Another long one, pals J  Chapter 5, the name of which I cleverly played on the title of chapter 4, however am worried that some of you will think it's a mistake and that I posted chapter 4 twice and not read it.  But I'm taking the chance because I think you're all smart enough to figure it out.  Side notes:  thank you to all of you who continue to leave such kind reviews… I love all of you, and I'd name you all if I had the time, but unfortunately I don't.  So thank you.  And to several in particular who've been steady since my first fanfic here: SFGirl, MatthewPerryCrazy, PixiePunk, Llew, mncali, and a lot more that I'm not mentioning on account of time but appreciate nonetheless, thank you so much for the consistant feedback and praise.  PixiePunk especially… I really wanted so bad to listen to your review and make joey more of a complication, but I just couldn't do it, lol… I guess the monica and chandler fan that I am can't handle it.  But you're probably my biggest fan, so I'm sorry I disappointed you!!! Anyway SORRY about this and I doubt any of you are still reading but I wanted to give some long over-due thanks to everyone out there for supporting me J  You're the greatest.

AND NOW… Read, enjoy and review chapter five!!!

~maddy.

                "So, how was making out all night with Joey's cute awkward friend?" Monica's friend Phoebe asked the next day at lunch.  Rachel giggled.

            "Yes, please do tell," she added.  Monica blushed and shook her head.

            "There was no making out," she said.  "And he's not awkward."

            "The fact that your face is one shade from purple begs to differ.  Is he a good kisser?" teased Phoebe.

            "I wouldn't know.  I didn't kiss him."

            "But you wanted to," prodded Rachel.

            Monica gave in.  "Oh my god, yes," she admitted.  "I didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable or weird, though… I mean, I just broke up with his best friend."

            "Yeah, because that relationship was so serious," Phoebe said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

            "Well, it was, kind of! I mean, I slept with him," Monica said. 

            Her two friends gave her "so what" glances.  "Hey!  I don't have sex when it's not serious," she protested.  They both raised their eyebrows.  "… usually," she finished sheepishly.

            "Hey, there's nothing wrong with having fun once in a while," Phoebe said, patting her shoulder.

            "And from the sounds of it, you two had a lot of fun," Rachel added mischievously.  Monica slammed down her fork in mock aggravation.

            "Will you stop making those comments?  I mean, seriously, I had less to say when you were getting it on with my brother in the next room."

            "Yeah, well that's over," Rachel said bitterly, but recovered quickly.  "And sorry, I'll stop.  Especially in front of the new love interest."

            "You say that as if I have plans to see him again," Monica said disappointedly.

            "You don't?" Phoebe and Rachel screeched.

            "You shared every intimate detail of your lives and you didn't set a date?"

            "No.  It's so weird, there was such a connection there, and now I may never see the guy again."

            "You will if you want to," Rachel said.  "You just need a reason.  We're girls.  An excuse to see a guy should be easy enough to think of."

            "Ooh, ooh, just invite him to another party!" Phoebe exclaimed excitedly.

            "Phoebe, I don't have the money to throw a party every time I want to see him," Monica said, rolling her eyes.

            "No, wait… that could work," Rachel said thoughtfully.

            "Ha HA!" smirked Phoebe.

            "Not a big party.  Something more intimate, something fun, something with games.  Like a big game night or something, just us, and Ross, and invite Joey and Chandler.  That way, a) it's not a technical date but you get to see him, b) you can prove that you and Joey want to be friends and that's it and c) you love winning," Rachel finished.  Monica thought it over.

            "I do like to win," she said finally, grinning.  Rachel and Phoebe high fived each other.  Friday night it was, then.

            "So hey, do you have any plans for Friday?" Chandler asked Alyse casually as they threw a Frisbee in the park one warm afternoon.

            "No, why?" she asked.  "You can't have plans two Fridays in a row.  Be still my beating heart," she mocked, executing a perfect arch.  The Frisbee gene was one both Chandler and Alyse possessed.

            "Very funny.  Monica's having some people over for pizza and games and stuff, Joey told me she wanted us to come too."

            "Really?" Alyse said, her voice perking at the mention of Monica's name.  "That sounds cool.  Let's go."

            "Really?  You want to?" he asked, surprised. 

            "Totally.  Monica's so cool," she said.  "It'll be fun, don't you think?"

            "Yeah.  Yeah, I think it will."

            "Okay, now for real.  Please tell me you kissed her last week."

            "Not that it's any of your business, but no, I didn't kiss her."

            Alyse barely missed his head, and it wasn't an accident.  "Oh my god, you are such a loser."

            Chandler barely missed her head, and it wasn't an accident, either.  "That's enough out of you.  Wanna go check out that new Imax movie downtown?"

            "Yeah, perfect.  You can practice being socially incompetent down there with all the tourists, and I'll wait outside with a soft pretzel, apologizing for your ineptitude at everything," Alyse said exasperatedly.

            Chandler jumped in the air and caught the Frisbee between his legs.  "Everything except Frisbee," he corrected.  "Is that a no to the movie?"

            "You make me sad," she said, laughing, catching the Frisbee one more time before walking towards him and gathering their stuff.  "No, let's go see it.  I heard it made three kids in my grade so motion sick they puked."

            "Score!" Chandler said, seriously excited.  He put his arm around his sister and they left the park and headed for the subway.

            The week passed quickly for Chandler, with the extreme anticipation of seeing Monica again.  He secretly wondered how long it would be before he could think about asking her out.  Emily Post didn't write a chapter on the appropriate length of time to let pass before making a move on your best friend's ex.

            Friday night Chandler, Joey and Alyse showed up at Monica's right on time, showered and combed.  Alyse was wearing one of her two skirts, upon Chandler's insistence, and even though it was denim, she still looked nice, he decided.  Paired with a simple brown v-neck sweater and with her hair down (did it grow a lot recently, he wondered?) she looked older to him.  He studied her as they waited for the door to be opened.

            "What?  Is there something on my shirt?" she asked, checking for stains from the hot dog they split on the way over.  Joey had had two of his own.

            "No, you look fine," he told her.  "Nice," he revised, squeezing her arm.  She smiled, sort of embarassed.

            "You too," she muttered, staring at her Doc Martens.  Monica opened the door.

            "Hey!" she said with a grin, letting them in and, on impulse, kissing Chandler on the cheek, and then Joey and Alyse, to cover up the more-then-friendliness of her intentions.

            "You look so pretty," she told Alyse.  Alyse thanked her, then took in Monica's low slung jeans and orange tank top.  "I told you I didn't have to wear a skirt," she whispered, annoyed.  He shrugged apologetically and followed Monica into the living room.

            "Guys, you remember Chandler from the party," she said to her brother Ross, Rachel and Phoebe.  They all greeted him, and Chandler and Ross shook hands.  "And this is his sister, Alyse."  The greetings were repeated for her, and they joined the circle on the sofa.

            "And you remember Joey, obviously," Monica said. 

            "Hey Ross, how's it going?"  Joey offered.

            "Good, it's going well, and you?" Ross replied, friendlier than he had ever been to Joey in the past, when the womanizer was dating his baby sister.

            They played Scrabble (in teams, Monica and Alyse won on the word astronomical), ate dinner, busted out the Pictionary (Ross and Phoebe beat everyone by a landslide), and then it was after eleven all the sudden and people started to trickle out.  Phoebe left first, Joey had another late date, and Ross had to pick up his son, Ben, from his ex wife.  Soon, Rachel quit claiming fatigue and it was just Chandler, Monica, and Alyse, who promptly fell asleep on the couch around 11:30. 

            Chandler and Monica, desperate for the night not to end, ended up playing some serious one on one Scrabble as quietly as they could as not to wake up Alyse.

            "Ha!  "Wratchet" has no "W".  It's "ratchet."  You lose," Monica said smugly.

            "Oh, it definitely has a "w".  I stand by my word," Chandler said.

            "You're cheating," Monica accused.  Chandler laughed.

            "Are you challenging me?" he said, offering the dictionary.  "Because if you challenge me and you're wrong, you know what that means.  It means you lose."

            "Well, I am challenging you, because I know that ratchet, r-a-t-c-h-e-t, is the correct and only spelling."  She thumbed through the dictionary quickly, not noticing his eyes focused on her face.  All he wanted to do in that moment was kiss her.  He began to lean in, but oblivious Monica found the word and jumped up in victory.

            "Ratchet, r-a-t-c-h-e-t, noun, A mechanism consisting of a pawl that engages the sloping teeth of a wheel or bar, permitting motion in one direction only," she said smugly.  He smiled and shrugged in defeat.

            "You win," he said, cleaning up the game.  She grinned, but the high of winning quickly faded as she concentrated on him.  His hair, just the right color and just the right amount of tousled.  His eyes, blue that seemed a mile deep, and his lips, and all she could do think about was how they would feel against her own.  She got up quickly, gathering the cups and plates left on the table before she did something impulsive. 

            "Let this be a lesson to you.  I don't lose at Scrabble, ever," she teased, heading for the kitchen.  He followed her and started washing the dishes, handing them to her to dry.  She was so caught up in him that it didn't even bother her that he wasn't washing them 'her way'. 

            "You don't have to do that, I'll finish," she said finally.

            "We're almost done," he pointed out.  "And I want to."

            "Okay."  They washed and dried in silence.  She dropped the towel, and bent down to pick it up just as Chandler moved directly in front of her to put away a glass.  When she rose, their bodies were so close that she was trapped between him and the counter.  Neither of them moved for what seemed like a long time.

            "Sorry," Chandler finally said, embarrassed and about to move away.  She put a hand on his shoulder, keeping him in place momentarily.  He placed his hands on the counter, on either side of her.  She looked up at him as she moved her hand from his arm to twist a strand of his hair.

            "So… it's been a week and two days," Chandler said softly.  She nodded.

            "I was thinking that too."

            "I'd say that's good enough."

            "Mm-hmm," she replied, a second before their lips met hungrily in a kiss both had been waiting for.  He moved his hands from the counter and put them to the sides of her face, and she kept one hand in his hair and rested the other on his chest.  The kiss was like out of a movie, or a dream; passionate yet gentle, a little hazy, and, in short, completely perfect.  When the finally broke away to catch their breath, he smiled uncontrollably and she stood on her tip toes to peck him once more on the lips. 

            "I think I should go and we should do this again some time when my little sister's not asleep twenty feet away," he said reluctantly.  She nodded, flushed from excitement, and tucked her hair behind her ears.

            "Sunday?" she asked eagerly.  "Dinner, or something?"  He smiled at her.

            "Dinner or something," he agreed, stroking her hair. 

            He woke Alyse gently and the two of them left, Alyse in a zombie-like state from being half asleep.  He flashed Monica another grin as he they closed the door.  She laughed giddily once he was gone and flopped on the sofa. 

            All in all, it was a pretty successful night.  She'd have to thank Phoebe and Rachel for the idea in the morning.  And maybe, if she was in a generous mood, she'd answer their question from earlier; he was definitely, without a doubt, the best kisser she'd ever known.

Leave a review if you want me to keep going!!!  And again, I apologize for the length of the author's note at the beginning. I just wanted you all to know that the reviews are appreciated and got carried away.  Xoxoxoxo!