachel's musings.
Rachel glanced at Mindy's hands, expecting to be asked to choose between two silk blouses or something. When she realized that Mindy's hands were empty, Rachel looked questioningly at Mindy's laughing expression.
"Not there, silly." Mindy grasped Rachel's arm for a second time, this time succeeding in physically turning Rachel's attention where she wanted it.
"There," Mindy announced, pointing toward a well-dressed man a few yards away.
Rachel rolled her eyes at her friend's utter lack of subtlety.
"I see him, Min," Rachel hissed, gently catching Mindy's arm to pull it from its mid-air point before the man noticed he was being stalked. Keeping a firm hold on her friend's arm, she then dragged Mindy behind a nearby rack of clothes, hoping to obscure their observations slightly more than their middle-of-the-aisle scrutiny. Mindy remained unfazed, causing Rachel to wonder about her friend's sudden infatuation.
"Hey, haven't you been watching this guy for months? What makes him so special today?"
Mindy dropped her voice just slightly—hardly what Rachel would classify as a whisper—and kept her eyes glued on her unsuspecting target of the moment.
"Do you not remember the Rockford's 35th anniversary party tomorrow night, Rach? I'm in an emergency date situation here! I can't believe that I didn't hang on to Andrew for another week. He may have been a jerk, but at least I wouldn't have had to go through the stress of finding someone else for this party."
Rachel shrugged, hoping to convey nonchalance that she didn't really feel. "Couldn't you just go alone?" she asked, all ready anticipating Mindy's horror at the thought of attending a country club event without arm candy.
As predicted, Mindy looked at Rachel as if she had just sprouted another head. "Are you kidding? And risk getting propositioned by every single loser there? I don't think so!" She cut off her sentence abruptly, and studied Rachel's expression. "Why? Are you actually going alone?"
Averting her gaze from her friend, Rachel shook her head. "Mm, no. My parents, um, kinda set me up with the son of some friends of theirs."
Somehow, Mindy managed to look simultaneously repulsed at the thought of a parental-initiated blind date and vaguely interested at the promise of a fresh male specimen in the country club pond. "Oh yeah? Do you know who he is?"
"Um…Barry something or other. I think he's a dentist."
By this time, Mindy's attention was refocused on the man across the room. She nodded politely, but her next words confirmed that she had lost interest in Rachel's blind date. "He is gorgeous, isn't he?" she asked Rachel, although Rachel could tell Mindy was not really expecting an answer.
Rachel nodded nonetheless, unable to disagree with her friend's observations, despite the twinge of annoyance at Mindy's lack of sympathy for her situation. Actually, when she really thought about it, she was more annoyed with herself for having to accept the arranged date from her parents in the first place. She was Rachel Green, for heaven's sake! The girl who had certainly never had trouble finding dates before—in fact, men were usually taking numbers! Not too sound too arrogant or anything. But somehow she'd gotten roped into going on a date that her parents had set up! The whole idea was simply appalling.
Rachel looked again at the man they were observing. The man did have a particular je ne sais quois about him. He was stylish without looking unapproachable, dignified without appearing pretentious, and friendly without seeming insincere. In fact, he looked like the kind of guy that Rachel would like to meet—rather than the usual aristocratic snobs from the country club that she usually dated. Rachel appraised the man carefully from head to foot before lowering her voice to a confidential tone and settling familiarly into Mindy's fantasy. She even stopped caring about how they must look—two grown women half-crouched behind a rack of clothes, peering out on either side at the attractive man across the room.
"So what do you know about him?" Rachel whispered, knowing that her friend would have done her research. When it came to the opposite sex, Mindy never took her subjects lightly. She considered it her personal mission to scavenge for every attainable detail—and even some that weren't so attainable.
"His name is Mark," Mindy murmured back, her voice barely discernible amongst the garments hanging from the rack. Rachel leaned closer, not wanting to miss a word. "And I think he's a buyer here or he works for one or something like that..." Mindy's voice trailed off as she stated his occupation, and Rachel smiled, knowing that a man's looks were of far more significance to Mindy than his profession could ever be. The only factor that mattered to Mindy about a potential husband's job was simply whether or not he made enough money to support her high-maintenance lifestyle—namely summer homes in Europe and enough fur coats to make her the envy of every socialite this side of the Mississippi.
But another aspect had caught Rachel's attention, and she momentarily forgot about their immediate purpose for huddling behind clothing in a department store.
"He's a buyer?" she asked Mindy. Or, more accurately, she asked the back of Mindy's head.
"Huh?" came the distracted reply.
Frustrated with their nearly-inaudible tone of conspiracy, Rachel spoke in her normal speaking voice.
"This guy is a buyer? Here at Bloomingdale's?"
Mindy made a frantic "shhh-ing" gesture with her hands without bothering to look at Rachel. She only nodded hurriedly, letting Rachel know that she did not consider these questions to be pertinent to their current mission.
Rachel persisted, now not only genuinely curious about Mark's vocation, but also playfully amused at the annoyance she was apparently causing Mindy.
"So he, like, buys stuff? For a living? You mean, we could actually be getting paid for shopping?"
Mindy finally turned to face Rachel, her expression a mixture of exasperation and disbelief.
"You do realize, Rachel, that having a job would require you to come here every single day…"
Rachel nodded enthusiastically.
"…and look at thousands of skirts and boots and lingerie and belts and pants hour upon hour…"
Rachel's smile increased dramatically.
"…and they would probably only give you one hour for lunch break!"
Rachel immediately banished all thoughts of a flourishing career in retail as both women shuddered in horror. Imagine having only one hour for lunch!! When would a person ever find time for gossip?
Seeing that she had proven her point, Mindy nodded with satisfaction, knowing that she had rid Rachel of any preposterous ideas of becoming a career woman. She turned back to the man she had her eyes on, noting that he was meandering dangerously out of her field of vision.
Rachel couldn't resist one last question, however.
"But do you think they at least give their employees a fifty-percent discount?"
Mindy whirled to face her friend, her irritation giving way to laughter as she noticed the teasing expression on Rachel's face. Choking back a burst of giggles, Mindy attempted to sound stern.
"Can we please focus here? I'm trying to concentrate!" she hissed at a still-snickering Rachel.
Perhaps it was their feeble attempts to stop laughing or their dedicated approach to their spying game, but for one reason or another, neither girl noticed the man hovering over them until his voice resonated through their hiding spot.
"May I ask exactly what it is that you are concentrating on?"
After the initial moment of shock, Mindy was the first to spring to her feet and face the owner of the voice. Rachel proved slightly less graceful, managing to turn her ankle sideways and break the unsturdy (yet expensive) heel of her left shoe. Uttering a curse under her breath, she balanced precariously on her right foot in order to remove the ruined shoe from her left. Bending at the waist, she reached for the miscreant heel, only to discover that it was all ready being held in an outstretched hand.
"Thanks," she muttered, rising to her full height and sorrowfully accepting the piece. She pondered briefly what to do with the useless mess before finally shoving both pieces into her oversized purse and looking up at the man who had interrupted their bumbling attempts at a career in espionage.
He was all ready holding out a hand for her to shake. Rachel took it, habit prompting her to assess the man's appearance without conscious thought. While he did not possess the classic good looks of the Bloomingdale's employee, this man certainly wasn't completely unfortunate-looking. But he probably also wouldn't be the type to provoke sneers of envy amongst the socialites at the club, either.
'He looks kind of familiar, actually,' Rachel thought, unable to shake the uneasy feeling of recognition. For some reason, a mental image of Mr. Potato Head flashed through her mind, causing Rachel to momentarily furrow her brow in confusion. She shrugged the feeling off just as quickly. 'He probably has a great personality,' Rachel told herself, settling on the fallback quality attributed to all men who failed to give Brad Pitt a run for his money.
Once again shaking herself from her reverie, Rachel realized two things. One, sometime during her own silent commentary, Mindy had seized the opportunity to grasp the man's full attention and was now chatting with animation that Rachel could only call blatant flirting. Two, due to the earlier removal of her broken shoe, Rachel was now standing lopsided, since her remaining heel added almost two inches to her height. Flushing an embarrassed red, Rachel kicked off the other show, trying to be as smooth as possible. This accomplished, she contemplated briefly on how to regain the man's attention before realizing that his gaze was flickering continuously to her.
Actually, Rachel wasn't quite sure why she was suddenly determined to be the center of this man's attention. It certainly wasn't that she was especially attracted to him. Rachel could only chalk up her sudden resolve to the thrill of competition. Never before had Rachel lost a potential date to Mindy—never mind that, technically, she all ready had a date. And although there was a first time for everything, Rachel was not prepared to test that theory now.
Reaching out, Rachel rested one manicured hand on the man's arm and smiled flirtatiously. He turned an inquisitive gaze on her, giving Rachel enough self-satisfaction to counteract the venomous glare Mindy was aiming in her direction. Rachel scrambled for a conversation topic, trying unsuccessfully to avoid her sudden feelings of guilt.
"So where did you say you're from?" Rachel asked.
To Rachel's irritation, the man smiled quickly at Mindy before answering Rachel's inquiry.
"Actually, Mindy and I were just discussing the fact that we're all from Long Island."
"Small world, isn't it?" Mindy piped in, smiling smugly at Rachel.
Rachel smirked back. Fine. If Mindy wanted to play, Rachel was more than ready.
The man, fortunately, remained oblivious to the girls' rivalry.
"So what do you ladies do for fun in Long Island?"
Rachel opened her mouth to reply, but found that, once again, Mindy was quicker on the uptake.
"Actually, our families both belong to Inwood Country Club," Mindy bragged in her best society tone, expecting the man to be impressed by the prestige. However, both women were surprised when the man chimed in when Mindy stated the club's name.
He chuckled at the girls' baffled expressions before explaining. "My family belongs to the same club."
"Funny that we've never crossed paths before. Who do you know?" Rachel interjected, silently congratulating herself on finally getting a word in edgewise. She wasn't counting on Mindy's sudden abandonment of subtlety.
"Yes, do you know the Rockfords? Will you be attending their party tomorrow evening?" Mindy asked as Rachel started at her. Even Rachel could hear the desperation in her friend's voice and realized just how important having a date was to Mindy. Suddenly feeling selfish, Rachel decided to back off. After all, technically, she all ready had a date.
The man simply nodded, his smile indicating that he had caught on to the purpose of this conversation. He simply nodded in response, although Rachel knew he was aware of the forthcoming question.
Mindy didn't disappoint. "Would you happen to be looking for a date? Because I know a certain eligible…"
The man cut in before Mindy could even complete her proposal. "Actually, I would love to accept, but I have all ready been claimed," he smiled apologetically before adding, "I'm sure she's not nearly as beautiful as either of you lovely ladies."
Rachel mentally gagged at the corny cliché, noting that Mindy had all ready turned away to search for the man they had previously ogled. She also realized that Mindy had left her with the task of getting rid of this particular failed date attempt. Suddenly very bored with the whole manhunt, Rachel scrambled for a departure line that was both polite but obviously disinterested.
"Well, maybe we'll see you tomorrow night, then," she finally commented, hoping that he would take the hint and leave.
Fortunately, he nodded in understanding, prompting Rachel to smile in relief. Before he walked away, however, he glanced one last time at Mindy and leaned in to offer one last remark to Rachel.
"About tomorrow night. I certainly hope I see you there," he commented, placing a hand on Rachel's as he emphasized the word 'you'. "In fact, I hope I'll be seeing a lot of you. And not just at the country club."
With that, he strolled away jauntily, leaving a dumbfounded Rachel staring open-mouthed after him. As her brain struggled to catch up with her emotions, Rachel found herself suddenly greatly anticipating the next night. It wasn't until she turned to seek out Mindy that she realized she hadn't even asked his name.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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