"I'm going to miss you so much." Monica murmurs the sentiment against his lips before kissing him once more.
"I'm going to miss you too," he returns finally ending their embrace and holding her at arms length.
Monica looks into his deep brown eyes, reluctant to part from him despite the most recent boarding call that's just echoed through the airport terminal. Usually she's anxious to be the very first in line, dutifully waiting at check-in long before her fellow passengers think to join the queue. But right now, in Richard's arms she hardly cares if she misses her flight all together.
She's just about to pull him to her for another kiss when she senses someone staring at them in her peripheral vision. Richard must notice it too because he turns his eyes from hers and after a moment a look of recognition flits across his face. "Mr. Bing," he greets releasing her and turning to the intruder, "Nice to see you again."
"Dr. Burke," Chandler replies, shaking the hand Richard offers, "I thought that was you." He turns to nod at Monica and her heart stops as he does a quick double take in her direction, a small frown appearing on his brow. She sighs in relief, however, a moment later when he turns from her again, focusing his attention back on Richard. She's not really surprised he's failed to place her. It's been almost 2 years since their disastrous trip from Chicago to New York. And while he still looks very much the same as she remembers him, apart from a questionable goatee he's sporting, she knows she's changed dramatically.
She's so caught up in her recollections she hardly notices Chandler waving goodbye and making his way through the crowded terminal.
"That was a patient of mine," Richard explains mistaking her furrowed forehead for confusion, "I helped him out with a case of conjunctivitis a few months back. He's a friend of your brother's actually."
"I know," Monica spits back angrily. "Chandler. Thank God he couldn't place me. I spent 18 hours in a car with him after college and it was the longest trip of my life."
"Really?" Richard asks doubtfully. "He seemed like a nice young man, a little goofy maybe."
"Ugh," Monica replies. "Nice, my foot. I remember we had this stupid fight where he told me he thought that a man would never help a woman…" she trails off remembering too late that Chandler's pronouncement about men only helping women in order to get them into bed was in direct reference to Richard himself. "Well, I forget exactly what it was he said, but I remember it was awful," she finishes lamely.
"Well if I'd known a few weeks back what a jerk he was, I'd have left him with his pink eye," Richard declares jokingly, tugging Monica back into his arms. He holds her at arms length and for a moment they simply stare at one another.
"I love you," he tells her softly and Monica can't help the wide grin that spreads across her face.
"You do?" She asks in surprise and pleasure.
"Yes." He assures her.
"I love you too."
After their declarations, they'd kissed some more. So much more that she'd almost missed the final boarding call for her flight. It'd been hectic for a few moments there but now as she sits in her seat waiting to depart she can't help but smile going over their kisses in the terminal again and again. She's just about to become fully immersed in her daydream when a disturbance at the front of the aisle grabs her attention.
To her horror, Chandler is noisily making his way towards the open seat next to her arguing with a flight attendant all along the way.
"Okay, okay. I get it. No bomb jokes. But really, don't you think you should be more concerned about the people with the actual bombs? Would I really be joking about it if I did have a bomb? I feel like I'm saying the word 'bomb' a lot. Am I saying the word 'bomb' a lot? Alright, I'm going to stop talking now." He concludes his manic rant by flopping into the open seat beside her.
"Sorry," he offers having disrupted her drink tray in the process. The little plastic cup wobbles for a moment before tipping and spilling her soda onto the tray. "Oh shit, I'm really sorry," he repeats earnestly. "Let me get you another drink."
She'd rather he not bother but he's already waved down one of the attendants. "Some napkins please. And another...Coke?" He guesses, taking in the amber pool laying where her drink once sat.
"Diet Coke, please," Monica replies, "no ice and with a lime wedge if you have it. On the side."
She finishes her order and turns back to Chandler to find him looking at her with a wide grin.
"Monica Geller, right?"
"Hello Chandler," she greets far less enthusiastically.
"You look," he trails off here, wanting to compliment her but also wanting to avoid any reference to his terrible faux pas of 2 years ago. "You look really well," he finishes safely.
"Thank you," she says in the same disinterested voice. She can't believe she's going to be stuck next to Chandler Bing of all people for the next 4 hours.
The 2 trade polite smiles as the awkward silence between them grows. I really have the most extraordinary bad luck, Chandler thinks to himself. Of all the people he could end up next to on this flight, of course the universe would sit him next to the girl he'd managed to mortify so many years ago. This kind of thing never happens to Joey, he thinks miserably.
When it becomes evident that sitting in silence for the duration of the flight may actually be more uncomfortable than the occasional dose of small talk, Chandler resigns himself and turns to ask, "So how have you been? Good?"
"Yup," she answers vaguely. "You?"
"Good, really, good. You?" He asks again nervously. She just looks at him blankly till he realizes his mistake. "Oh right, we did you." This earns him a small but genuine smile and it seems like his idiocy is a great equalizer in social situations, sure to amuse even his greatest enemies. Feeling bolstered by her smile her he decides to press his luck with another joke, "You were going to be a competitive hot dog eater on Coney Island, right? How'd that work out for you?"
His bet pays off and she laughs outright at this. "A chef," she corrects. "And it's working out great. I just made head chef at Alessandro's," she finishes proudly
"Hey, no kidding! Congratulations, that's awesome," he praises.
"You know it?" She asks dubiously.
"No. I really am more of a Coney Island hot dog guy. But it sounds fancy." He gives her a shrug and the 2 fall into a companionable silence.
"So you're with Dr. Burke," Chandler begins again after a moment remembering their encounter in the terminal. "He's so cool, especially for an old guy," he stops abruptly from the sharp look she sends him and kicks himself internally. As it turns out he's actually physically incapable of not offending this girl.
"Richard's a grown up." She tells him a little defensively.
"Yeah, totally," he agrees. A moment later though something occurs to him, "Richard? Oh. My. God. That's the Richard. Isn't it?" She shifts uncomfortably in her seat and its all the answer he needs. "Ha! I totally called it. I told you that's why he was helping you out."
"That's not true! In fact we only just got together a few weeks ago."
"Really?" Chandler asks doubtfully. Then after a minute of consideration he adds, "That makes sense actually. No one's who's been in a relationship for longer than a few months is going to still be making out at the airport."
"What do you mean?" She asks. She has the feeling she's in store for another one of Chandler's infuriating theories about men and women but she's still curious despite herself.
"People in long-term committed relationships don't do all those public displays of affection," he tells her confidently. "Once you're in it for the long haul, things get a lot more subtle."
"Oh, and you're an expert at long-term relationships all of a sudden, huh?" She challenges sarcastically.
"As a matter of fact I am." He tells her proudly. "I'm getting married."
"You?" She asks, skeptical. It isn't possible that Chandler Bing's engaged to be married before her, is it?
"Hey, I'm as surprised as anyone," he tells her. "But your surprise isn't exactly flattering, you know."
"I'm sorry. It's not that," Monica explains. "It's just, whatever happened to dying alone as the 'crazy snake guy'?
He laughs lightly at that memory, oddly pleased that she's remembered as much of their limited conversation of their last encounter as he finds he does. "I guess I've just found someone to raise the snakes with."
"Who is she?" Monica asks, deeply curious and only a little regretful of how disbelieving she still sounds.
"Her name is Kathy. She's an actress, well aspiring anyhow," he confides. "And apart from loving me, she's absolute perfection."
"Well that's wonderful, Chandler," she tells him earnestly. "It's nice to see you embracing life in this manner."
They fall back into a comfortable silence, Monica flipping mindlessly through a magazine and Chandler thumbing through the newspaper. Neither is particularly engaged in their reading however and both are pleased when the flight attendant announces the in-flight movie will be beginning in a few minutes.
"Alright!" Chandler exclaims in delight as Bruce Willis appears on the small television screen above their heads, struggling through the aisle of an aircraft, teddy bear in hand.
"What is it?" Monica asks trying to place the movie. "I hope its something romantic."
"Oh it is," Chandler assures her. "It's Die Hard. One of the most romantic films of all time."
Monica scoffs at this and turns back to her magazine. However, after confirming that she does put her career before men from the quiz provided she finds her Glamour has very little to offer in terms of entertainment and by the end of the flight she finds herself huddled beside Chandler sharing his headset, one earpiece over his ear and the other on her own. She's enjoying Die Hard more than she'd thought and by the end of the movie when Holly and John are reunited she realizes it is quite romantic too, but she's not about to admit this to Chandler. The two argue what constitutes a romance through the remainder of the flight all the way to the baggage claim.
"You know what your problem is?" Chandler asks her as they walk beside one another on the moving sidewalk.
"I don't have a problem," she retorts, feeling annoyed.
"Yes you do. Your problem is that you think romance has to fit some kind of mould."
"I do not," she says offended.
"Admit it," he demands. "You've probably even been planning your perfect wedding since you were a kid: the perfect church, perfect minister, perfect dress, perfect flowers."
He's right about this but she doesn't want to give him the satisfaction so she just corrects him instead, "I'm Jewish."
"Fine. Perfect temple and rabbi then. It's still how you think. You think love has to work a certain way."
"So just because you've found someone stupid enough to love you, you think you're some kind of expert now?" She barks back with more anger than she'd intended.
For a moment they just stand alongside one another, anger and frustration flowing between them, before Chandler shakes his head a little and replies hurt evident in his tone, "You know what? Have a good trip Monica. I'll see you around."
They're still walking in step however, so after a moment he adds, "I'm just going to stop walking and let you go ahead."
She does and only stops to look back once she's stepped off the walkway. As she watches him moving slowly forward she wonders why she can't seem to have an innocuous and forgettable conversation with Chandler Bing.