At David's apartment, there was a knock on the door, so the physicist reluctantly got up to answer it. "Chandler?"

He smiled and presented his peace offering. "Hey, Monica made this lasagna for you."

"Oh, uh, thanks. Come in." He took the lasagna to the kitchen, while Chandler followed him.

"So what are you doing tonight, Dave?"

"David," he corrected.

"Oh, so I guess Davie the Science Dude is out of the question too."

David sighed and knew what was going on. Despite what Ross had told Phoebe, David had been turning down dates with Charlie and other women that the guys had tried to fix him up with. Instead, he spent most nights moping at home. "Don't bother, Chandler. I really don't need you to baby-sit me. I'd just rather be alone right now."

"No! Come on, can't a couple of guys hang out anymore?"

"Like we hung out when I was dating Phoebe?"

"Hey, you just haven't gotten to know me yet, David. I make fun of everybody, especially my close friends."

"Well, we're not close friends."

"But we could be! I mean, we already have stuff in common. You lost a toe to frostbite, and I lost a toe to a Thanksgiving knife incident."

"What?!"

Chandler smiled. "I'll tell you the story over some beers and lasagna."

After Chandler told the whole story, he noticed that David looked more depressed than ever. "Hey, scientist guy! What, did you lose your sense of humor in Minsk too? That's supposed to be a funny, humiliating story."

David slumped in his chair. "It reminds me of Phoebe."

"How? I didn't mention her! We never even met Phoebe back then."

"But you met Monica for the first time. You got the love of your life. I didn't."

Chandler sighed. "Well, I only got Monica eventually! Only after she turned me down a lot of times and I lost body parts. Look, David, I really don't know for sure if Phoebe's going to come back to you or not. None of us do. But you have to learn to cope without her. If it's meant to be, it will happen, but you can't force it or hurry it up."

David sighed sadly. "It's just so hard. I've already been waiting eight years."

"Yeah, so? Ross loved Rachel ever since high school, but even he knew that he had to move on with other women--like Carol, Julie, Bonnie, and Emily. Two of those were marriages, which means that sometimes he could seriously picture his life without Rachel. You have to face the chance that Phoebe could be gone for good, which means that you can't keep turning down these dates we arrange for you. Do you really want Mike to have the satisfaction of stealing your woman and reducing you to a bitter, lonely old geek who sits at home and thinks up ways to shoot Mike through a particle accelerator until all his atoms are smashed to bits?" Chandler gestured at the numerous doodles on David's coffee table which sketched out this scenario.

David frowned and started to see Chandler's point. "If I--if I get a really hot date, can I bring her to Mike's piano bar and flaunt it in his face?"

"Absolutely!" But then he wondered whether he should have consulted with Monica or the other guys before giving this advice.

***

Bonnie met Gunther at Central Perk for their date. Her hairstyle was currently only a little bit longer than Gunther's, but she remained as outgoing and sexy as ever. Like Phoebe, she had a soft spot for shy, sensitive geeks, because she believed that such guys had plenty of repressed passion underneath the surface, and she wanted to release it.

"Hi," she smiled. "Gunther, right? I'm Bonnie."

"Oh." Gunther became nervous because he didn't realize that Phoebe would set him up with someone so attractive and obviously out of his league. He felt the same kind of tongue-tied awe that Rachel usually inspired in him.

Bonnie thought Gunther was cute, though, and touched his arm to put him at ease. "You speak Dutch, right? Phoebe said that you might teach me some *bad* words." She spoke this in a sexy and suggestive voice, and her eyes sparkled with interest.

Amazed that she was being so friendly, and even flirtatious, Gunther cleared his throat and signaled to one of the waitresses that he was leaving for his date now. It was almost unheard of for Gunther to leave Central Perk for any reason besides going home or getting his hair dyed, though he did get the occasional party invitation from one of the six friends who always occupied the orange couch.

Bonnie still held onto his arm and stroked it fondly as they left together and walked to the movie theatre. "So your roommate worked with Phoebe at the old massage place?"

"Uh, yeah. Jasmine. She moved out, though, when she got married."

"Oh, right. You know, Gunther, it's funny that you and me didn't meet at one of Phoebe's birthday parties before, but then there's always so many people she knows, either from massage or yoga or just around. Oh, and I was so into Ross for a while that I had no eyes for anybody else. Do you how it is when you see someone who's really cute, and you get this mad crush on them?"

Gunther nodded. "Yeah. Yeah I do." Wow. That really made him feel better, that hot people like Bonnie could also have crushes on people out of their reach.

Bonnie continued chatting. "You know, I heard that Chloe from the copy shop liked Ross too, and she even said to him, 'It's okay if you're married,' just 'cause she wanted him that bad. Me, I waited until after he and Rachel had been split up for a while, but it still didn't do me any good because he dumped me for her. I thought Rachel was cool, but she stabbed me in the back by making a move on my guy! Huh! And according to Phoebe, Ross and Rachel had a stupid fight and ending up breaking up again! Can't those two make up their minds?"

Gunther agreed.

They had a pleasant time at the movie, but Bonnie, in her sexually aggressive way, kept touching Gunther a lot as they sat together in the dark theatre. Gunther was admittedly turned on, but felt rather rushed, since he was just trying to get over Rachel. Yet what was the harm in making out with her, if he had the luck to be with such an attractive woman? It would at least end his long spell of moping around like a loser.

Before he knew it, the movie had ended and Bonnie said they should hurry and go back to his apartment, which he agreed to, in a daze. With lustful kisses, Bonnie was clearly ready to jump him right there on his living room couch.

But Gunther's cat hissed "Rachel" and ventured forth from its velvet pillow to investigate the stranger in its territory. Bonnie turned and looked at the cat in surprise. "Oh, hey! It's one of those hairless cats. Those are so cool. How'd you afford one?" She often thought about getting one herself, to complement her sometimes bald head.

Gunther shrugged and caught his breath. "I just, um, I bought it from Rachel after she said she couldn't take care of it anymore. It was scratching her a lot." Actually, he had overpaid for the cat, never able to say no to Rachel.

As if on cue, the cat again hissed "Rachel" in its evil tone, and Bonnie chuckled. "Wow! A cat that hates Rachel as much as I do. What's its name?"

Gunther tried to remember. "Uh, Mrs. Whiskerson, but I mostly just call her Snake. That's what I thought she was at first."

Bonnie laughed even harder and kissed him. "You got a great sense of humor. Come on, let's go to your bedroom and get out of her way." Bonnie got up from him and half dragged him into his room.

They had an incredible night of passion, and for once Gunther didn't stay up late fantasizing about Rachel. Bonnie completely exhausted him and he fell asleep with a smile on his face.

[to be continued... I'm not sure yet how serious or frivolous Gunther and Bonnie will be, so opinions would be welcome.]