[Sorry, but no, this story is not for Mondler fans (nor for Phoebe/Mike fans). If anybody's read my profile, you'll know that I'm fiercely anti-Mondler, and I hate what's become of their characters since they got together. I know it may not seem appropriate or even moral of me to write about the breakup of a family, but I wrote this story as a way to cheer myself up and combat the defeatist attitude that some Joey/Chandler fans have expressed of "It's too late now. They have their happy ending in Westchester."
Well, that was not a happy ending to me; that was a sick joke, a pile of garbage and sentimentality. It was painfully sappy treacle that will all come undone, like in Phoebe's prediction of them divorcing in seven years. Well, I can't wait seven years, and I do think it will be easier on the twins if they aren't old enough yet to have to deal with trauma of the divorce. Ben turned out much better than Chandler did after his parents split up, and you can see that I've revisited this idea in many stories, from TOW All The Lobsters to Home Wrecker. I think it's harder for children to suffer for years through their parents' unhappy marriage than to see their parents split and finally move on.
As for this name dispute, I view Chandler's words as bitter defeat, like "Well, my wife clearly has no respect for me, or my name. I might as well go jump in a lake and give into her again." I have no problem with her keeping her maiden name in principle, if she just didn't lie about it and belittle him in the process. To me, she's lied and eroded his self-esteem so much that it's disgusting.]
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Not surprisingly, Chandler forgot all about visiting Ross and Rachel that night. He just got on the next train bound for Westchester and took a seat numbly. He brooded the whole way back and almost missed his stop due to his distraction. Chandler shivered at the memory of that hot kiss with Joey, and some part of him yearned to go back to Joey's apartment and kiss him again. But no, no! He wasn't gay! He couldn't be. He was married and he had two kids. That made Chandler groan with guilt, and he had no idea how he'd face Monica tonight.
Chandler shook his head and couldn't understand how things had got out of control like that. He had just asked Joey to move in with him, that's all. He just wanted to live with Joey again, and be close to him, and grow old with him, and raise the birds together, and the kids, and...
"Oh, crap!" Chandler startled the other train passengers nearby, who all turned and looked at him oddly. He avoided their eyes, then swore under his breath and put his head down in his hands. He was in love with Joey. God, how could he be so blind? No wonder he'd kissed Joey tonight. Why didn't I just get down on one knee and propose, for crying out loud?
With a grimace, Chandler vividly remembered the other night when he had wrestled with Joey on his bed. If they'd been drunk enough that time, Chandler might have said, "I love you" instead of "I miss you" and kissed him then. Oh God, he thought, I've turned into my father. My freaking father! He'd managed to forgive his father in some ways, since he married Monica, but still, becoming a drag queen in Vegas was the last thing that he wanted right now.
So Chandler gulped back his tears and struggled to pull himself together. He decided that he wasn't going to abandon his wife and kids like his father had done. He would just bury his feelings about Joey, pretend that the kiss had never happened, and go on with his life. He realized that he shouldn't see Joey anymore now, much less live out that fantasy of having Joey move in with them, but it was a sacrifice that he had to make. He had to be strong and mature. He had to let go, no matter how much it hurt. That was easier said than done, of course.
When the train finally stopped in Westchester, at the nearest station to his home, Chandler reluctantly got off, then hurried into the nearest bathroom, still avoiding the eyes of passersby. He sat down in a stall and cried for what must have been an hour before he could finally collect himself. He washed his face, stared in the mirror, and took several deep breaths, hoping that Monica wouldn't notice that anything was wrong with him. Surely she wouldn't suspect?
Finally, when he could do no more, Chandler went home, still wracked with guilt and misery, but hiding it as much as he could. However, when he walked in the door of the house, Monica jumped on him impatiently and startled him.
"Chandler! What took you so long?" The house was a mess again, and she was exhausted from not having his help with the twins this evening. "Did he give you the check yet?"
"Check?" He blinked in confusion.
"The loan. Didn't you ask Joey for the loan yet?"
"Oh." He'd forgotten all about that during his crisis. "Uh, um, I..."
Monica was annoyed and put down Erica next to Jack in the playpen. "Don't tell me you chickened out? Ugh! I should have known you couldn't handle it, Chandler. You went out with your ex-girlfriend twice before you asked her for that audition for Joey." She was referring to Dana Keystone, a girl that Chandler had dated once in college.
Chandler winced at the reminder, and grew uncomfortable with the implied comparison of Joey to Dana. "I did ask him! I did."
"Then where's the check?" she asked again, folding her arms skeptically. Perhaps he was just trying not to get into trouble, and she'd have to call up Joey herself. Really, Chandler could be such a baby about some things!
"Well, I-I--" he stammered, then finally told her part of the truth, "He didn't want to give me the check."
"What?" she gasped in shock and sat down on the couch. She'd never expected Joey to say no, in their time of need.
Chandler stared at his feet and said, "He said, he said that we couldn't afford to live in Westchester and that we should move back to the city with him."
"What?! You mean he's still on about that 'stupid house in the stupid suburbs' stuff?"
Chandler nodded and sighed sadly. "He just--he just misses me." He cleared his throat hastily. "I mean, he misses both of us."
Monica was outraged. "Some friend he is! That's blackmail. I can't believe he's being so selfish! Where's that damn phone?" She got up and searched in the cluttered living room for the telephone, throwing things about in her anger at both Joey and the mess.
"No, no!" Chandler stopped her, not wanting her to call Joey. "No, don't talk to him. We--we won't talk to him anymore. We won't let him come visit, either. That's it." He gulped and tried to be firm in his resolve, despite his heartache. "It's over now."
Monica was surprised that Chandler would go so far. "What? But he's your friend."
Chandler turned and knelt in front of the babies, caressing their cheeks softly. He whispered, "Not anymore."
Monica stared at him, wondering how Chandler could be so calm about that. But Chandler was hours late, so maybe he and Joey had already had a big, long fight about this. So she sat down on the couch again and sighed, trying to be optimistic. "Well... well, maybe he'll learn his lesson and apologize to us later, Chandler. Yeah, if we give him the silent treatment for a while, then he'll eventually come around."
"He won't," Chandler told her definitively. "I won't."
She frowned and wondered why he was acting so strangely, but his face was unreadable. She changed the subject. "I just don't know what we're gonna do, though, about these bills. How are we gonna pay them now, plus the day care next month? Ugh, will I have to take back some of the furniture we bought? That's so humiliating!" She grumbled and looked at her half-finished house unhappily.
Chandler thought about this dilemma and held the twins close in his arms. Then he finally suggested, "Why don't you ask your parents for a loan?"
"What?"
"Or make them sell that beach house and give us the money from it. They owe you, for spending your wedding fund, you know."
She saw his point, but was surprised. "You sure about this, Chandler? But I thought you were too proud to borrow money from my parents?" At least, that was what he had said before.
"I-I changed my mind. 'Stop being so stubborn and think about our babies.'" Yeah, he had to keep thinking out their babies, or he'd be a mess right now, miserable and brokenhearted over Joey.
She smiled, glad that her words had sunk in so well. Nagging works. "That's right! Okay, so I guess we'll get a loan from my parents. Do you mind staying home with the babies tomorrow night, so I can go see my parents?"
"That's fine. I'll--I'll come home early."
"Good! Thanks." Then she got up and went around cleaning up the house once more, fantasizing about the day when it would be complete and perfect at last.
So Chandler took the babies upstairs and watched them until they fell asleep. He tried his best not to think about Joey, but it was hard, especially since his kids were wearing clothes that Joey had bought for them, and playing with toys that Joey had brought on his weekend visits. He could hardly bear it, and was unresponsive to anything else that Monica said to him.
In bed that night, Chandler remained restless while he lay there next to Monica. She was too tired for sex, and quickly drifted off to sleep, leaving him alone and awake with his thoughts. Against his will, he found himself fantasizing again about Joey, remembering his kiss and the way it felt to imagine them living together for the rest of their lives.
Chandler got up many times and went into the bathroom to stare in the mirror again and berate himself for his inappropriate feelings, when he had a wife and family. In frustration, he even went into Joey's room, tempted to break everything in there and throw it out so that he could forget all about Joey. But then he saw the two foosball players on the nightstand.
He picked them up and sat on the bed, remembering what Joey had said, that "They should always be together." That was what Joey had been trying to say for the past few months, whenever he nagged Chandler about visiting him in New York. He realized now why Joey was having such a hard time letting him go, and why he always looked so disappointed whenever Chandler made another excuse about being too busy at home. Maybe Joey always had some private fantasy about being close to Chandler forever too. It hurt so much to realize that they wouldn't have that now. They couldn't.
Clutching the foosball players, Chandler broke down again and collapsed on the bed, sobbing wretchedly into the pillows.
By early morning, when Monica woke up to feed the babies again, she realized that Chandler was missing, and searched the house for him. To her relief, she found him curled up in Joey's bed, evidently having cried himself to sleep. She figured that he was upset about their fight and was just missing Joey, so she left him sleeping. Not realizing the seriousness of the situation, she just hoped that Joey would come to his senses soon, and they would make up again.
Meanwhile, the fights between Phoebe and Mike worsened. She was having major issues with trusting him lately, and she even brought up old things, like his treatment of his ex-girlfriend Precious, to attack him.
"You'd been going out with her for three months, yet you didn't mention her to me the whole weekend in Barbados, even though you proposed to me! And then you broke up with her on her birthday. Actually, I had to do that for you!"
Mike thought this was unreasonable, for her to throw this incident in his face. He protested that she didn't have a problem with this at the time.
She countered that she was blind with love then, but now she was seeing a whole pattern of him being a deceptive jerk.
"Hey!" Their fights became increasingly bitter, and she also accused him of not respecting her beliefs in psychics, past lives, etc.
He retorted that he tolerated a lot of her weirdness, and that she was being unfair and judgmental, just like his ex-wife. He muttered to himself that he knew he never should have married again.
Phoebe began to agree, and so they finally agreed to divorce; it was the only thing they were agreeing upon lately. So he moved out and went to stay with his sister while they filed for divorce and fought over how to split up their belongings.
Phoebe felt spiteful and went to retrieve the things that she had got rid of because of Mike. Beginning with Gladys, she went to Joey's place to ask for her handmade artwork back. He probably wouldn't want it, after all, given that Rachel had told him Gladys was haunted.
But when she arrived at Joey's apartment, she found him moping and pouting on the bed in Chandler's old room.
"Joey? What's wrong?"
He was startled and pulled the covers over his head to hide remnants of his tears. "Nothing."
"Come on, you've even got Hugsy with you. What's up?"
He wouldn't answer her, so she sat on the bed and sighed, "Well, fine. I'll tell you my news, then. I'm changing my name again, Joey."
"Huh?" He finally turned towards her, but kept Hugsy close to him.
"Yep, no more Phoebe Hanigan. I've kicked him out," she snorted bitterly, "and I hope he changes his name to Crap Bag again. It's so appropriate!"
He sat up and frowned. "Really? You're getting divorced?"
She nodded and sighed. "Yeah, it was a mistake. You know, I think what Ross said about me never having a serious relationship must have freaked me out. I was so happy with my life before, but then I got all panicky about settling down with someone right away. I latched onto the first guy and built up these fantasies about marrying him and becoming a soccer mom with this normal life. I mean, I do want some normalcy and security after all these years, Joey, but I don't think he was the right guy at all. I shouldn't settle for Mike, just so I can keep up with Monica and Chandler and Ross and Rachel."
Joey hugged her. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay, Joey." She kissed his cheek fondly and tried to laugh. "So I guess it's just us single folks again, huh?"
Joey sighed and nodded, depressed about being left behind again.
"Hey, Joey," Phoebe smiled flirtatiously, "How you doin'?" She leaned in to kiss his lips, but he was startled and pulled away from her uncomfortably.
He didn't want to cross that line again, not with another of his friends.
Phoebe was disappointed, but she shrugged it off. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to just latch onto you next, for marriage and commitment and all that. I just thought, maybe we could have a little fun together and cheer ourselves up for a while. But I guess not."
Joey visibly relaxed and told her, "I'm sorry, Pheebs. It's not you. It's just..."
She nodded and guessed, "You feel weird about it, after Rachel? Yeah, I understand. We've flirted for years, you know, but I guess it would feel weird for me too, after you've been with Ursula. It never really works out when I go after Ursula's exes." She reached out and offered to shake his hand. "Well, how about we just promise to stay just friends, then?"
He agreed. "Yeah. Just friends." They shook on it and then hugged. "I love you, Pheebs."
"I love you, too." She kissed his cheek with a smile, then sat back against the headboard. "So, you gonna tell me what's wrong or not?"
Joey frowned and turned away, clutching Hugsy again.
"Are you sure?"
He shook his head. "I just--I just need to be alone right now."
"All right, but if you change your mind and need to talk, just call me. Anytime." Then she got up from the bed and started to go. "Anyway, I'm gonna take Gladys, and then go tell Ross and Rachel about my divorce. Maybe they can recommend a lawyer or something."
"Yeah. Bye."
"Bye, Joey."
Well, that was not a happy ending to me; that was a sick joke, a pile of garbage and sentimentality. It was painfully sappy treacle that will all come undone, like in Phoebe's prediction of them divorcing in seven years. Well, I can't wait seven years, and I do think it will be easier on the twins if they aren't old enough yet to have to deal with trauma of the divorce. Ben turned out much better than Chandler did after his parents split up, and you can see that I've revisited this idea in many stories, from TOW All The Lobsters to Home Wrecker. I think it's harder for children to suffer for years through their parents' unhappy marriage than to see their parents split and finally move on.
As for this name dispute, I view Chandler's words as bitter defeat, like "Well, my wife clearly has no respect for me, or my name. I might as well go jump in a lake and give into her again." I have no problem with her keeping her maiden name in principle, if she just didn't lie about it and belittle him in the process. To me, she's lied and eroded his self-esteem so much that it's disgusting.]
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Not surprisingly, Chandler forgot all about visiting Ross and Rachel that night. He just got on the next train bound for Westchester and took a seat numbly. He brooded the whole way back and almost missed his stop due to his distraction. Chandler shivered at the memory of that hot kiss with Joey, and some part of him yearned to go back to Joey's apartment and kiss him again. But no, no! He wasn't gay! He couldn't be. He was married and he had two kids. That made Chandler groan with guilt, and he had no idea how he'd face Monica tonight.
Chandler shook his head and couldn't understand how things had got out of control like that. He had just asked Joey to move in with him, that's all. He just wanted to live with Joey again, and be close to him, and grow old with him, and raise the birds together, and the kids, and...
"Oh, crap!" Chandler startled the other train passengers nearby, who all turned and looked at him oddly. He avoided their eyes, then swore under his breath and put his head down in his hands. He was in love with Joey. God, how could he be so blind? No wonder he'd kissed Joey tonight. Why didn't I just get down on one knee and propose, for crying out loud?
With a grimace, Chandler vividly remembered the other night when he had wrestled with Joey on his bed. If they'd been drunk enough that time, Chandler might have said, "I love you" instead of "I miss you" and kissed him then. Oh God, he thought, I've turned into my father. My freaking father! He'd managed to forgive his father in some ways, since he married Monica, but still, becoming a drag queen in Vegas was the last thing that he wanted right now.
So Chandler gulped back his tears and struggled to pull himself together. He decided that he wasn't going to abandon his wife and kids like his father had done. He would just bury his feelings about Joey, pretend that the kiss had never happened, and go on with his life. He realized that he shouldn't see Joey anymore now, much less live out that fantasy of having Joey move in with them, but it was a sacrifice that he had to make. He had to be strong and mature. He had to let go, no matter how much it hurt. That was easier said than done, of course.
When the train finally stopped in Westchester, at the nearest station to his home, Chandler reluctantly got off, then hurried into the nearest bathroom, still avoiding the eyes of passersby. He sat down in a stall and cried for what must have been an hour before he could finally collect himself. He washed his face, stared in the mirror, and took several deep breaths, hoping that Monica wouldn't notice that anything was wrong with him. Surely she wouldn't suspect?
Finally, when he could do no more, Chandler went home, still wracked with guilt and misery, but hiding it as much as he could. However, when he walked in the door of the house, Monica jumped on him impatiently and startled him.
"Chandler! What took you so long?" The house was a mess again, and she was exhausted from not having his help with the twins this evening. "Did he give you the check yet?"
"Check?" He blinked in confusion.
"The loan. Didn't you ask Joey for the loan yet?"
"Oh." He'd forgotten all about that during his crisis. "Uh, um, I..."
Monica was annoyed and put down Erica next to Jack in the playpen. "Don't tell me you chickened out? Ugh! I should have known you couldn't handle it, Chandler. You went out with your ex-girlfriend twice before you asked her for that audition for Joey." She was referring to Dana Keystone, a girl that Chandler had dated once in college.
Chandler winced at the reminder, and grew uncomfortable with the implied comparison of Joey to Dana. "I did ask him! I did."
"Then where's the check?" she asked again, folding her arms skeptically. Perhaps he was just trying not to get into trouble, and she'd have to call up Joey herself. Really, Chandler could be such a baby about some things!
"Well, I-I--" he stammered, then finally told her part of the truth, "He didn't want to give me the check."
"What?" she gasped in shock and sat down on the couch. She'd never expected Joey to say no, in their time of need.
Chandler stared at his feet and said, "He said, he said that we couldn't afford to live in Westchester and that we should move back to the city with him."
"What?! You mean he's still on about that 'stupid house in the stupid suburbs' stuff?"
Chandler nodded and sighed sadly. "He just--he just misses me." He cleared his throat hastily. "I mean, he misses both of us."
Monica was outraged. "Some friend he is! That's blackmail. I can't believe he's being so selfish! Where's that damn phone?" She got up and searched in the cluttered living room for the telephone, throwing things about in her anger at both Joey and the mess.
"No, no!" Chandler stopped her, not wanting her to call Joey. "No, don't talk to him. We--we won't talk to him anymore. We won't let him come visit, either. That's it." He gulped and tried to be firm in his resolve, despite his heartache. "It's over now."
Monica was surprised that Chandler would go so far. "What? But he's your friend."
Chandler turned and knelt in front of the babies, caressing their cheeks softly. He whispered, "Not anymore."
Monica stared at him, wondering how Chandler could be so calm about that. But Chandler was hours late, so maybe he and Joey had already had a big, long fight about this. So she sat down on the couch again and sighed, trying to be optimistic. "Well... well, maybe he'll learn his lesson and apologize to us later, Chandler. Yeah, if we give him the silent treatment for a while, then he'll eventually come around."
"He won't," Chandler told her definitively. "I won't."
She frowned and wondered why he was acting so strangely, but his face was unreadable. She changed the subject. "I just don't know what we're gonna do, though, about these bills. How are we gonna pay them now, plus the day care next month? Ugh, will I have to take back some of the furniture we bought? That's so humiliating!" She grumbled and looked at her half-finished house unhappily.
Chandler thought about this dilemma and held the twins close in his arms. Then he finally suggested, "Why don't you ask your parents for a loan?"
"What?"
"Or make them sell that beach house and give us the money from it. They owe you, for spending your wedding fund, you know."
She saw his point, but was surprised. "You sure about this, Chandler? But I thought you were too proud to borrow money from my parents?" At least, that was what he had said before.
"I-I changed my mind. 'Stop being so stubborn and think about our babies.'" Yeah, he had to keep thinking out their babies, or he'd be a mess right now, miserable and brokenhearted over Joey.
She smiled, glad that her words had sunk in so well. Nagging works. "That's right! Okay, so I guess we'll get a loan from my parents. Do you mind staying home with the babies tomorrow night, so I can go see my parents?"
"That's fine. I'll--I'll come home early."
"Good! Thanks." Then she got up and went around cleaning up the house once more, fantasizing about the day when it would be complete and perfect at last.
So Chandler took the babies upstairs and watched them until they fell asleep. He tried his best not to think about Joey, but it was hard, especially since his kids were wearing clothes that Joey had bought for them, and playing with toys that Joey had brought on his weekend visits. He could hardly bear it, and was unresponsive to anything else that Monica said to him.
In bed that night, Chandler remained restless while he lay there next to Monica. She was too tired for sex, and quickly drifted off to sleep, leaving him alone and awake with his thoughts. Against his will, he found himself fantasizing again about Joey, remembering his kiss and the way it felt to imagine them living together for the rest of their lives.
Chandler got up many times and went into the bathroom to stare in the mirror again and berate himself for his inappropriate feelings, when he had a wife and family. In frustration, he even went into Joey's room, tempted to break everything in there and throw it out so that he could forget all about Joey. But then he saw the two foosball players on the nightstand.
He picked them up and sat on the bed, remembering what Joey had said, that "They should always be together." That was what Joey had been trying to say for the past few months, whenever he nagged Chandler about visiting him in New York. He realized now why Joey was having such a hard time letting him go, and why he always looked so disappointed whenever Chandler made another excuse about being too busy at home. Maybe Joey always had some private fantasy about being close to Chandler forever too. It hurt so much to realize that they wouldn't have that now. They couldn't.
Clutching the foosball players, Chandler broke down again and collapsed on the bed, sobbing wretchedly into the pillows.
By early morning, when Monica woke up to feed the babies again, she realized that Chandler was missing, and searched the house for him. To her relief, she found him curled up in Joey's bed, evidently having cried himself to sleep. She figured that he was upset about their fight and was just missing Joey, so she left him sleeping. Not realizing the seriousness of the situation, she just hoped that Joey would come to his senses soon, and they would make up again.
Meanwhile, the fights between Phoebe and Mike worsened. She was having major issues with trusting him lately, and she even brought up old things, like his treatment of his ex-girlfriend Precious, to attack him.
"You'd been going out with her for three months, yet you didn't mention her to me the whole weekend in Barbados, even though you proposed to me! And then you broke up with her on her birthday. Actually, I had to do that for you!"
Mike thought this was unreasonable, for her to throw this incident in his face. He protested that she didn't have a problem with this at the time.
She countered that she was blind with love then, but now she was seeing a whole pattern of him being a deceptive jerk.
"Hey!" Their fights became increasingly bitter, and she also accused him of not respecting her beliefs in psychics, past lives, etc.
He retorted that he tolerated a lot of her weirdness, and that she was being unfair and judgmental, just like his ex-wife. He muttered to himself that he knew he never should have married again.
Phoebe began to agree, and so they finally agreed to divorce; it was the only thing they were agreeing upon lately. So he moved out and went to stay with his sister while they filed for divorce and fought over how to split up their belongings.
Phoebe felt spiteful and went to retrieve the things that she had got rid of because of Mike. Beginning with Gladys, she went to Joey's place to ask for her handmade artwork back. He probably wouldn't want it, after all, given that Rachel had told him Gladys was haunted.
But when she arrived at Joey's apartment, she found him moping and pouting on the bed in Chandler's old room.
"Joey? What's wrong?"
He was startled and pulled the covers over his head to hide remnants of his tears. "Nothing."
"Come on, you've even got Hugsy with you. What's up?"
He wouldn't answer her, so she sat on the bed and sighed, "Well, fine. I'll tell you my news, then. I'm changing my name again, Joey."
"Huh?" He finally turned towards her, but kept Hugsy close to him.
"Yep, no more Phoebe Hanigan. I've kicked him out," she snorted bitterly, "and I hope he changes his name to Crap Bag again. It's so appropriate!"
He sat up and frowned. "Really? You're getting divorced?"
She nodded and sighed. "Yeah, it was a mistake. You know, I think what Ross said about me never having a serious relationship must have freaked me out. I was so happy with my life before, but then I got all panicky about settling down with someone right away. I latched onto the first guy and built up these fantasies about marrying him and becoming a soccer mom with this normal life. I mean, I do want some normalcy and security after all these years, Joey, but I don't think he was the right guy at all. I shouldn't settle for Mike, just so I can keep up with Monica and Chandler and Ross and Rachel."
Joey hugged her. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay, Joey." She kissed his cheek fondly and tried to laugh. "So I guess it's just us single folks again, huh?"
Joey sighed and nodded, depressed about being left behind again.
"Hey, Joey," Phoebe smiled flirtatiously, "How you doin'?" She leaned in to kiss his lips, but he was startled and pulled away from her uncomfortably.
He didn't want to cross that line again, not with another of his friends.
Phoebe was disappointed, but she shrugged it off. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to just latch onto you next, for marriage and commitment and all that. I just thought, maybe we could have a little fun together and cheer ourselves up for a while. But I guess not."
Joey visibly relaxed and told her, "I'm sorry, Pheebs. It's not you. It's just..."
She nodded and guessed, "You feel weird about it, after Rachel? Yeah, I understand. We've flirted for years, you know, but I guess it would feel weird for me too, after you've been with Ursula. It never really works out when I go after Ursula's exes." She reached out and offered to shake his hand. "Well, how about we just promise to stay just friends, then?"
He agreed. "Yeah. Just friends." They shook on it and then hugged. "I love you, Pheebs."
"I love you, too." She kissed his cheek with a smile, then sat back against the headboard. "So, you gonna tell me what's wrong or not?"
Joey frowned and turned away, clutching Hugsy again.
"Are you sure?"
He shook his head. "I just--I just need to be alone right now."
"All right, but if you change your mind and need to talk, just call me. Anytime." Then she got up from the bed and started to go. "Anyway, I'm gonna take Gladys, and then go tell Ross and Rachel about my divorce. Maybe they can recommend a lawyer or something."
"Yeah. Bye."
"Bye, Joey."
