Coffee and Sympathy
That afternoon, Emily was cleaning the apartment. It wasn't as though she had a particular mania for cleaning (like some people, she thought to herself). It was just that things needed to be done, once in a while. There was a happy medium between being a slob (or as her innocent grandmother called it, a slut) and being obsessive compulsive. Besides, the book she was reading had gone into a passage about cooking. The magazines she had in the house all features specials on cooking. It seemed that everything on the television was about cooking. Ross had decided to go into the museum because Emily was supposed to be out all day. So she cleaned.
When she heard the doorbell, she wondered whether it would be Monica. She wasn't sure what she was going to say to her, after this morning. She should not have lost her temper, even if Monica had called her stupid. She would have to apologise for the scales outburst. Monica ought to apologise for the stupid remark too. One thing was clear, Emily was not going to be taking lessons from Monica again, in anything.
She was surprised to find that it was Rachel, wanting to come in. The two of them had always had a distant relationship. The first time, it had been antagonistic, when Rachel had not warned her that she was planning to stand Emily up, until she had arrived, soaking wet from a rain storm on Rachel's doorstep. It had never been particularly friendly. She had found the going away party that Rachel had organised, the one where they played spin the bottle rather strange but she had had other things on her mind.
Then was the wedding and the aftermath. Rachel had gone there intending to ruin it, and she had. Then she had been prepared to go on a honeymoon with Ross. Then she had written him that letter. Monica had done a lot of work to build bridges between the three of them. Emily knew that after they had arrived back at New York, Ross had seen Rachel privately, because he had told her. Rachel had made herself scarce for a week after that, and Emily had almost wished that Rachel had gone for good, but for the anxiety that Monica had shown.
Then she started coming back to visit, and there had been that episode when she and Joey had taken Ross out of the apartment, while he was still on crutches and supposed to be resting. Then Rachel had found a boyfriend and she no longer seemed to have a strange attitude to Ross. There were still touchy areas though, like with Monica, where Rachel seemed to be very attentive to how much time Monica was giving Emily. Emily did not want to monopolise Monica but nor did she want to see less of her just to keep Rachel comfortable. She supposed that Rachel would be happy about today.
"Can I have a coffee?" Rachel asked.
"If you can trust me," Emily said, still feeling annoyed about the measuring incident. "I might put a quarter of a teaspoon too much coffee in." Rachel waved a hand airily, to dismiss any such concerns, and Emily started to make it.
"Monica gets like that, take no notice," Rachel said.
"It's not nice being called stupid."
"She's very passionate about getting things exactly right. And you're responsible for her brother's welfare, so she's especially uptight about that." Rachel laughed gently. Things had not been easy for her either, and she couldn't help seeing the funny side. "You didn't think marrying into the Geller family was going to be easy did you?" Emily handed Rachel her coffee and sighed.
"I didn't think anything. I just wanted to marry Ross." She thought suddenly of how Judy treated Monica. Things might yet get more complicated, if she did something that her mother in law didn't like. Or if her father in law met her father again. Luckily the wedding quarrel had been patched up, in the aftermath of the accident, but she wondered if they might argue again if they met, given enough alcohol. That was one reason why she hardly touched the stuff herself. "I don't regret that for a minute."
"No," Rachel said. Though she knew, Ross wasn't perfect. How would Emily handle it if Ross got jealous over someone? "Look I think Monica realises that she was a bit too advanced for you." Emily shot her a look.
"Are you saying I'm stupid?"
"If you are, I am," Rachel said. "I can't cook."
"Then why didn't you join in the lessons?"
"Because I've known Monica a lot longer than you have," Rachel said.
"She's right though," Emily said, "We can't live on microwave food." Rachel shrugged. She, personally, thought the inventor of pop tarts a genius. "I have to learn to cook."
"Why don't you look up people who teach cooking classes in the phone book? Maybe that would work."
"True," Emily said.
"Maybe they are something that you and Ross could do. There's no reason why you should be the one who has to do all the cooking. What if you get a job? Why doesn't your uncle get you a job at Bloomingdales?"
"It's red tape," Emily said, "I still have to have a valid green card, and that's taking a while. Anyway, there's nothing at Bloomingdales that I can do."
"What do you do?" Rachel asked.
"I work in the travel industry. Putting together packages. Unfortunately my firm was only small and doesn't have a branch here, otherwise it would be easier."
"Oh that's why you could get so many flights to New York, they're so cheap for you."
"It still costs a lot if you take a lot of flights," Emily said.
"So tell me where you've been," Rachel said, and that was how Ross found them when he came home.
for those who have not read my other fics, this is the point that it started to become AU