Again, I want to thank you all for reading and for reviewing. I'm amazed how much people are enjoying this and I hope it continues to entertain…

"Hey guys."

Monica arrived that evening to find most of the gang already at Central Perk. After a quick internal debate, she opted to take the 'safe' chair next to Joey, instead of the space on the couch by Chandler. He noticed of course but didn't say anything, it didn't necessarily mean anything he told himself.

"Monica, we were just discussing making Monday movie night," Joey looked excited, "what'd ya think?"

"Sure," she shrugged, she had more important things to think about, "sounds like fun."

"Great," Phoebe smiled, "so it's decided- ooh who gets to decide what we watch?"

"As it was my idea I think I should choose this week's," Joey suggested.

"Ok, but no porn," Rachel insisted, "we're going out to the actual movie theatre to watch an actual movie."

"Fine," Joey shot back, "but on your week you can't choose anything too girly."

"I actually have a very good taste in films," she protested surprised by the boys' unimpressed snorts, "what?"

"You always choose chick flicks Rach," Ross pointed out.

"Complain now," she warned to the others, "but on Ross' week we'll be stuck watching some boring subtitled documentary and you'll all be wishing it was a Rachel week."

Chandler had stayed quiet throughout their discussion, his focus on Monica. He hoped the others would put his quietness down to his dwindling hangover. He watched as Monica shook her head at their friends' antics before getting up and heading to the counter. He debated with himself whether he should go join her. At least it would give him a chance to see if she was being weird or whether this morning had just been his imagination; he prayed for the latter. Decision made, he downed the last dregs of his coffee and stood up.

She didn't seem to notice immediately as he joined her; standing right next to her. "Hey," he greeted softly, smiling as she jumped slightly. His smile disappeared as he watched her reaction go from surprise, to panic, to settling on a very fake uncomfortable smile. Damn it.

"Oh hey Chandler, how are you feeling? Still hung over?"

"Um," he swallowed, shaking his head to try and keep the panic out of his own voice, "no, the uh drugs and coffee's helping –it's forcing the little man in my head with the jackhammer to quieten down a bit."

"That's good," she offered him another hesitant smile.

He hated this. It shouldn't be like this. This was Monica.

"Yeah, although it was all my own fault," he tried to decide if that was pity he was now seeing in her eyes, "I think I'm giving up drinking for a while."

"We all drink sometimes to forget our problems," she murmured, avoiding his eyes.

"What?"

Gunther chose that moment to interrupt them. As soon as Monica had her requested cup of coffee she headed straight back to the others, not waiting for Chandler. She berated herself for saying what she had. She'd meant it to be comforting but she feared instead it had sounded patronizing and had possibly revealed that she knew something she wasn't meant to. Stupid.

She just had to get a grip and pull herself together.

After receiving his drink, Chandler stayed at the counter for a moment longer just contemplating her and her words. He desperately wished he knew what he'd said to her last night, what he'd done. Something must have happened despite what Ross said. Maybe he'd phoned her before Ross got there, or maybe he'd gone over there after Ross had left.

God, why had he drunk so damn much that he couldn't even remember? Monica obviously knew something…did she know the truth, that he was completely and hopelessly in love with her? If she did know, then it was pretty obvious that she didn't feel the same way.

He sighed heavily. Realistically, he'd never expected her to share or even welcome his feelings but a tiny bit of him had secretly hoped for some miracle. That someone up there was looking down on him and would decide that it was about time his luck changed and that she'd like him too.

Oh well, he should be used to his life sucking. He looked back over to Monica and for a moment let his eyes rest on her. She looked tense and uncomfortable, he assumed that was because of him. He wished he could do something to magically make it all ok, to make her relaxed around him once again.

He had to fix this somehow but he couldn't face having that conversation with her right now. He was far too hungover and too emotional to even contemplate it. Soon; soon he'd man up and talk to her. Prepare himself to most likely have his heartbroken, whilst simultaneously trying not to lose the best friendship he'd ever found.

Soon. Just not today.

It was Monday morning and Monica was nervous. She hadn't seen Chandler at all yesterday and couldn't decide if he was avoiding her. Even with space away from him, she still felt so conflicted. She knew she loved him dearly and that was making the decision even harder. She couldn't cope with ever losing her friendship with Chandler. He was her best friend and she couldn't imagine her life without him.

She glanced at the clock as she started preparing breakfast. It wouldn't be long before everyone arrived. Would he even come over? She didn't know for sure if he was avoiding her and didn't know for sure if she wanted him to be avoiding her. At least without him there she didn't have to worry about slipping up and making everything weird between them.

She was pulled out of her musings by the front door swinging open. She held her breath.

"Hey!"

It was just Ross. She let out a relieved sigh and greeted him just as Rachel came out of her room. Monica turned back to making the breakfast still anxious to see if Chandler made an appearance.

It was that moment that the apartment door swung open and she heard the boys arguing.

"Why not?"

"Because he's a cartoon Joey."

Monica risked a quick look over at them, at Chandler. He was dressed in one of his usual work suits; the light blue shirt brought out his eyes, which were accentuated even more by the dark blue tie. His hair was ruffled, in a cute natural sorta way and she swallowed realizing that not only was she checking him out, she was definitely liking what she was seeing.

Suddenly, she felt him watching her and snapped her eyes up to meet his questioning look. Oh no, he'd caught her. What had she been doing openly ogling him. Frustrated at her stupidity she busied herself with the breakfast.

It was good that she found him attractive – that was important in any relationship but it was only part of it. What would he be like in a relationship? She'd seen him be the doting boyfriend to Kathy. He'd been in love with her and had been so sweet. She remembered looking at them once sitting together in a chair, legs entangled with massive smiles on their faces. She'd thought just then of how much Chandler had matured and that being in an adult relationship actually suited him.

Replaying the chair scene now brought a flash of jealousy which she hadn't been prepared for. How could she be jealous now if she hadn't been then? It made no sense but the more she thought about Kathy and Chandler being together the more jealous she got. And then remembering how much hurt Kathy had caused him made her vow that if she ever saw her again she'd…she'd do something mean.

"Hi," Phoebe came bursting through the door, "you'll never guess what happened to me this morning."

Monica pulled her thoughts away from Chandler and focused on their blonde friend.

"I found $20 dollars on the subway!" she beamed, "and I gave it to this cute busker that had a funny hat and he played a song dedicated to me, put the hat on my head and kissed me!"

Monica smiled at her friend's enthusiasm and automatically looked to Chandler. He always pulled some sort face or eye-roll at Phoebe's stories. This time however he was studying her and as soon as they made eye contact he looked away.

Why was this so awkward? Nothing had happened between them. They hadn't kissed or slept together. They hadn't even had a proper conversation about it – hell, Chandler didn't even know that she knew about his feelings.

Letting out a quiet sigh she went and joined Ross on the couch, her back to Chandler where he sat at the kitchen table.

"You ok," Ross whispered, looking up from his newspaper.

"I don't know," she muttered, "it's just awkward."

"It was between me and Rachel," he told her sympathetically, "it does get better, whatever you choose."

"But I don't know what to choose and it's driving me crazy," she confessed quietly.

"Can you imagine being in a relationship with him?" Ross asked.

"Yes, no…I keep going around in circles."

It was all so frustrating.

"Well, maybe you should talk to him," he suggested. "You may find it easier if you talked it over between yourselves."

"Maybe."

"You've got to remember how far ahead of you he is with this. He's been thinking about you guys for months. He may have considered things that you haven't thought of."

She shrugged.

"Hey," he gave his sister a one armed hug, "it's going to be ok. You'll work this out."

"I hope so 'cause I feel like I'm going nuts."

Ross hoped so too but decided to remain silent, not wanting to add any pressure. It was tough to see both his best friend and his sister in so much pain over this but he knew this was one that they had to work out themselves. He just wished he could do more to help.

Chandler sighed later that evening, as he entered the apartment building, glancing at his watch. He couldn't believe he was home so late; today had not been a good day. Monica had been weird all throughout breakfast, either looking at him funny or avoiding him. She'd barely spoken to him, just like the whole weekend.

The awkward uncomfortableness that had suddenly surrounded them had to be related to Friday night. Hell, Thursday night she'd practically fell asleep cuddled against him, watching that boring documentary Ross had insisted on…something to do with dinosaurs…or fossils, he hadn't paid much attention. Instead he had focused on the woman beside him, embracing him. Her head had rested on his chest, the smell of her shampoo surrounding him, the feel of...

He scrubbed a hand through his already messed-up hair frustrated, yet again wishing he could turn back time, as he started to climb the stairs. He was desperate for them to resolve this and be that close again.

Admittedly, it was him that had avoided seeing her on Sunday. He was still feeling delicate and was confused by her behavior. He'd hoped that by leaving it a day everything would go back to normal and he'd find that he'd imagined it all; that there was no way she could know his feelings. This morning had proved he wasn't that lucky.

Right now it was about damage control. If he could just talk to her, play down his feelings and reassure her that it was just a tiny crush, then maybe, just maybe, they could go back to being friends and the discomfort would fade away.

He'd been thinking it over all day, desperate for work to finish so he could try and talk to her. But as he'd been so unfocused on his work he'd let last week's figures go through without noticing that they'd been a few hours short. As a result the WENUS was all screwy and his boss had got involved and it had taken them hours to fix it. Ironically, he'd left work a lot later than normal.

"Hey," he greeted Joey as he entered the apartment.

"Hey," his roommate replied bummed.

"What's the matter?" he asked shrugging out his coat and grabbing a soda from the fridge.

"Movie night got ruined," he whined.

Chandler raised an eyebrow, "what?"

"You don't remember?" he accused. "Tonight was meant to be movie night, all of us."

"Oh." He'd totally forgotten.

"But when you didn't turn up and Ross cancelled they…"

"They?"

"They outnumbered me Chandler! They chose a chick flick! Like I want to watch some soppy romance. It sucks!"

"I'm sorry man," he patted his shoulder, bummed that Monica was out and that this mess would likely roll into yet another day. "Well, we can still go out, ya know do something…manly."

Anything that would take his mind off Monica...anything that didn't involve alcohol.

"Strip club?" Joey asked hopefully.

"No," Chandler shot down quickly. Not that. The last thing he wanted was to be around semi naked women, when the one woman he wanted was acting so strange. "I was thinking more along the lines of an action movie or something. I'll ring the theatre and see what's playing."

"Sounds good," Joey agreed.

Moments later the guys grabbed their coats and left the apartment.

A/N- I know it's taking some time to get them together…but when did Chandler's lovelife ever go smoothly? I promise not too much longer now…