'Well that wasn't so bad,' Monica said, breathing a sigh of relief, when Ross and Emily had left. It could have been so much worse. It could have been unspeakable in fact, but there had been no harsh or even pointed words, no nasty looks. There had been that look of anxiety from Emily when Ross had come in and sat down near Rachel, and Monica had worried that this would be the start of something, but she could not think of a tactful way to intervene. Luckily, there had been no scene, whether angry or tearful, and it seemed to Monica that Emily had calmed down towards the end of the night rather than getting more and more uptight.
'She didn't say much,' Chandler said.
'I don't know why you're complaining about that,' Rachel said, 'I just asked a few simple questions and you were on my case. You were acting like you wanted to hold the floor all night.'
'Can I help it if I'm the wittiest person in the room?' Chandler grinned. Monica couldn't help a smile, but then asked,
'Was it okay for you, Rachel?' Rachel shrugged.
'It's a start, I guess. I don't know that we're ever going to be friends or anything, but we'll be able to manage if that's the worst of it.' Manage? Monica and Chandler looked at each other. If they were all going to stay together then they would have to do better than "manage." When all this had started, they had no idea it was going to end up like this. She had assumed that Emily would just fit in, like she had before – but they had had no idea that the wedding disaster and what followed would happen. She should have known that Rachel was faking it. She should have realised that Rachel was only able to act like she was over Ross when Ross was not fully absorbed by someone else.
'You were okay seeing them together,' Monica said, wondering if her friend was being too stoic. She knew she was suffering.
'I want them to be together, if that makes Ross happy,' Rachel said. He had been pretty clear to her that there had been no chance of getting back together – if he had ended up getting a divorce, there was no reason why he wouldn't have just started dating someone else. It was the reality that she had to work with, whether she liked it or not. 'You know, Joey's the one who's going to be a problem, not me,' Rachel added.
'I never said you would be a problem,' Monica said quickly.
'I know that's not what you meant. Anyone would have expected there to be a problem, just because of what happened, and her attitude before and everything, but Joey is something else.'
'Have there been any issues between Joey and Emily?' Chandler frowned. 'I can't think of any. He didn't mind kissing her in the Spin the Bottle game, and she did give him a chocolate.'
'No,' Monica said, 'It's just when Emily said she didn't want Ross to see Rachel and got him to throw out all his stuff, Joey got upset. You know how upset he got.'
'And he's stayed upset,' Rachel said. 'He doesn't think she's changed and he thinks she's going to change the whole group.'
'Well he's right about that, isn't he? Having her around is going to change the group. There were six of us and now there's seven,' Chandler said.
'How's he going to know that if he doesn't see her,' Rachel said. 'I think I'm the one who's got the most to say about this. And he doesn't know she hasn't changed.'
'Neither do we,' Chandler said.
'So what are we supposed to do?' Rachel demanded. 'If we treat her like she hasn't changed, then we're just going to hurt Ross, and if she has changed then we haven't been fair.'
'I'm not suggesting we shouldn't treat her like she hasn't changed,' Chandler said patiently, 'I'm just saying, it's not unreasonable for Joey to have that view.'
'Yes, it is,' Rachel said. 'It isn't – wasn't – his problem. This is between Ross, me and Emily. I appreciate the support, but if I want to handle things by being civilised then I think you guys should let me, and not start separate fights of your own. How do you think Ross would feel about you picking fights with Emily? She won't have to tell him to keep away from you, he'll make that decision by himself."
"Hey hey," Chandler said, "Calm down, I'm with you on this."
"Anyway, maybe I want to think about other things. Maybe there are other men I'm interested in. Maybe I don't care. Maybe I want to get a promotion, or get another job."
"Maybe there's another guy you're interested in?" Monica asked.
"Maybe," Rachel said.
"Who?" Monica demanded.
"That's for me to know and you to be tortured not knowing about," Rachel smirked.