Thanks for reading everyone. Remember that I love reviews. It helps figure out what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong.
"I'm sorry Ross. I didn't think it would be closed on a Saturday," Rachel apologized as they made their way away from the restaurant. She was just as surprised as Ross when she saw the closed sign on the front window.
"Rach it's fine. Pizza is better anyways," he answered as the waited for a few taxis to pass.
They crossed the street together, their arms linked as they walked in perfect sync, ignoring the stares from people who were trying to catch a glimpse at the two incredibly good looking strangers that were walking down the sidewalk.
"I'm still sorry. I know how you love that place."
"I think it's a good thing. I haven't had any real thin crust pizza in a while."
At this Rachel stopped them and put her head back and let out a long drawn out laugh that attracted the attention of a few people and caused Ross to smirk in amusement.
"What's with you?"
She shook her head, still laughing and waited a few seconds to tell him.
"I just remember when we were teenagers I was mad at you. So I ordered pizza, but I had them cut up anchovies and mix it into the sauce," she laughed. At this revelation, Ross smiled at the memory.
"Yeah I remember. Worst pizza I ever had," he chuckled as he opened the door for them. "What did I do to make you mad?"
"Well I can't remember so it can't be too bad."
Ross got their orders while Rachel found a booth for them to sit at. After 5 minutes Rachel watched as he made his way back to her, taking a seat across from
After a few bites of his pizza, Ross pushed his plate back and looked up at Rachel.
"So tell me what's being going on with you Rach."
"Nothing much. I mean I've been looking for a job in the fashion industry, but nothing has come up yet."
"Nothing?"
She shook her head and stuck out her bottom lip.
"That's why I've been living with Monica and Chandler. I mean I've been looking at apartments and for roommate, but I can't seem to find anyone that's normal. There are a lot of freaks in Manhattan." At this they both laughed and continued with the conversation.
"So no boyfriend?"
She shook her head.
"Nope. I was seeing this guy a while ago, but it didn't work out."
"Why?"
She shrugged at his answer, but Ross was determined to know why.
"You have to have a reason why."
"I don't know. I guess he didn't meet my expectations, but Monica says I'm too picky, but there's nothing wrong with having a certain image in your head of who you're going to be with."
"What are your requirements?"
"He has to has to be tall, pretty eyes, funny, sweet, and a lot of other stuff."
"That's not too picky."
"And he has to be able to put up with my father," she added.
At this Ross began to choke on his water, catching Rachel off guard and causing a few other customers to stare. Rachel had to clap him on the back a few times to get him back to normal.
After he regained normal color in his face she couldn't help, but smile a little and moved a hand to his cheek.
"Aww my poor Rossy. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. What were you saying?"
"Whoever I date has to be able to deal with my father," she repeated slowly.
"Well I think that's pretty much impossible. Your father is pretty intimidating. He always calls me wethead."
"Don't take it too personal Ross. He never liked you," she added sweetly
"That makes me feel better." He put his head down as if he was a little boy, but Rachel turns the other way, refusing to fall for his trick.
"Stop that. It won't work on me, not right now anyways."
"Ok but back to the apartment situation, do you really need a roommate?"
"Yeah I do. I feel like I'm crowding their space. They probably want their privacy since they're a couple and everything and Monica is such a neat freak about everything. I really don't know how Chandler deals with it," she says, recalling how Monica had gone insane when she had spilled her coffee that morning.
When he saw the look on her face he frowned. As she continued to eat her pizza, he started thinking of solutions to her apartment problem until the most obvious and simplest popped up.
He cleared his throat before looking her straight in the eye.
"You can stay with me. You can be my roommate," Ross states as he puts his drink down, playing with his hands nervously.
She raises her eyebrows at his proposition. She hadn't expected him to say that. "Are you serious?"
"Definitely. We were supposed to move in together for college. Remembered you promised Green," he smiled.
"I don't know Ross."
He grabbed her hand and she met his stare.
"Come on Rach, it would be so much fun." At this he gave her the puppy dog face and she couldn't help, but let herself fall into the trap.
"Okay then I guess we're roomies."
A week later it was moving day at Ross and Rachel's new apartment. Monica and Chandler had helped with moving Rachel's stuff to Ross's apartment, which wasn't too far away from theirs, but soon enough they had disappeared leaving Ross and Rachel to themselves. They had spent time together catching up and Ross wasn't surprised to see that Rachel's obsession with shopping hadn't changed. She had boxes and boxes of clothes to move in.
"What do you have in here Rachel? Rocks," he said as he carried the last box to her room.
"Ha ha ha I'm not you Geller," she said as she removed the dinosaur models from the shelves in her new room. "And I see you still collect these things. Still a nerd like always," she grinned.
"I'll have you know that Paleontologists don't just collect fossils. We also study the…"
He stopped when he saw her standing there with her hands on her hips looking bored.
"If you're done talking about boring dinosaurs maybe we can paint my room. The color you have is hideous," she says inspecting the walls.
"That really hurt my feelings." He fake pouted until she rolled her eyes in defeat.
"Okay I'm sorry, but we still need to paint the room."
"What color?"
When she didn't answer him he looked around and saw that she had tears in her eyes. Confused, he made his way over to her and saw that she was staring at a picture. She held up the the picture frame and smiled at him.
"I can't believe you have this."
"Yeah well my mom still had it in her photo album. I still can't believe she held on to it for so long," he muttered.
The frame held a very old, faded Halloween photo that was taken when they were kids. Judging from their faces, Rachel was 8 while Ross was just 9 years old. She smiled because she remembered that on that particular year they had decided to go as husband and wife.
"Look at how cute you looked in your tuxedo," she giggled, pointing to younger and geekier looking Ross.
"Well I think I'm the lucky one. I had the prettiest bride," he smirked.
At this she blushed and put the picture frame back and punched him in the shoulder.
"Yeah right Geller!"
A few hours later after they finished painting and looking back at old pictures, they had decided to have their own little house warming party. Ross watched in amusement as she drank one drink after the other. All though he was feeling a little tipsy, he knew Rachel was at the point of no return and felt a little bad because he knew she would have a really bad hangover in the morning.
"Come on Rossy you have to let me do your makeup." She slurred her words and struggled to stand up, almost losing her balance in the process.
"No way Rachel. You're drunk."
"Come on Ross. You would look so pretty."
"No."
"Please. Pretty please with... with sprinkles on top," she begged.
"Fine."
"Yay!"
He tried to hold in his laughter as he watched her stumble across the apartment. She finally finds the makeup bag and manages to make her way back to Ross, who seemed to be having difficultly standing up. She sat him down on the couch, but Ross was still having his doubts.
"Don't worry Rossy by the time I'm done you're going to look so pretty."
He closed his eyes and let Rachel work her magic.
20 minutes later Rachel stood up and admired her work.
"See Rossy I told you I knew what I was doing. Go to the bathroom and see for yourself."
He stumbled to the bathroom. He burst out laughing when he saw his appearance. He was now sporting some heavy eye makeup that was complete eyeliner, eyeshadow, and mascara. But the thing that really got Ross was the cherry red lipstick she had chosen for him.
She stumbled into the bathroom and gave him a goofy smile.
"So how do you like it? Did I do great or what?"
Knowing that she would probably get offended if he didn't go along, Ross put on a fake smile for her.
"It looks great Rach, but I'm going to wipe it off so I don't make anyone else jealous," he said slowly, as if he were speaking to a child.
If she wasn't so drunk she probably would have told him off about his lie, but she just nodded along and beamed at him.
"Okay now that we're done with that we can finally have movie time. Come on," she said pulling on his arm and dragging them into the living room and pushed him onto the couch as Ross watched in amusement.
She started looking for the remote, but was too drunk to notice that it was sitting on the coffee table.
"Uhh Rachel its right there."
"Maybe it's in my room! You stay right here! Don't move Ross!" She punched his shoulder playfully, a little too hard for Ross's liking, and skipped back to her room.
After 10 minutes of waiting for her to come back Ross was getting impatient and finally got up to see what was taking so long. He walked into the room and was not surprised to see Rachel passed out on her bed.
He couldn't tear his gaze from her. At that moment it was impossible not to stand there at marvel at the angelic beauty in front of him.
Her long golden hair was sprawled across her back with a single strand falling over her eye. Her bottom lip was sticking out perfectly, creating an adorable pout and making it harder for him to not go wake her up.
He carefully lifted her up in his arms and cradled her like a newborn baby and held her for a few moments, unable to stop staring. "My sleeping beauty," he whispered to himself.
He layed her head on a pillow and got a blanket out and layed it across her. He kneeled down at her bedside, watching her chest rise and fall while a million things went through his mind.
He couldn't believe how he had gone five years without her. The last week alone had been heaven for him and wanted to take advantage of his free time and spend all of it with her. He was so obsessed with Rachel that he had already planned not to look for any kind of relationship. For now she came first.
He stroked her cheek gently before getting up to switch off the light when he heard her.
"Aww you're so sweet Rossy." He looked back to see her smiling at him.
She stumbled out of bed where Ross caught her and she giggled into his shoulder. She lifted her head up and Ross had to hold back a laugh when he saw the goofy look plastered on her face.
"I love you," she whispered, now clinging on to him to keep herself from falling over.
"Huh."
At this she grabbed his face and kissed him with busing intensity.
He could taste the alcohol she had consumed and could feel her having trouble standing up, but he didn't care. Her lips felt perfect against his and he was enjoying every second off it. Even if she might not remember a single thing, but he was a little taken back when he felt her slip her tongue into his mouth.
She finally pulled away and gave him an even goofier smile than she had before.
"If I wasn't so dizzy we would be having sex right now," she slurred and Ross then realized that he ought to get her to bed before she said something really crazy.
"Come on drunk girl. You need to sleep," he said but she refused.
"No! I want to kiss you all night Ross," she said drunkenly and she took a step towards him and stumbled into his arms.
"Rachel you need some sleep."
"No! I want you," she begged and he almost caved in to the puppy dog look, but he saw that she wasn't herself. This wasn't Rachel talking.
"Rachel it's bedtime," he said leading her into bed and tucking her in.
"No Ross I want you kissing me, making love to me," she yawned. "I want…" she said tiredly as her eyes closed
"Go to sleep."
"But I… I love you," she whispered with a goofy smile on her face. "I want you," she whispered. He kissed her cheek softly and tucked her in.
"I love you too. Night Rach." He peeked at her one last time before closing the door behind him.