It had been the middle of the night and Joey came home from his date. She had many manicures this morning, so after she got her Joey lovin , his manicurist girlfriend sent him home. Coming in the door, he saw that Rachel spent the evening at home. How a hot girl like her didn't have more dates he didn't know.

He saw something unusual on the floor and picked it up. It was a red sweater that was way too big for it to be hers. It seemed to him that Rachel wasn't alone last night. Taking it into his room, he picked up the sweater and went to bed.

Rachel rolled over and tapped Ross on the shoulder. He groaned and then went back to sleep.

"Ross." she said as she poked him.

"Huh whaaa," he said .

"You 've gotta leave." Rachel said as she looked at him.

"Last night was incredible , but do we really want to go through what we did before with everyone?"

"Well I thought it was just bonus night." Ross said.

"It was ,it was just bonus night. We can't go down this road again. I can't explain it, but you have to leave before Joey finds out." Rachel said as she gathered his clothes up.

"We need to talk about this." he said as he put his pants back on.

"We will, just not now. Please you need to go before anyone realizes you spent the night." Rachel said.

Ross looked around to find the sweater he was wearing.

"Now what?" Rachel asked.

"I can't find my sweater." he said as he looked through the mounds of clothes on the floor.

"I'll look for it. Now just go." Rachel said as she walked him to the door. Sweetly she bent up and kissed him like she did when they were dating.

Surprised ,Ross kissed her back. "Where did that come from?" he asked.

"I just wanted to say thank you. I have been kind of down lately and last night made me feel special. You have always been my best friend and I don't ever want that to change." she said. "We'll talk later, so go."

"Okay bye." he said as he quietly shut the door. Rachel went to the window and watched him walk back to his apartment across the street. She felt like she did when they dated. Realizing it was Saturday, she crawled back into bed.

As she awoke, she could still smell him on the sheets. He had kind of a masculine smell that was flavored with cologne. The cologne added almost a sweet aroma to him. It was all very comforting , yet scary.

Opening the door, she saw Joey making breakfast.

"Morning." she smiled to her roommate.

"Morning, so I see you hooked up last night." Joey said.

"I did not." she denied.

"Some dude was here and he left his sweater. Now come on Rach, tell me who was he?" Joey asked eager to know.

"He was a guy that I picked up in a bar." Rachel lied. "I went for a walk and then ended up there and we got to talking and he spent the night. Come on, I am a big girl Joey." Rachel said. "Now I am going over to Monica's ,we have wedding stuff to do today."

"Okay , okay, if you don't want to tell me." Joey said as he ate his pancakes. "You don't have to."

Rachel hated to lie to her friend, but she saw no other way around it. Nothing was going to come from this encounter. Nobody ever had to know about it. It would be just hers and Ross' little secret.

Sorry so short …the next chapter will be longer.