After Joey kissed him, Chandler stared into his eyes for a moment, before he felt an attack of conscience. He blushed and looked down at his plate sadly. "I wish... I hope you don't really hate me when this is over. When you're straight, and you remember what we did--"

"Chandler, stop it!" Joey pressed their foreheads together in frustration and sorrow. "Why won't you believe me? What am I doing wrong?"

Wincing, Chandler swallowed and shook his head. "It's not you. It's me. I-I was so selfish! I asked you to marry me, and I-I tricked you."

"You didn't trick me! I signed those forms--"

"No!" Chandler interrupted. "Not that. I mean, um--" He choked with guilt and continued in a whisper, "Remember how we weren't supposed to have any porn? On the third day, when I was typing up notes on my laptop, I realized that I could download some porn for us. It's not as good as having all our videos, but we could make do for a month, right? Only, I never told you about that, Joe, because I didn't want you to, um... to spill stuff on the keyboard and ruin my computer. But that's crap anyway, 'cause I should have just printed out some pictures for us. I made some other excuses too, like 'Carol and Susan will catch us if we're online. Or Joey will never be able to keep it a secret. Or we'll look too satisfied, and give ourselves away.' Junk like that."

Joey blinked and sat back. "You mean--?"

"Yes! I deprived us for three weeks, Joe! For nothing. I couldn't help it somehow, and you know, you never suggested searching Monica's apartment again, so I thought maybe you'd forgotten about all the porn and were doing okay by yourself. Sometimes I forgot too, with all the kissing and the sex dreams. But then you actually came onto me, out of the blue. At first I resisted because of Monica, but then I gave in and we went to bed anyway. And after that, I wanted you so badly. All the time." He gulped again. "And now... now we've done all this, and you think you love me, but that's not true. It's not real. I just made you get desperate and want me. I tricked you into this!"

Joey shook his head and reached for him. "Chandler, no! It's not like that!"

"It is! It's my fault." He shrank away from Joey's touch and felt deeply ashamed of himself.

"No!" Joey answered. "I told you, Chandler, I've wanted you for a long time. Not just this last month."

Chandler wouldn't believe him. "No, that's just what you think now, Joe. But you're gonna hate me when you're back to normal. You'll hate me and never forgive me!" He broke down into tears.

Getting up, Joey went around the table again, but this time he moved Chandler over so that they were sitting on Chandler's chair together. In fact, he pulled Chandler onto his lap and hugged him close, trying to hush his sobs.

"Hey! Come on! I've seen you downloading porn lots of times, you know. Did you think I'd just forget that, Chandler? You didn't trick me. I knew, and I didn't say anything either."

"You didn't?" Chandler calmed somewhat and stared at him bewilderedly. "But--but you were desperate. You said--"

"I lied. I just needed an excuse to touch you, to hit on you without making you freak out. I didn't know if you were gonna say yes or not, but I needed an excuse to back off if you didn't want me too."

"You mean, you--you tricked me too?"

Blinking, Joey shrugged and looked apologetic. "Yeah, I guess so. I'm sorry. I mean, when you said no, I was disappointed, but I stopped and hoped that you could forgive me for it. But then you started talking about Monica, and you invited me to your room... I just couldn't help myself. I wanted you so much."

Chandler met Joey's eyes searchingly. "Are you sure you didn't really want Monica?"

"I'm sure." Joey leaned in and nuzzled Chandler's neck. "This is what I wanted."

Chandler didn't know what to say, so he just sank into Joey's arms and enjoyed the tender way that Joey rubbed his back.

Joey finally spoke up again, with a half smile. "Chandler, do you wanna know why I thought you didn't mention the internet porn? I thought you just wanted to spend more time with me. I thought you missed me like I've been missing you since--well, ever since London, really. I thought you didn't care about the porn if it meant that we had more time to be together, all alone." He kissed Chandler softly. "I really loved having you around here for one more month, you know? It was like old times, before you and Monica got together. It was you and me, inseparable again. If I had to be your husband to get that much attention from you, that was fine with me. It was better than fine." He clasped their hands together, letting their wedding rings touch again. "That was how I started realizing how I really feel about you."

Chandler wanted to believe in Joey's sincerity, but still had lingering doubts. "But you've been with girls so long, Joe. How could you, how could you be gay all of a sudden?"

"But it's not all of the sudden! Not really. There were plenty of signs that I told you about last night, that I ignored until now." He sighed. "Man, how blind could I be, huh? I mean, I even--" With an awkward pause, Joey decided to admit the full truth. "Hey, um, do you remember getting a prank phone call every Wednesday for months?"

"Wednesday? Wh--" Then the light suddenly dawned on Chandler, but it shocked him. "That was you?"

Joey nodded and spoke in a falsetto voice, "I love you, Mr. Bing." Then he coughed and returned to his normal voice, looking embarrassed and guilty. "Yeah, that was me, Chandler. At first I only did it as a prank, wanting to make you think that Janice had found out you weren't in Yemen and was stalking you. But then I kept doing it, week after week. Before I knew it, months had gone by, and I still couldn't stop myself, especially after I found out that you and Monica were dating. I just had to call you every week, and I never asked myself why. I guess--I guess I just needed to hear your voice, the way you'd react when I said it. Not that you ever said you loved me back. Not even when you were flirting with me."

Chandler swallowed and remembered that flirtation. "At first... those first few Wednesdays, I thought you might be a secret admirer or something. I was flattered, and you didn't really sound like Janice, so I figured it was safe. I wanted to know who you were, but you'd never say your name or let me meet you somewhere. After I realized it was a prank, I was so disappointed and couldn't understand why you kept tormenting me, even when I said I had a girlfriend now."

Joey frowned and realized how much he'd hurt Chandler with his prank. "I'm sorry. It was a stupid thing to do. I just couldn't admit the truth to your face or to myself, not back then. Not when I couldn't be sure how you felt too. It's easier to tell myself that you're just my roommate than to worry about whether we'd ever be more than that. Whether this could be love."

Pondering that for a moment, Chandler asked hesitantly, "Could this be, Joe? Could it be love?"

Joey caressed his cheek and nodded. "If you let it be. If you'd just believe how I feel about you."

Chandler frowned and laid his head against Joey's shoulder. "I-I don't know. What if this is a mistake?"

"I don't think it is. I think we could be great together. Don't you want to find out if we could?" When Chandler didn't answer, Joey sighed and remembered what he hadn't mentioned yet, "Look, maybe it would help if we talked to Carol and Susan. Do you mind if we tell them about us and ask them what they think?"

Chandler looked up at him warily. "Really? You want to tell them?"

"Yeah! I don't mind. Just like I don't mind all the people at your office thinking we're married. I just hope Carol and Susan can give us some advice, tell us whether they think this happened only because of the fake marriage. I hope not, but I know that maybe we rushed things, Chandler, especially with you getting over Monica. I don't wanna be just some rebound relationship."

Chandler looked surprised by that last word. "When have you ever wanted a relationship, period?"

Joey looked hurt. "I wanted one with Kate. Now I want one with you."

Remembering Joey's intense feelings for the actress Kate Miller, and how Joey had done some rather out of character things, such as watching Kate sleep and crying after she rejected him, Chandler realized that maybe it wasn't the fake marriage that made Joey act so sweet and loving lately.

So Chandler kissed him softly and admitted, "I-I want one too. I want something real."

Joey smiled and hugged him closer. "Good. So, can we have Carol and Susan come over here to talk with us? Maybe after Phoebe's baby shower on Saturday, they could come see us."

Chandler shrugged and looked uncertain. "But what if they tell the gang about us?"

"I'm sure we could ask them to keep things secret from Ross and everybody. Is it okay if they just come by?" He sincerely hoped that Chandler wouldn't say no to this, because he'd have to cancel the plans with Susan, or meet her alone, or something else. He would rather get things out in the open as much as possible.

Seeing Joey's pleading eyes, Chandler melted and decided that it wouldn't be so bad to see Carol and Susan; he'd been willing to invite them to keep him company during Phase One, after all, when he was likely to be drunk and crying. "Okay. It's better than talking to my dad, I guess. And we could return their books too." He pointed to the pile of gay/lesbian books that they still had.

Joey nodded and looked relieved. "Sure." He gave Chandler another tender kiss before he returned to his chair on the other side of the table.