In The Beginning
'The guard comes by, taps his baton on my jail cell, informing me I have 30 minutes until lights-out. Phoebe was talking with the Governor, trying to grant me a stay of execution, but I have yet to hear anything from his Office. I guess you're all wondering what happened and how I could go from the perfect life, to awaiting a death sentence. I guess you're wondering what happened to me... what would happen to cause me from living a picture-perfect life, to awaiting my execution. So I guess the best place to start would be in the beginning'.
I guess it really started about 12 years ago, or so. Roughly a year, since we traded our quaint apartment in New York's Greenwich Village to a house in suburbia. It basically took every last penny we had, just to make the down payment, but we decided that it was meant to be, and we will find a way to make it work. Money remained tight, which meant no more eating out every night, or going to Central Perk for coffee every day. The economy was unstable, and finally collapsed into a full-scale recession
People weren't buying as much anymore, which meant sales were down, and since it was my job in advertising to promote those things being sold, I was out of a job as well. Monica told me that she would continue working, and wanted me to collect unemployment while I try to find another job. At first I fought her tooth-and-nail saying we were Bings and didn't take hand-outs. Ross told me that it was not the same as charity or welfare... but to me it was. I was the man, and was supposed to be able to work and provide for my family and it killed me that I couldn't. So I finally went to the un-employment office to collect. But it was barely enough to pay the bills, and Monica was working 2 shifts, to try and make up the balance. But even then, it wasn't enough to pay the bills... not even close.
The restaurant where Monica worked got a bad review from a nationally-acclaimed food critic, resulting in a substantial loss of business. Monica was demoted from Head Chef to Assistant, which was such a huge slap in the face. It also meant a big pay cut, as well. Monica often talked about opening her own restaurant, but never could seem to follow up on it. She would often makes excuses, saying she was too busy or didn't have the finances to undertake such a huge project like that. I pointed out that even though we were in a recession, people still needed to eat.
About a month later, I found a job at a local paper, writing up classified ads. It was a far cry from my former job in the advertising world, but a job is a job... and a paycheck, is a paycheck. Monica on the other hand, was growing tired of just being an assistant, especially when she is a damned good chef. She talked a lot as of late, about quitting and opening her own cafe and I told her she needed to quit talking about it, and do it. She asked me where we would find that kind of money, and I suggested we get a 2cd mortgage on the house and that should be enough to get started.
She told me that I couldn't be serious and one mortgage was more than we could handle. I told Monica there would always be something trying to stand in our way, and it was up to us to overcome them. Finally she agreed and an inspector from the Bank came over to value the house, then we went to meet with the loan officer, explaining why we needed to borrow such a huge amount of money. The loan officer seemed impressed with Monica's knowledge of running a restaurant and agreed to finance the loan.
A few weeks later, we got the check from the bank and Monica's hands shook and trembled as she was holding the check. We have never seen so much money, printed on one piece of paper. Monica asked what would happen if the restaurant wouldn't be a success, and what if the bank would come to take the house away. I laughed and joked that I would have to rob the bank. She flashed me a glare to let me know she was not amused with my particular brand of humor, and I assured her that I was only joking.
We began looking for a place to have the cafe and Monica happened to find an old worn-out warehouse, and said she could transform it into a charming restaurant. The price of the warehouse was a bargain and a few weeks later, she would be cleaning it out, removing old boxes and crates and I would go and help, when I got off work. On the weekends, we would be there from sunrise to sunset, getting everything cleaned and putting on fresh wallpaper. Monica was beaming with pride when she saw her new establishment.
It was close to 6 months later, and everything was in place and the custom kitchen appliances have just be delivered and the delivery men were busy getting everything hooked up. Monica was proud...but nervous. Everything we had, was riding on the success of her new restaurant. Failure was not even an option... it couldn't be. Finally everything was set, the menu was prepared, the tables and chairs, and pictures and paintings were displayed and we were set for business. A week before the grand opening, Monica invited her brother, Joey, Phoebe, and Rachel to the restaurant, as she created a huge gourmet meal as her way of 'christening' the restaurant. Monica said that I should quit my job, and she could train me as a waiter, and I decided to take her up on the offer. If nothing else, at least it gave us more time together.
Finally the big day was upon us... Grand Opening. Now we just needed to have some customers.