Chapter 5

Since that dreamy Saturday night, Rachel couldn't stop think about Ross. He certainly was a thought to brighten up the succeeding days…

Sunday, she woke up late and received a lengthy sermon from her parents since she and Amy promised to be home before lunch.

Monday came and as planned, she began job hunting in the city;

Tuesday,

Wednesday,

and Thursday she continued passing her resumes to different boutiques, fashion designers and shops.

"My feet are killing me. No wonder my mother never worked." She grunted as she plopped down Kristin's couch, her temporary residence for the week.

Kristin sat down beside her and offered a bottle of beer, which Rachel gladly took. "That's just the beginning Ray. When you start earning right, you'll hardly complain."

Rachel shot Kristin a look. Her friend can sometimes be hypocritical just to sound right. "Oh please, what do you know about working? You work for your father!"

Kristin rolled her eyes, "At least I'm working."

A pang of worry suddenly hit Rachel, Kristin was right… at least she was working… better yet, at least she was doing something.

"Kris, what if none of these companies call me back? I mean, I'm in my mid-twenties already and I've never worked my entire life… I took my internship in my aunt's advertising agency and did nothing. My college degree is crap- I don't even know why I graduated with a degree in psychology when clearly, I don't want to be a doctor. And I'm applying to the fashion business wherein my greatest achievement is designing the Cold Spring Country Club fashion show for three consecutive years!" She drank her beer and added, "Second to that in my resume is being Lincoln High's head-cheerleader."

"Ray, they will call you. You're gifted, artistic, imaginative, creative… um, innovative."

"Stop with the thesaurus, Kris." She grunted.

Working was a new fascination to Rachel. It was never included in her life's plans but she always had the yearning to pursue it. Now that she was faced with the beginning, she was afraid.

"And you're pretty." Kristin spoke proudly, as if it was a good idea.

Rachel sighed in frustration. Ditzy… she once thought she was… but after having Kristin as her friend for almost seven years, it made her think otherwise.

"Anyway," Kristin diverted the conversation, "what happened to your dreamy guy? Did he ever call again?"

"No," Rachel replied after gulping her beer. "He said he'd like to see me again and I remember giving him your home number over coffee."

"Maybe he's busy."

"I hope." Rachel continued to drink.

"Since we'll both be here doing nothing, I'll be grabbing some videos for us to watch okay?"

Rachel nodded, satisfied with that.

"Great!" Kristin stood up, "I'm thinking Legally Blonde and Legally Blonde 2? Or do you want romantic movies like Notting Hill? How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days?" she paused, "I know! How about Must Love Dogs? Wasn't that so adorable?"

Kristin's movie taste suited herself so well, Rachel wanted to laugh. "I don't care Kris. Borrow Gladiator, I won't care."

"Eew." Kristin shallowly remarked after standing up to leave, "it's too bloody and long."

Rachel simply rolled her eyes.

"He-llo?" Rachel answered the phone, half-asleep on the couch while watching some entertainment channel.

"Hi," greeted the other line, "Ray-ray?"

She briefly chuckled and cleared her throat, "Who's this?"

"Ross… from last Saturday."

She quickly sobered up and sat straight. "He- Hey! Hi! I thought you were never gonna call!" She mentally kicked herself for saying that. "I mean, it's been a while and-"

"I know," he said, "I just had a lot to do. I'm sorry."

Rachel slid down the couch once more in delight. Even his voice made her melt.

For ten minutes, Rachel couldn't stop smiling. He was so smooth in making moves that it made her feel like she was in cloud nine when, ironically, they were talking about having either a gross hairless dog or a smelly stray cat.

Yet their conversation went was interrupted by Kristin as she entered the apartment, irritated.

"Ross, I'm sorry but I have to go. Something's up with my friend." She bid farewell as she saw her friend throw her bag somewhere in the living room with much force.

"Oh okay. Listen, are you free tomorrow night?" He was surprisingly shy as he asked her out on a date.

"I was supposed to go home to Long Island but…" she reconsidered her options: Going home to her parents and her sisters, or going out with this handsome, sexy, smart, witty… she stopped thinking and realized there was no point of comparison."What the heck, I'm free."

"Great. I'll be there at 8."

"Where are you taking me?" She asked in excitement.

"Somewhere." He said in a flirtatious tone. "You take care Ray!"

"Bye Ross." With that, she smiled to herself, turned off the phone and followed Kristin to the kitchen.

"What's wrong?"

Kristin took the tall glass and poured wine in it. Before answering, she gulped a whole lot of it. "That freaking asshole ditched me for some other girl."

"Which asshole?" She sat down on the dining chair.

"The soap opera star I was telling you about—the guy I slept with after we came from the bar last weekend."

"Oh. What's his name again?"

"Ken Adams." She sulked on the dining chair across Rachel, "He told me he was gonna call and then I saw him this evening in the video store in Greenwich Village, necking some slut at the naked tapes area."

"Kris, I'm sorry."

Kristin stood up and poured another glassful of wine, "Ugh. Guys are bastards! They are insensitive, uncaring assholes with dicks." Kristin had tears forming at the corners of her eyes, "I wasn't even able to borrow the videos because I stormed out." Then her tears poured down her cheeks.

"Aw, Kris," Rachel went to Kristin and hugged her.

"You better be careful about that Ross guy, Rach. He might treat you just the same."

"Well," she sat down next to her friend, "he just called me." She felt her cheeks burning in thrill.

"What did he say?"

"He asked me out on a date again… tomorrow!"

"Great," sarcastically said, "He called, he didn't leave you hanging, you didn't see him caressing some girl's ass while running his lips down her neck… I'm happy for you." She cried even more.

"Kristin," Rachel gave her friend another hug, "Forget about him. He doesn't deserve a single tear!"

Kristin took a deep breath and looked up at Rachel, "Let's just watch Sleepless in Seattle." She suggested, referring to her own DVD copy.

Ross went back to Chandler in their living room, since he veered away from him earlier. He came from one of the three bedrooms their comfortable-sized bachelor's pad had.

"Who was that?" Chandler asked; keeping his eyes glued to the wrestling match on TV yet seeing Ross had a wireless phone through his peripheral vision.

He sat on the barcalounger next to his best friend's and replied, "I finally called her."

It took five days… Five days, Ross had been debating whether or not he should call Rachel. It wasn't like any other chick he could or could not call… he knew, the moment she took his breath away, he had to call her. And that fateful Saturday night gave him a familiar feeling… a feeling that had not been revisited for years.

Chandler turned to Ross, "Called who? Emily? Is she back?"

"No, Ray."

"Ray? Who's Ray? Are you dating a… guy?"

Ross snapped out and looked at Chandler, "Ray is a girl. I was with her last Saturday... remember?"

"Oh, that girl. It took you five days to call her? No wait, you actually called her?"

Ross bobbed his head and sulked on the barcalounger and paid attention to the television… or pretended to pay attention to it.

Chandler mocked him by laughing, "Wow, that's- that's so not you! Did she not like you?"

"No," Ross quickly retorted, "We just had an innocent cup of coffee."

Chandler stood and paced around his friend, "Are you kidding me? You, Ross Geller, are telling me that you didn't come close to at least trying to sleep with this chick?"

"Hey!" Ross sat up, "I can still have an innocent cup of coffee with someone, you know. I'm not as bad as you think I am!"

"Really?" Chandler sarcastically replied, "Whatever happened to Jessica?"

"Who's Jessica?"

"The girl you spent the night with- Tuesday last week!"

"I don't know, she never called!"

"Maybe because you never gave her your phone number."

"Well, she didn't ask for it," Ross said in defense.

"Because you asked for hers. What about Emily?"

"Emily and I have been over for three weeks."

"Ross, it doesn't mean that just because the woman you're dating is out of the country, you can go on dating someone else. Come on man… There's Emily, Jessica, her cousin Anna, Michelle, Megan, and Amber-"

"What's your point?" his serious tone cut his friend's sarcasm.

Chandler paused in thought, "I don't think you've taken anyone seriously since Carol."

"Chan- I'm not taking her seriously," he nervously laughed.

But Chandler could mock him even more, their third roommate, Joey, barged in the front door gasping for air…

"Joe?" Chandler turned to him across the living room.

Joey leaned on the door, trying to catch his breath. "She- she saw…"

Ross went near him, "Calm down, man."

A good minute made Joey relax. Chandler then nudged him to continue his explanation.

"Kristin saw me with Jenna in Blockbuster Video."

"Who's Kristin?" Ross was suddenly lost.

"The girl Joey slept with last Saturday."

Ross couldn't remember… he was too concentrated on himself that night.

"You didn't see her. Joey hooked up with her after you left with Ray."

"Ray?" Joey was taken aback, "You hooked up with a guy!"

He rolled his eyes, "For the nth time, Ray is a girl. She was that girl you wanted to hit on… the sister of the drunken chick you were fooling around with!"

Joey made a face and shook his head, "Nope. I don't remember her."

"Oh come on, how can you not remember her? You were checking her out!"

"Ross, I check out every woman I see. Do you expect me to remember them all?" Joey responded.

In disbelief of how his friend would just forget about a beautiful woman like her, he cared to elaborate. "She was that hot girl wearing a sexy red top and a short skirt… she had blue eyes and her blonde hair was-"

"See, you are more than smitten with her, Ross!" Chandler remarked, bringing back the old topic.

"What?" Joey asked.

"Ross has been talking about Ray since this morning…"

"What? Of course not." Ross became defensive.

"Ross you kept on asking me whether or not you should call 'her.' I thought you were talking about Emily!"

"Ooooh," Joey teased.

Chandler and Joey both sat on the counter with Ross standing in front of them, and began interrogating him. "Did you call her after your date?" Joey started.

"It was not a date. She and I just had coffee in Central Perk after Avalon…"

"So he called her today." Chandler finished his sentence. "Why did it take you five days to call her?" he followed up with a question.

"Why did you call her?" Joey went straight to the point.

"Cause I wanna go out with her again," Ross innocently answered.

"It looks like our boy's growing up… remembering what a chick wore, taking her out for coffee, not sleeping with her on the first date…" Joey trailed off.

"Not even kissing her on the first date, calling her at all even after five days…" Chandler continued.

"Ugh," Ross grunted. He left his two buds and entered his room.

He couldn't sleep. He didn't know if it was because of what he and the boys talked about that night or because he was anxious and excited to see Ray.

Both maybe…

Ross started to think of what he had become after two years since Carol entered his apartment and plainly broke his heart. She confessed to his that she fell out of love… that was a typical excuse. Basically, it was to mask the whole fact that she fell in love with someone else… someone who had qualities Ross never had. But to his surprise, that someone was a girl.

Was he blinded by his feelings for her? Or was he just plain stupid? For two years Ross kept asking himself that… He wondered why he had no clue of what she really wanted.

How come the whole situation was only a surprise to him and not to his friends? They knew… they thought he knew… On the other hand, he thought he knew, but then he didn't. And still, he wanted to know.

He and Carol were together for a year and a half. Their relationship wasn't as serious as marriage, but it was the one serious relationship Ross had in his entire life. He was an outcast in high school, and although he bloomed into a lady's man in college, he felt the serenity with Carol. He felt wholeheartedly accepted for all that he was - his past, which he often masked, his present, and his future… which was her. And he had to find out from his friends that during the last months of their relationship, she was already having an affair with Susan.

Was the whole one year and a half a joke?

Unconsciously, Ross evolved to someone he never thought of being – a lady-killer, figuratively of course.

He learned how to have fun, too much fun in fact. He also learned how to forget about seriousness in dealing with women. He learned to be a bachelor, approaching his late-twenties, enjoying life inconsequentially while he still could.

Besides, he was earning enough… he could afford what he needed and sometimes what he wanted... he might as well be selfish for the time being.

But then the thought or Ray entered his mind. Her smile, her glistening deep blue eyes, her calming voice, her coconut-y aroma, her golden hair, her beautiful body, her hypnotizing laugh…

'Stop.' He scolded himself, finally stifling a yawn and closed his eyes to a dreamless sleep.

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