"Wow-ee, look at you!" Janet says as Jack walks out of his room dressed up in a jacket and tie.

"I just did," he smugly jokes. "And look at you! You look beautiful," he eyes her black dress up and down.

"Why thank you Jack," she blushes and touches her hair. "You got a big date?"

"With a little luck. Larry's taking me to check out a new bar," he pretends to adjust his tie.

"Well I hope you both have fun. I'm going out with Bob tonight," she heads into the bathroom.

"Janet, that's great. I had a feeling you liked him," he hears a signature knock at the door and calls out for Larry to come inside.

"Hey pal, are you ready?" Larry walks in and catches Janet coming out from the bathroom. "Janet, you look amazing," he takes a step towards her. "You know I can ditch Jack and take you out instead, just say the word."

"No."

"And that was the word," he nods and heads towards the door. "Come on Jack, before all the live ones are gone!"

Jack laughs and gives her a quick kiss goodbye. "Have fun tonight!"

"You too!" She waves at the door to both of them and waits until they get into Larry's car.

She then hears the phone ring and she runs over to answer it, "Hello? Oh hi Bob! Yeah I'm…oh. Oh, well that's okay…these things happen. Okay you have a good night too." She hangs up the phone.

She kicks off her heels, and flops on the couch. "Oh well," she mutters and grabs her glasses and some paperwork from the coffee table.

"Hey Janet," Terri opens the door and throws her purse on the chair.

"Hey, how was work?" She takes note of Terri's nurse outfit.

"Oh it was fine I-" Terri stops and looks at Janet, "Boy, are you dressed up!"

She rolls her eyes and waves her hand, "Oh I was just going to change out of this." She stands up and walks towards the bedroom, "I have to return it tomorrow."

"Why? You look stunning!" Terri follows her into the bedroom.

"Yeah well, Bob will never get the chance to see." She starts to unzip her dress.

"Oh no, Janet I'm sorry," Terri puts two and two together and realizes Bob canceled.

"It's so much easier for men," she grabs a sweatshirt and pulls it over her head. "If I were a man I could just go out there and pick up any woman I wanted or pick up the phone and call someone else to go out."

"Well maybe someone will call you?" Terri leans against the doorframe.

"It's been four weekends and no phone calls," she shoots Terri a look and walks back into the living room, "Anyway it's not a big deal, I like being at home and working."

"You know what your problem is Janet?" Terri follows and sits beside her on the couch, "You're intimidating."

"Me? Intimidating?" She scoffs.

"Yes! Anytime a man looks in your direction you practically roll your eyes."

"Because I don't like the way they're looking at me," she says defensively.

Terri looks down at Janet's setup of papers and books everywhere. "Why don't you go to the Reagle Beagle? There are a lot of single guys there you can ask out."

"Pick up a guy?" She cringes at the thought of asking a man out. "I'm not that desperate thank you very much and besides, I have a lot of work to do." She puts her glasses back on and grabs her papers.

"It's not desperate! This is the 80s Janet -"

"Terri! Will you stop? I'm not going to ask a man out and that's final."

"Okay forget it," she puts up her hands and heads towards the bathroom "I'm not going to say another word."


It's almost 1am when he comes home and sees Terri sitting on the couch watching a movie.

"Terri? What are you doing up this late?"

She looks back and turns off the TV, "Oh hey. How was your night?"

He takes off his jacket and sits down next to her, "There were gorgeous women everywhere."

"Oh?"

"And all their boyfriends were there too."

"Oh," Terri laughs.

"Meeting women is hard!" He adjusts his tie, "It's impossible nowadays to find someone."

"There must be something in the air tonight," Terri says to herself.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh," she waves her hand. "Bob canceled on Janet tonight…but don't say anything."

"Oh Janet," Jack sits back on the couch. "Well she deserves better…any man would be lucky to go out with her." He says a bit more loudly than intended.

"I know," Terri agrees.

"She's beautiful, and smart, and witty, and beautiful -"

Terri cocks her head, "You already said beautiful."

"Oh," he chuckles and shrugs his shoulders. "Well she's two-times beautiful."

Terri bites the inside of her cheek and puts her hand on Jack's knee.

"You know, I'm really worried about Janet, the poor thing."

"I'm sure she'll be fine Terri…" Jack assures her.

"Well I mean her schedule is so busy at the flower shop she doesn't have any time to go out and meet anyone. It would be so nice if she was able to have a night out and have fun."

"Well, what do we do?"

"Well we could get her a date," Terri smiles. "Now if only there were a good-looking, nice, single man out there…" She bats her eyes at Jack.

He then notices Terri's stare.

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute," he stands up. "I don't like where you're going with this."

"Why not? You're nice!"

"Yeah…" Jack thinks.

"You're single!"

"Yeah…" He waits for Terri to continue but is met with her silence. "And?"

"And two out of three isn't bad."

"Ha ha ha," he mocks.

"So? What do you think?" She grabs his arm.

"I don't know, me and Janet on a date? The last time we did that-"

"Oh that's different…for starters, this time you'll use your real names."

Jack rubs the back of his neck. He did enjoy the last time they went out, even if it was by accident.

"And you'd be okay with this?"

"Of course! I want to see Janet happy…don't you?"

"Of course I do, I just…"

"Jack," Terri gently grabs his hand and guides him to sit back down. "If you can give me one good reason why this is a bad idea I won't mention it again."

He looks at her and realizes in that moment, the one good reason is staring at him in the face.

"Okay. Okay I'll do it!"

"Fantastic!" She gives him a hug, "Give her a night she won't forget!"

"Well at least let me take her out for dinner first," he lowers his voice and laughs when Terri playfully smacks his arm.


The next morning he's making breakfast when Larry walks into the kitchen.

"Morning Jack-O," he takes a seat and grabs a piece of toast on the table.

"Hey Larry, look I can't really talk this morning. I have some things to do." He says over his shoulder.

"Oh that's okay, we can talk after you ask Janet out."

"Wait how did you-" He stops when Janet walks in half asleep in her pajamas.

"Terri stopped by my place this morning to tell me the good news," he stands up to give Janet his seat.

"What good news?" She yawns.

"Oh nothing," he flashes a smile at her then gives Jack a big slap on the back. "You dirty dog you."

"Larry…" Jack warns through his teeth and pushes him out.

"What's going on?" Janet pours herself a cup of coffee.

"Oh nothing, you know Larry." He brushes it off and takes a deep breath. "Gee Janet, you look pretty this morning. I love what you did to your hair." He recites the lines he's practiced all night.

"What?" She says confused.

"Um, Janet," he sits down next to her nervously realizing his rehearsed lines probably won't work. "Would you like to go out tonight? Maybe have dinner…see a movie?"

"Oh yeah that'd be great," she answers, grabbing the paper. "Is Terri free?"

"No, she's working." He swallows, "I was thinking it could be just the two of us. There's this new restaurant that opened in Malibu we could go to."

"Okay sure, that sounds nice."

He runs his hand through his hair as he waits for her to say more. "Okay so dinner and a movie tonight. Just you and me."

"Can't wait," she passively smiles and takes a bite of toast.

His leg starts to bounce up and down and he slaps his knee to stop it. He's thought of countless scenarios where he's asked Janet out and none of them resulted in her opening up the paper to the obituaries.

"Nice? Great? That's it? That's all you can say?" He practically yells.

She looks up at him concerned, "Jack! What is going on?"

"Nothing I…" he calms himself. "I just thought you'd be more excited to go to dinner."

"Oh honey," she puts her hand on his cheek. "Of course I'm excited to go to dinner."

He pushes her arm down and gives her a look, "Okay you don't have to be condescending about it either." He stands up and goes back to preparing breakfast.

"Jack," she laughs. "I don't know what reaction you want from me!"

He turns around and looks at her, "I don't know…but us going on a date is a big deal!"

She coughs on the coffee she just sipped, "A date? That was you asking me out on a date?"

"Well sorry for not having fireworks and a bottle of champagne."

"No," she laughs. "I just mean, we do this kind of stuff all the time."

"No we don't!" He sits down across from her.

"Yes we do! What about the computer date?"

"That was a misunderstanding."

"What about the movies last week?"

"That was a horror movie…" He says deadpan remembering how unromantic that experience was.

"What about when we took that plane-"

"That was to make another guy jealous!"

"Well what about-"

"Okay fine!" He shoots up, "Let's not go out on a date. We've been on millions of dates!"

She bites her lip and smiles, "Well…we never have been out on a date-date before."

He looks at her annoyed, "So do you want to go or what?"

She stands up to meet his level and tucks her hair behind her ear.

"Yes," she says nervously. "I'd like that."

"Yeah?" He feels a goofy smile on his face. "Okay well, I'll pick you up at 7 tonight."

"Pick me up? Jack I-"

"Is this a date or not?" He insists.

"Okay," she blushes. "I'll see you then."


"Terri I don't know if I can do this," she paces around the bedroom smoothing out her dress and hair.

"Would you calm down! This should be the easiest date you go on. Jack's your best friend."

"I know Terri, and that's exactly why I think it's a bad idea. I can't believe you're okay with this! I mean what if the three of us-"

"Janet." Terri grabs both of Janet's arms to keep her from moving. "You're like a sister to me." She wipes an eyelash from Janet's cheek, "I'm telling you right now…I'm okay with this."

She smiles at Terri and for the first time since she's known Jack Tripper there's not an ounce of guilt.


"Pal, would you stop moving?" Larry holds Jack in place so he can fix his tie.

"Sorry I can't help it." He looks around Larry's apartment and notices the many photos of women on his walls. "Say Larry…" He frowns and hates how he's about to ask him something he's avoided asking for all these years. "What do you usually do on a first date?"

"You mean before or after?" He smirks.

"Nevermind," he pushes Larry away and finishes his tie himself.

Larry answers the knock at the door and lets Terri inside.

"Okay Jack, she's ready!"

He breathes in and looks at the two of them, "How do I look?"

"You look great. Go get 'em tiger!" Larry throws a pretend punch in the air.

"Oh and Jack," Terri grabs his arm before he heads out the door. "I'm working tonight so…see you in the morning," she winks.


Janet takes a final look in the mirror and then goes to open the door. She sees Jack standing there with a bouquet of flowers and her heart stops.

"Oh Jack, these are beautiful." She grabs them and places them on the table. "How did you-" She turns around and sees that Jack's still standing at the door. "Oh, please come in," she plays along.

"My, what a lovely three-piece living room set you have!" Jack places his hand over his heart.

She puts her hand over her mouth to cover her laughing all while remembering a time in their lives that feels like ages ago.

"You look very handsome Jack."

"And you look…stunning."

The two of them link arms and head out the door. Maybe this night isn't so scary after all.


"It was very nice of Larry to lend you his car," she says as they're driving up the coast.

"After the $50 he never paid me back I see it more as necessary," he laughs. He looks over at Janet and stops himself from touching her. "I meant to tell you, I think the dress you're wearing is very pretty."

"Oh thank you Jack. I actually bought it this afternoon for dinner," she admits.

"Oh really? Why didn't you just use the one from last night since it never got put to use?" He winces and immediately regrets what he said.

"What do you mean since it never got put to use?" Janet changes her tone.

"Nothing I just meant-"

"How do you know about last night?"

"Terri mentioned it," he answers. "But she only told me because she knows I care." He looks over and sees Janet staring out the window. "Are you mad?"

"No," she sighs. "More embarrassed," she chuckles.

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about," he grabs her hand and gives it a squeeze. "I know work has been busy and you haven't had a chance to meet anyone so hopefully this will be fun for you!"

He feels Janet let go of his hand.

"What?"

"What?" He looks confused and wonders if he said something wrong.

"Jack Tripper, is this a pity date?"

"What? No! I just meant-"

"You meant that since I wasn't capable of finding my own date you would help me out, right?"

"Exactly," he panics, realizing what he just said. "I mean no! I mean I know you would never ask out a man so…Janet you're putting words in my mouth!"

"There's no room Jack, your foot's already in it!"

"Listen Janet can we just-"

"Take me home."

He looks over at her with her arms crossed and she's very much serious.

"Janet-"

"Take me home, please."


He wakes up in the middle of the night and heads to the kitchen when he sees Janet at the counter cutting a slice of bread.

"Hey."

"Hey," she says back. "I didn't have dinner so…"

"Let me do that," he takes over and prepares her a proper sandwich. After a minute or so he attempts to talk to her again, "You know, I didn't ask you on a date out of pity."

"Jack, I don't want to hear it," she sighs. "Look, we tried…and we tried again. Maybe it's not meant to be that we go on a date-date."

He doesn't turn to look at her in fear of her seeing his face.

"How can you say that when our date-date didn't even happen?" He says defensively.

"Would you still go on a date with someone after finding out they only asked you because they felt sorry for you?"

"I didn't ask you because I feel sorry for you!" He slams the knife on the counter. "I asked you because you're beautiful, and smart, and witty, and beautiful -"

"You said beautiful twice."

"I know I did! I always say it twice! I guess that makes me a horrible person!"

He turns back around and finishes preparing her sandwich in silence. He puts it on a plate, places it in front of her and heads back to his room.

She looks at the perfectly cut turkey sandwich in front of her with chips on the side and wipes a tear forming from her eye.

"Jack."

He turns around and watches Janet walk slowly towards him. She takes a deep breath and clenches her jaw.

He steps back, "You're not going to hit me are you?"

"No," she rolls her eyes. "Will you…" she mumbles something that he can't make out.

"What?"

"Will you…go on a date with me tomorrow night?" she whispers barely loud enough for him to hear.

"I'm sorry, can you say that again?" He puts his hand to his ear.

"Will you go out on a date with me tomorrow night you jerk!" She shouts.

He smiles and leans against the door, "Is Janet Wood asking me out on a date?"

"Jack Tripper!" she holds her fist up to his face.

"Alright, alright," he laughs and places his hand over her fist. "Yes."

"Really?"

"Third time's a charm," he pulls her in for a kiss.