Chapter 3: Rachel

Chandler & the Proposal

When Rachel entered Monica and Chandler's apartment, she saw three of her friends lighting what looked like a hundred candles. Phoebe and Joey were smiling like crazy, and Monica had tears in her eyes, but she could tell at one look that those were happy tears.

"Hey, guys, what's going on?"

"Chandler is going to propose!" Monica practically shouted, walking towards her best friend, being followed by the other two.

"Oh, my God, I know, I'm so happy for you!" Rachel was about to hug Monica when she realized something was wrong "Wait! You're not supposed to know that! You guys, what are you doing?", she hissed at them.

"Rach, I had to tell her!", Joey looked like he was almost crying too.

"Okay, you help us light all these candles and I'll explain," Monica demanded and Rachel started helping with their work.

The woman was completely able to tell a story while doing something else, so as she handed Rachel fire and went back to the candles she was lighting before, she recollected the events of day. Everything seemed to have happened in a blink of an eye. Monica came back from Richard's, of all places, devastated for believing Chandler didn't want to ever marry her. Joey was already looking for her, so when they met he desperately told her about Chandler's plan. Monica was laughing and crying at the same time, if that's possible at all, while telling the story and swiftly lighting candles, asking everybody to hurry so that they could finish everything before Chandler came back. By learning about Richard's sudden confession, Rachel wondered if that would make Monica shift her feelings and consider leaving Chandler; seeing how excited she was to know her boyfriend wanted to marry her made the thought disappear quickly – Rachel even felt ashamed for thinking something like that in the first place, even if it crossed her mind for a second or two.

When they were done, Phoebe, Rachel and Joey left apartment 20, getting inside apartment 19 to wait for Chandler's comeback. A new plan emerged: Joey would have a trash bag in hand to look like he had a reason to go out, leaving the apartment when hearing footsteps and pretending to just bump into Chandler. He would tell Chandler Monica had left, heartbroken, which would lead to Chandler opening the door to his apartment and finding the woman there, waiting for him – a big surprise. Rachel chuckled at how mean it sounded, knowing the outcome would make up for it.

"Why is he taking so long?" Phoebe was impatient.

"He's probably getting his ass kicked by Richard", Joey announced, his ear glued to the door.

"What?!" Rachel couldn't believe that. He had gone to Richard's? Did Monica know that? She hadn't mentioned this part.

"Yeah, I told him Richard told Monica he wanted to marry her, and that he should go there as soon as possible, find her and stop messing with her. Monica probably left before he stopped by, so I guess there's some man to… Chandler… talking… going on. He seemed pretty mad about Richard's confession. He wanted me to help him kick his ass."

"I wonder if we'll have to call 911 before the proposal finally happens", Phoebe thought out loud, smirking.

"Shhh, you guys, shhh, I think it's him. That's my cue. Stay here, and keep quiet", the actor whispered before opening the door.

It had been a while since the door to apartment 20 had closed. Joey and Phoebe looked like little kids, excited because of a trip or something; Rachel couldn't help but smile at them. She was curious about what was going on with the couple, but also curious about Chandler and Richard's encounter.

"Um, hey, Joey. Did Chandler say anything about Richard just now?"

"I didn't really ask him, he looked pretty bad."

"How bad?"

"Well, I told him what we had planned, and I swear the guy was almost crying in front of me. He said he couldn't believe he ruined this. If I didn't know what was about to happen, I would just stop right there and tell him Monica was inside the apartment."

So Chandler had come up with a plan to surprise his girlfriend, and when things were getting out of control through no fault of his own he still blamed himself? He was almost crying because of that? Wow, he was more serious about proposing than she actually imagined.

Somehow, it was hard to picture Chandler in that place. She believed the man loved Monica, but in her mind it was much less about being in love, than it was the fact that he had a hot girlfriend and that by dating her he wouldn't die alone anymore. Moving on to living together and proposing just felt like the next step for those two, but she never imagined he would be the one with the big gestures. She didn't really think of them as two people so much in love. Maybe she had been wrong.

The rest of the night went according to plan. They both had proposed to each other, which Rachel thought was the sweetest thing ever. After that, Monica and Chandler asked for some alone time; their friends conceded with no disagreement. They spent an hour or so alone in their dark apartment lit by candles.

"I bet they're doing it," of course Joey would say that.

"Joey!" Rachel slapped his arm lightly.

When they opened the door and invited their friends over again, it wasn't long until Ross finally showed up, and the six of them were now gathered in the living room, glasses of champagne at hand.

"Okay, um, I just wanna say that… I love you guys so much and… and thank you for being here on my special night." Monica would keep talking like that if Chandler hadn't made a show of clearing his throat. "Our special night. I mean, it just wouldn't be my—our night, if you all weren't here to celebrate with me—us—damnit!"

"It's okay, I want this to be your night too." He raised his glass. "To Monica."

And everybody celebrated Monica's night.

Rachel felt her stomach knotting up for many unfamiliar reasons. She was definitely jealous; she couldn't deny that to herself anymore. Chandler had spent a lot of money getting a beautiful ring then gone through all the trouble of making up a stupid plan because he wanted to surprise Monica. It sounded as stupid as it sounded sweet. He was even willing to make himself a smaller part of the night, despite being the groom, just so Monica could feel like the star she always wanted to be. He had confronted Monica's tall ex-boyfriend when he thought she was with him, and had come back devastated when he thought he'd lost her forever.

Rachel never thought Chandler was a great catch, and she loved him and everything but, because of all his traumas and issues, she wondered sometimes if he would ever be capable of committing to anyone. The couple had been together for two years though, and everything that happened that day was proof that he indeed loved Monica very much, and would be willing to do anything to have her around and make her happy. So he was able to commit, huh?, she concluded.

They had all agreed to get dressed up and go have champagne at The Plaza. Rachel observed the betrothed couple leaving to their bedroom, a pair of huge smiles meeting, two pairs of shining blue eyes looking at each other. They were unbelievably happy and a shameful sting invaded Rachel's chest. She couldn't even imagine how good they must be feeling. They made it; they had everything they'd been looking for.