Disclaimer. I don't own the characters. There is no more gain than the writing practice that is done here

Chapter 9: Hampered communications - Research vacations- The first discussions - And reduced vacations with the children.

When the holidays in Hawaii approached, Chandler gave the children a mobile, although Erica would have the device, because Jack would surely lose it, and he asked Rachel to upload Monica's number, so mother and children could communicate with each other. more easily, especially now that they were going to Honolulu for a few weeks.

A few days later Monica called Rachel since she had tried several times to call the house to talk to Erica and Jack at the time she knew they would be back from school and she never found anyone and she was getting worried.

Rachel reassured her and explained that when the kids came home from school they would stay at Denise and Jenny's house until Chandler came home from work.

But she told her that Chandler had bought the kids a mobile phone, in which they already had her number loaded, and it was strange that they hadn't called her yet because they were so excited about it.

Monica told her that she had not received any calls from the children yet and she wrote down the number of her children and called them.

Erica answered, they had just had dinner and she is getting ready to go to bed. She was happy that her mother had called her

"Mommy, you finally called, with Jack we left you several messages in the last week, but it kept giving me off-duty or busy, and three or four times when I called, Richard answered and told me that you were busy but that he would let you know."

"Love, I didn't know you had a phone, I didn't receive your messages, now I'm going to check the phone because there's something wrong, but tell me how you are"

"Well Mommy, we just had a chicken for dinner that Daddy made, that was delicious, he put everything on it, and a beetroot and broccoli salad, it had a divine color, and she laughed out loud"

"So dad cooks them delicious?"

"Yes Mommy, quite well, you will have taught him, he puts a lot of seasonings on it because he can't eat with salt, the doctor told him, so he puts other things on it, and if we want we can add salt"

"Mommy where are you, are you fine"

"Yes, my daughter, I'm in Paris, we're looking for an apartment to settle in and I've already enrolled in a haute cuisine course"

"What! Do you have to cook with a ladder…?"

"No love, haute cuisine means very specialized food"

"Ah... Mommy I have to take a shower to go to bed, Jack is already in the bathroom and he comes out at any moment"

"Okay, Erica, I knew I was calling you late, but I wanted to see how you were, tomorrow or the day after we'll talk at an easier time"

"OK Mommy, kisses, Jack and I love you"

"I love you too, have nice dreams for you"

Monica cut short and the first thing she did was look at the history of calls made and received on her phone and there were no calls which was extremely strange since she had made countless calls from that phone.

When Richard returned to the hotel room he found Monica serious, she asked him if he had answered several calls from his children.

He made a surprised face "No, not at all, when am I supposed to answer those calls"

"Erica told me that she called several times and it gave her busy or out of service, but that on two or three occasions you answered her, you told her that I was not there and that you would give me the message"

"Mon, that girl is confused, she must call another number, I never answered her"

"I also found my entire call history blank, both made and received," Monica continued.

"How strange Monica, you're going to have your phone checked" and without further Richard entered the bathroom.

Monica was upset, Richard despite showing calm had turned his face pink, and on the other hand there was no way that Erica would have lied to her about the calls.

She felt that Richard was lying to her, why would he have ignored notifying her of the calls from her children? she didn't understand.

Monica made up her mind that the next day she would go and have her phone checked and put a password on it so that no one could answer her calls or delete her history.

She went to the phone first thing in the morning to find out what had happened, and when she came back she told Richard that she had set passwords to her phone, so from now on wouldn't answer him. Richard looked at her surprised, "Monica, you doubt me, you prefer to believe a 6-year-old girl who surely dialed the phone wrong"

"It's not a question of who to believe, I have only one certainty, Erica is calling me from her cell phone and my number is loaded in it, she only has to press the call button, no number can be wrong,"

"And since when did Erica have a cell phone...?"

"Chandler bought one for the kids, so they and I can communicate whenever we want."

"Mon with the time difference they will call at any time and all the time"

"You're wrong, they know the hours to call, Rachel wrote them down, they also don't call every so often if you answer them"

"OK, whatever you say Monica"

She was left wondering why Richard was behaving like this, why he was hindering his relationship with Erica and Jack. Would he be jealous of his children? That would be absurd, he is supposed to be a mature man, he cannot be jealous of children… .. or is it something else…?

She didn't know, she just knew that this behavior had to stop if they wanted to have a lasting relationship

When arrived on June 18 Chandler and the children left for Hawaii, they had an 11-hour flight ahead of them, so Chandler loaded two or three movies and books onto their laptops to ease the trip. They would try to sleep anyway.

During the trip from the airport to the hotel, the three were amazed by the landscape, the color of the flowers, the color of the sea, the very green mountains, and when they went up to the hotel room they could see the city and the beaches and the surfers flying on the waves. Jack already wanted to go to learn, but they needed to rest and overcome the jet lag, so they left everything for the next day, went to eat and rested again.

Chandler was anxious, not only to see the city and the beaches, but also to see the reaction of the kids, his decision would depend on that.

The three of them were also waiting for Joey, who upon learning that they would be in Hawaii got a two-week vacation to join them, although the meeting would only take place in 10 days.

While they visited the different beaches and neighborhoods, Chandler began to find out about schools and areas to live. Just in case, that was his destiny.

The three of them took surf lessons, Jack learned right away, Erica had a harder time because he was a bit scared, and to Chandler's surprise he also had good balance and started riding the waves as a beginner. This is how he met Willy, an instructor of about 55 years old, half bohemian, with whom he began a light friendship.

Meanwhile, in Paris Monica asked Richard if he had already made the reservations for the flights to NY and Orlando, and if he had already made the reservations at the Disney hotel and the one on the beach"

"Not yet Monica"

"But I thought you already had everything set up, June is almost ending, by August everything will be complete"

Richard took Monica from her hands and led her to sit in the two armchairs that were in her room.

"Monica, I wanted to surprise you, Timmy and Michelle put together a surprise trip to Europe for us, in which they are going to accompany us with their kids. They rented a van for us all to enter and they have the entire trip scheduled, we would leave Paris on July 3 and we would be returning on August 28"

Monica's face burned, and she gave an icy look "Richard that's absurd!" she shouted "we had arranged that I was going to be with my children in August, I would take them as a surprise to Disney and then to a beach!" "And you were clear about it and you agreed"

"Yes Monica, I also wanted to do that trip with your children, but Michelle and Timmy surprised me and I couldn't say no, they spent a lot of time and money organizing this trip"

Monica's eyes filled with tears, she was furious.

"You know, I don't care what your children have organized, on the first of August, wherever I am, I take a plane to NY to pick up my children and spend the holidays with them"

"Monica, honey, calm down, Timmy and Michelle are so excited that I couldn't say no..."

"I'm sorry Richard, you go with them and I'm going to NY"

"Monica, we can't do that, they want to treat us to the surprise, calm down, let me see the plan for the trip they organized and I'll see when we could leave them and leave for NY"

Richard sat at the desk in the room and was able to look at some papers that were supposed to be the itinerary of the trip.

Monica was standing looking out the window and she wouldn't stop crying, she couldn't believe what was happening, she hadn't seen her children for more than two months, she had trouble contacting them, and now her dream of taking her children to Disney and the beach and spending a whole month with them was falling apart because of Richard and his kids and that damned trip.

A few moments later Richard came over with what was evidently the plan for the trip.

"Monica, look, I'm seeing that we could abandon the trip in Rome, and fly to NY"

"And that would be on what date?"

"We could fly to NY on August 17, we can take the kids to Disney for 5 or 6 days, and we return to NY where you can stay with the kids until the 27th since we have to be in Paris, because of your course, at more take August 29, which is how my children had planned" "that way we would only lose 10 days of the planned trip and you could have your children"

"Fantastic Richard! Instead of spending 30 days with them, I'm going to spend 10 days and obviously, without a beach, thank you for your understanding and effort" –said Monica in a severe tone, as tears fell down her eyes"

Richard tried to hug her, but she pushed him away, she wasn't in the mood for hugs or kisses or anything.

She was confused, she didn't understand how he could do that to her, she had left everything for him, for the dream of being together, she only asked him for a month with her children, and he had just stolen it...

Was he not what she thought? ... he was not a good man? as her father told her. He ignored his feelings, now she was sure that she had ignored warning him about the call of the children…. Because he tried to keep her away from the children, she had always felt that he cared for her, that he cared about her happiness, but now she felt totally devastated, and to top it off she had no one to talk to, she was alone in Paris, without friends... …there was only Richard and he had let her down.

That night she couldn't sleep, she was angry and sad. In the morning she decided to call Rachel to tell her about the change in her plans, and she would have to work really hard to make hers sound hers happy-go-lucky hers, or they would realize that they were right, that she was wrong... But she was never wrong, she was always right …. Or not?