This chapter contains references to my real life. Don't blame me for include them here. Enjoy!You will also find links to youtube videos in the text if you want to listen to the songs while I quote them.
When Ross knocked at Monica and Chandler's door that evening, it didn't take his sister more than five seconds to realize that something really terrible might have happened.
She knew her brother more than anyone and she had become pretty good in understanding his body language and his expressions.
Emma, oblivious to his father inner turmoil, was smiling in his arms, "Aunt Monica!" she screamed, jumping from Ross's arms into the ones of her Aunt.
Monica was surprised to see them; she hadn't obviously been expecting for a visit from her brother. But she didn't question his motives.
"Is Chandler home?" he asked.
"Not yet. He'll be soon though, he had a late conference at work."
"The kids?" he asked.
"At mom's, you know Thursday it's grandparents' day." Monica smiled.
Ross nodded, and Emma stated, "Auntie, wanna play with the kitchen!"
"Of course, Honey."
Monica placed Emma on the floor and the little girl ran towards the living room, where Chandler and Monica had equipped a little corner for the kids to play. Monica had bought a wonderful pink kitchenette for her daughter, but since Erica was still so young, Emma used to play with it more than her cousin.
The two siblings followed the girl and watched her playing for a couple of minutes, then Monica looked at her brother, "Do I dare to ask?"
Ross shrugged, "Uhm…I think that I might have just called off my wedding."
Monica almost fell from the shock. "Oh my God."
"Yeah."
"Well…this is the first time in my life that I'm not happy after winning 50 bucks from a bet with Chandler."
Ross glared at his sister, but he couldn't retort with anything.
Monica sighed, "Just tell me what happened…"
The Smalls Jazz Club was in the West Village, not far from Ross and Rachel's building. The gang used to go there often when Monica and Chandler still lived in Apartment 20 and Joey hadn't moved to Los Angeles. Ross and Rachel still went there from time to time because they enjoyed spending the evening with good food, cocktails and most of all with very good live music.
When Chandler had arrived home, Ross had asked him to get out and Monica had gently agreed to let her husband go, feeling that her brother needed a good talk with his best friend. Chandler had driven to town with his own car, not knowing if Ross would be in the condition to take him back home after spending the night in a bar.
The club was full of people, so Chandler and Ross were sitting at the counter, both drinking a beer. Ross was looking terrible, almost as much as he did the night of the infamous break.
On the stage, a group of six people was playing tunes from the fifties and Chandler was enjoying the show very much. The band was called The Tozzi Sisters and the Favorites and just when Chandler was wondering if the name meant that the three beautiful girls singing in trio were real siblings, one of the singers informed the audience that not only the three of them were sisters, but also that the guitarist (who sang the male parts too) was their brother and the drummer was her husband.
This revelation didn't catch the people in the club by surprise because not only the four of them were really good singers, but it was pretty evident that they were also a real family.
What they had perceived during the performance was a true feeling; The informal behavior on the stage, the sensation that the singers cared about each other very much, the laughter when they ended a song, the way the girls looked at each other while they sang, how the brother had looked for one of his sister during a guitar solo to dance with her.
The audience started to applaud loudly, and so did Chandler. Ross grinned as soon as he heard the first notes of the following song, presented by the guitarist as Where or When [watch?v=MfTZRpCUXc0] by Dion Di Mucci, one of the greatest artists of the 50s.
It seems we stood and talked like this before
We looked at each other in the same way then
But I can't remember where or when
The clothes you're wearing are the clothes you wore
The smile you are smiling you were smiling then
But I can't remember where or when
Chandler had been captivated by the four singers for a minute, then he looked at Ross, who was still smiling.
"What?" he asked him.
"I really like these guys. I came here with Rachel a week after Emma's birthday, we heard them play and we were so impressed that we couldn't get away until the end of the concert."
"They're actually good. Can't believe nature is so good with some people, four siblings all so talented and artsy. Then there's me, an only son who wasn't accepted on the Figure Skating Team."
Ross chuckled, "Rachel loved the girls so much that she asked them to play at our wedding."
"Wow, other six tickets to Hawaii, do you grow money on a tree?"
Ross smiled, "She was so happy that night, it was just worth it…And hey, Dr. Green said that he was going to pay for the flight tickets anyway, so who cares?"
Some things that happen for the first time
Seem to be happening again
One of the sisters was playing a lovely saxophone melody while the brother sang a solo bridge and the other two girls accompanied him with soft "ohs" and "ahs". Chandler looked at Ross, knowing that the lyrics of the song were probably very meaningful to him at that moment.
Then the siblings began to sing in four again.
And so it seems that we have met before
And laughed before
And loved before
But who knows where or when
As the song ended with a high note of the brother and the people applauded vigorously, Ross was almost losing himself in the memories, thinking about all the best moments of his relationship with Rachel.
"Chandler, what's the matter with me? Is it something so damn wrong that made me divorce three times? And why now that the last piece of the puzzle is finally back to its place I have to start it again?"
Chandler shook his head, "Maybe you'll find me too compliant, but this time I think you weren't wrong. You did the right thing by letting Rachel on hold."
"Then why do I feel so bad?"
"Because you love her, genius. You've been in love with her for twenty years, remember what Phoebe used to say, that she's your lobster?"
"That was a long time ago…" Ross shook his head and sipped some of his beer, remembering the wonderful day when this story had actually started.
"I can't even imagine what it means to pass through something like that, with a huge twisted relationship like yours. I mean, you're ROSS AND RACHEL. Between Monica and me everything has always been easy and simple, since the first day in London. If you don't count that little bump on the road when Richard showed up to ruin my proposal…Wait, is the Old Tree coming to your wedding?"
Ross chuckled, "No, Rachel and I thought better than to create troubles for our best man and maid of honor."
"Well played, thanks." Chandler patted him on the back. "Anyway, you and Rachel are the strongest couple I've ever known, you made it, despite everything and everyone, and you got back together because you love each other, and that connection is so strong!"
Ross nodded, "I thought so too, Chan. But now…I don't know, why can't she just trust me?"
"Oh come on, Ross, try to put yourself in Rachel's shoes."
"I don't think I could walk in a three-inch stiletto heels."
Chandler just ignored him, "Ross, last year when you got back together you were the one who changed the direction of your lives. YOU ran after her to the airport, YOU told her that you still loved her, YOU realized that you couldn't live without her, YOU asked her to make a choice. And Rachel made that choice, she left Paris behind to stay here with you and Emma, so you can't doubt how much she loves you, otherwise she would have left on that damned plane and she would be with some cool trendy French guy named Francois or Luc or Benoit, making sex with him right now!"
Ross stared at him in disbelief, "I hope you're getting somewhere with this."
"All I'm trying to say, is that you were much readier for a commitment than maybe she was. And you had a proof these last months. Didn't you tell me that you've been talking sincerely and openly, like never before? That you confessed each other things you'd never had the guts to tell back then? And wasn't she the one who flipped out before Christmas?"
Ross nodded, "I still can't believe how immature she was when Julie was here, she was so…"
Ross tried to concentrate on his anger towards his fiancée, but all he could think at that moment was the lovely way she had admitted that she was jealous after the party when they were sleeping at Chandler and Monica's. God, he missed her.
"Exactly, you were surprised by the fact that she was jealous of her."
"Yeah, but we talked about it, I thought we were over it! I asked her to be always sincere, to tell me when something bothers her, I told her I didn't want to let little things spoil our relationship because THIS is what happens if we don't tell each other the truth!"
"Well, it seems to me that Rachel isn't quite there yet, Ross."
The band started to play a new song, this one was a very famous hit that both Ross and Chandler knew pretty well, Mr. Sandman [watch?v=CX45pYvxDiA] by The Chordettes.
Smiling at the way the three girls were introducing the song with a typical doo-wop standard "Bung-Bung", Ross noticed that Chandler was looking at them too.
They got lost in the music for an entire verse.
Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream (bung, bung, bung, bung)
Make him the cutest that I've ever seen (bung, bung, bung, bung)
Give him two lips like roses and clover (bung, bung, bung, bung)
Then tell him that his lonesome nights are over
Sandman, I'm so alone (bung, bung, bung, bung)
Don't have nobody to call my own (bung, bung, bung, bung)
Please turn on your magic beam
Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream
"What do I got to do, Chandler? Please, tell me."
Chandler, who was sipping some of his beer, put the bottle on the counter.
"You have to realize that in this moment Rachel is in the same place that you were in when you broke up eight years ago."
"What do you mean?"
"Remember when you were insanely jealous of Mark, and you didn't trust her? When you sent her a musical bug and a barbershop quartet to her office? You were afraid that you weren't enough for her, that she could slip away from you. If I know Rachel, and after eleven years I think I do, I'm starting to think that she's feeling that way now. Plus, she's afraid of that kind of commitment because you have really changed but she's too afraid to trust you."
"So you think that I became the stronger one in the couple? I am not the geek weirdo anymore and she is the helpless scared girl I've got to save?" Ross smiled.
"Hang on, Indiana Jones. This is not one of your fantasies, it's real life. I'm just saying that you have grown, and at 38 years old we can only be thankful for that. You said that you weren't jealous of Gavin, that you got mad only because she didn't tell you that he was working with her, then it really means that you had suddenly – and miraculously, become the leader of your relationship. Ironically, Rachel is afraid that you can regress to being a jackass and starting pulling-a-Ross all over again."
Ross interrupted him, "But I wasn't jealous of Gavin, that's why I'm so angry, why can't she believe in me?"
Chandler wasn't so sure about it, "Are you sure you trust her, completely?"
Ross looked at him for a couple of seconds. He thought about Rachel and the first memory that came to his mind was the way she had reacted when they were dating back in the nineties and he was trying to convince her that Mark couldn't be nice to her only because he wanted to help her.
"So, he's just a nice guy. You really think this Mark doesn't want anything in exchange for helping him?" he had told her.
"Well, I assume I'll have to take showers with him, but y'know, that's true of any job."
If he thought about it now, he realized how much pathetic he should have seemed.
Rachel's sarcastic answer was just all he needed to know also back then. She would never betray him, she was so in love with him, how could he possibly think that she could hurt him in any way? If he thought about all the years they have lost not being together because of his own stupidity.
"Yes. I trust her, with all my heart."
"And you're not afraid that she can leave you?"
Ross shook his head. "She gave up Paris for me, Chandler. You were right. I have no doubt we'll last forever."
Chandler finally smiled, "See? If you can say that out loud, you really are the strong one, and she needs you. You've got to help her. Don't get me wrong, you made the right thing to give her an ultimatum, I guess she kind of deserved it this time, she screwed-it-up badly in her Rachel-Land." Ross nodded, agreeing with him. "But now she needs you to understand her mistake."
"So, what do I do?"
"Well, I am not so great at advice." Chandler reminded him, "And tonight I think I spent my whole supply of good suggestions for the whole 2005."
He got a chuckle from Ross, who knew that his brother-in-law was much more great in giving advice than anyone he knew.
At that moment, one of the girls on the stage, the one who seemed younger, intervened to introduce another song with a marked Italian accent, "This one is dedicated to all the lovers, and we invite you all to dance with your beloved."
Ross looked at Chandler grinning, but he stared back at him ironically, "What? Don't look at me, I'm not that drunk, yet!"
The three men started to play a soft ballad and a few seconds later the girls sang another very famous song by the McGuire Sisters [watch?v=txN5riTnDPU].
Sincerely
Oh yes, sincerely
'Cause I love you so dearly
Please say you'll be mine
Sincerely
Oh, you know how I love you
I'll do anything for you
Please say you'll be mine
Oh Lord, won't you tell me why
I love that fella so
He doesn't want me
But I'll never, never, never, never let him go
Sincerely
Oh, you know how I love you
I'll do anything for you
Please say you'll be mine
Ross remembered that when he and Rachel had come to see the live show, they had danced together during this song.
Rachel had looked at him and she had said that she was looking forward to buy the new house to start their new life together with Emma and she really wanted to live next to Monica and Chandler again because she missed being close to her best friends.
And yet, with the frenzy of the arrangement for wedding, Rachel's job, Ross's lectures and Emma starting the nursery-school, they hadn't had time to look for a house, yet.
"Chandler…I think I know what I have to do. Do you still have the number of your realtor?"
"Nancy? Sure, why?"
"You think she's going to answer to a late night phone call?"
Oh Lord, won't you tell me why
I love that fella so
He doesn't want me
But I'll never, never, never, never let him go
Sincerely
Oh, you know how I love you
I'll do anything for you
Please say you'll be mine
Please say you'll be mine
NOTE OF THE AUTHOR
The Tozzi Sisters and the Favorites really exists, it's my band.
We are a tribute band and we sing covers of the fifties. We love Dion Di Mucci, The McGuire Sisters and The Chordettes. We really are three sisters and a brother and we really have a drummer who's also my sister's husband. It's all in the family and it's just a lovely way to spend some quality time together.[watch?v=dkaXIAeGTHU]I love my family more than anything in the world, and we all grew up watching Friends together, so I want to dedicate this chapter to my sisters (Lidia and Debora) and brother (Samuele). We also have another sister (Rebecca) who doesn't sing with us, but she comes watching us all to our shows. Luv Ya.
Songs:
Where or When - Dion The Belmonts
Mr. Sandman - The Chordettes
Sincerely - McGuire Sisters