TOW The Silver Lining
An Alternate TOW the Fake Party
This was Rachel's chance to move forward with Joshua, the first time she'd been able to get him outside of work. It was not an exclusive date, so there was no reason for him to get scared off or anything but it was a start. It was just a social occasion, involving her friends that he could join in on, maybe see her and her friends as people he'd want to see more of. She had visions of him dropping into Central Perk, and of exchanging significant looks with each other…
Thank goodness Emily was turning out to be of some use after all. She could almost like Emily, if this party was the beginning of something good with Joshua. And the best thing was, she could carry out the role of being an excuse to get Joshua there, and then she'd no longer be around.
Rachel's suggestion to play spin the bottle was inspired, even if she did say so herself. It was such a great way to get people talking and kissing and if you had control of the bottle you could really make it spin whichever way you wanted. That was how she had done it at parties, years ago. But tonight, Rachel couldn't seem to get the hang of this bottle, and things were getting out of control. Everyone else seemed to be getting what they wanted, but after Rachel's first spin, to Monica, it didn't come her way.
Now Emily had it. Rachel put her hand over her mouth to stop herself groaning in disappointment – it pointed at Joshua. That was the other problem with this evening. Not only was Rachel not getting a turn, the way the game was turning out, Joshua was getting to kiss every other woman. And why did Emily have to be one of the lucky ones? Out of the four of them she was the one to actually have a relationship. Okay, it was a temporary one, due to be over in a matter of hours, but she had someone. She shouldn't even be accepting or giving kisses, except to Ross. They had already had a kiss in the game, and anyway it wasn't as though this was really Emily's party. Rachel wished she'd never suggested this dumb game, she thought as she watched Joshua kiss Emily, chastely. That was something, anyway.
But it was Joshua's turn to spin the bottle, and it might just point at Rachel this time, so she leaned forwards a little, to give him a little more incentive to get it right. She had been in agonies about what to wear, and at least she was sure that it was better than what Emily was wearing, not that it mattered because the bottle pointed at Emily.
'Well,' Joey said, 'It's going to have to be tongue this time.' Ross glared at him. Poor dear, Rachel thought, he hates it too. I made him play a game he didn't want to play. He wanted to take Emily out and instead I made him stay here and watch someone else kiss his girlfriend.
Joshua gave Emily another kiss, at first tender like before, and then more passionately, against a short lived resistance from Emily. Rachel's heart skipped a beat. He's not supposed to be doing that. He knows that Emily is with Ross. She's not supposed to surrender like that, she's supposed to pull away, she's with Ross. Emily broke off and sat back at the edge of the circle, eyes downcast, as though she was collecting her thoughts. Ross glared at Joshua, who seemed entirely unconcerned at the trouble that he'd caused.
It was Emily's turn with the bottle but she wordlessly passed it to Ross, and no-one argued with his going out of turn. Ross span the bottle wildly and it pointed at Chandler. They looked at each other and shook hands. Chandler did his best not to wince as Ross crushed his hand.
'We'd better be going Emily.' Ross said suddenly standing up.
'Yes,' she said, getting up alongside him. She seemed to have recovered her spirits, and although Rachel was glad she didn't make a fuss about suddenly having to leave, not a minute too soon, she was outraged at the look cast at Joshua. She's flirting with him, Rachel thought, outraged, she's with Ross but she's flirting with someone else. And Joshua was smiling back. Ross didn't miss this, and he grabbed Emily's arm, pulling her towards the door.
'Let's go,' he muttered, to her,
'Careful.'
'Oh yeah,' Monica was saying nervously, getting up to see them to the door, 'You don't want to miss out on all your plans for this evening. Not when you went to so much trouble.'
'No, we can still do some of the things I've arranged. The evening hasn't been totally ruined,' Ross said, making Rachel blush. She'd helped ruin his evening.
'Oh don't say that,' Emily said, 'It was lovely of Rachel to organise this.' It was stupid of me to organise this, Rachel thought, but who could have guessed? Ross bundled Emily into her coat, and said a very firm,
'Goodbye,' and dragged her out after him before she had a chance to say anything else.
'I'd probably better go too,' Joshua said, getting up, 'since the guest of honour has left.' Rachel ground her teeth. Emily wasn't the guest of honour, he was, but she could hardly tell him that.
'Oh no, you don't have to,' Rachel said, dismayed. He'd practically only just got there and she hadn't had a chance to kiss him. He needed to spend more time with her, so he could realise who he was supposed to be interested in. 'We – we can have a new guest of honour, why you could be the guest of honour.' She was being too obvious but Joshua simply said,
'I really must go,' and looked around for his coat.
'Let me help you find your coat,' Rachel said, knowing exactly where it was. She promptly hid it underneath an armchair. This added very little time to his search because Monica, not seeing the point, found it almost immediately.
'Hey, what's it doing on the floor?' Monica exclaimed, picking it up and shaking it out.
'I don't remember putting it there,' Joshua said, putting it on.
'Oh things get rearranged in parties,' Rachel said, brushing him down. At least she could do that. 'Coats go in cupboards, bathtubs, ovens…'
'Ovens?' Joey asked in amazement.
'I'll tell you that one, some time,' Rachel said, not taking her eyes off Joshua. 'Some other time,' she said, emphasising the 'other.' But Joshua was moving to the door.
'Thanks for inviting me,' he said.
'I'll walk you to the street,' Rachel said, wanting a few more minutes, a few more minutes where anything could happen… He smiled at that and she felt encouraged.
'I'd suggest you walk me home but it wouldn't be safe out for you in a dress like that,' he said.
'I'll come with you Rachel,' Gunther said eagerly. Monica did get this, and said,
'That's okay Gunther, really, have another drink.' This gave Rachel the chance to get out of the door with Joshua.
'Did you really like the party?' she asked.
'Yeah, I did. You've got some nice friends,' he said, and there was something about the way he said that which made her feel uncomfortable. He was still thinking about one of them, the only one who wasn't a friend.
'You shouldn't have kissed Emily like that,' Rachel said, trying to sound light hearted. 'You should have tried that on someone who's not taken.' Like me, she urged.
'She can't really be taken if she's leaving,' Joshua laughed.
'You upset Ross,' she said. He gave her a look,
'It's like that is it?'
'Like what?' Rachel asked, not sure she was comfortable with the way he looked at her.
'Sorry, I didn't help you make him feel jealous,' he said, giving her a kiss on the cheek, polite, cold.
'What the hell does that mean?' Rachel demanded.
'You'll have your chance to make Ross feel better when that girl's gone. You'd better get back upstairs before you catch a cold,' Joshua said, and without a second look, he took off down the street.
The next morning at Central Perk, Rachel said to Ross when he arrived,
'I'm sorry I messed up your last night with Emily.' And she was, she really was. If she hadn't have brought Emily into contact with Joshua, Joshua wouldn't have gotten distracted, and he wouldn't have had that weird idea that she had done the whole thing to make Ross jealous. She didn't know how much of a chance she stood with him now if he thought that she was interested in someone else. Ross sat down on the couch and slumped.
'It doesn't matter now,' he said, 'She's gone, and I'll never see her again.'
'You're not going to keep in touch?' Rachel asked curiously. Ross shrugged.
'Like she said, it was just a holiday romance, nothing to get that worked up about.' He sighed, and there was a wealth of trouble behind that sigh. Rachel wondered if there was a story of an argument about Joshua behind that sigh.
'At least you had a happy two weeks,' Rachel said.
'I know. I was just building the whole thing into something it wasn't,' Ross said. 'How did you make out with him?' The way Ross said, 'him' left her in no doubt of his feelings.
'I didn't. He's not my type after all,' she sighed. 'I guess one day, we'll both find our types,' she said, turning over a page in her magazine as Monica came in. The next page was a feature:
Lobster Mornay.