Chapter 14: Go Set a Watch Party

"OK: pretzel bowl on the coffee table. Drinks in the freezer…. Your party better be good," Coco turned back to her mother.

Courteney smiled. "I thought it was our party."

Coco smiled back, encouraged. It was the still the middle of summer, the days still decently long, though they were ever so slightly beginning to shorten. School would be starting up again in a few brief weeks. An evening like this, with her mom and her mom's closest friends, sounded nice.

Best of all was how it seemed that her mother was beginning to come out of whatever funk she had been in around the time of her birthday. True, the picture of Uncle Matty still held a place of honor on the bedside table in her and Johnny's room, but there hadn't been any more instances of Mom talking to it, as far as Coco knew.

"So who's bringing the movies?" Coco asked.

"Your Aunt Jenny. Oh, and while you're setting out the plates, if you wouldn't mind leaving an extra space for Matt – he's bringing a guest."

Coco waggled her eyebrows. "What kind of guest?"

Courteney stifled a laugh. "Not the kind you're thinking about! This one is actually more around your age, give or take a few months. Oh, and related to him."

Coco's smile didn't change, pleased. "It'll be nice to see Marina again." The girls had been born only a few months apart not long after Friends' acclaimed run had ended.

It wasn't long before there was a knock at the door, and Jennifer was the first to arrive, bearing a tote bag.

"Hey…." Courteney and her best girl friend buzzed cheeks. "Got the stuff?"

Coco was surprised by how her godmother didn't rise to such a playful joke the way she normally would, instead sporting a pained wince. "That's kind of a little too on the nose for our theme tonight, wouldn't you say?"

"Oh, man!" Coco whined. "Cops and drug busts? That's the surprise movie marathon mystery theme?" Her mom and Jennifer exchanged looks.

"Not exactly, sweets," Jennifer assuaged, still wincing. "And anyway, I only managed to rustle up one. Lisa and the boys promised me they would divide and conquer on the rest."

Courteney nodded, beckoning the other women into the living room.

Lisa appeared next, looking deeply apologetic. "I tried to get Julian to come, but when he heard we were marathoning the old-fashioned way – i.e., not streaming – he bailed!" She hefted her purse, rattling it around. "And all I got is The Whole Nine Yards."

Coco groaned. "That sounds like a football movie! I thought this was about cops and drug kingpins! Is there any sort of overarching theme for this watch party?"

"Did I hear someone say they got The Whole Nine Yards?" Matt called from the foyer, he and his daughter Marina drifting into the sitting room.

"I'm assuming by that, he's not talking about the new sandwich menu at Subway!" Marina quipped, before dashing over to Coco to buzz cheeks.

"I managed to rent The Whole Ten Yards," Matt reported, poking his head in the backpack he'd brought with him just to be sure he had in fact brought the correct one.

"Hmm. And by that, I'm assuming you're not talking about the size of your…."

"OK!" Courteney laughed uncomfortably, while clapping a hand over Lisa's mouth. "That's enough out of you, Floosh!"

"Which one did you bring, Jen?" Matt turned to his friend.

Jennifer smiled. "The Ron Clark Story."

"What's it about?" Marina wanted to know.

"Oh, it's a biopic about a teacher who inspires his students in an inner-city school…."

"…. which means it probably has drugs in it! Thank God! We're finally getting back to a cohesive theme!" Coco muttered. She couldn't discern the funny look her godmother was giving her.

David poked his head into the family room. "Hello, hello?"

"Hey, Schwimm! Which ones did you bring?" Courteney grinned.

"All right! I got…. 17 Again…. and…. Serving Sara…."

"OK, does no one know what a theme is? Or how to pick one?" Coco asked the room at large. "Cause right now, I'm getting everything from drugs to football to high school! It's like a bad parody of Friday Night Lights!"

Lisa was smiling tightly, oddly. "Oh, this movie night has a theme…." She cast a side-eye over to Courteney.

"Really? I'd love to know what it is! In fact, you know what, give me those movies!" And Coco went around plucking DVDs out of tote bags and backpacks. She leafed through them. Then leafed through them again.

This movie had a theme, all right. They all starred….. him. She sent a pointed look towards her mother, who flushed.

"You said I could pick the theme," she reminded her daughter weakly.

Coco sighed. "I did say that, didn't I? …. All right, which one should we do first?"

"Oh! I almost forgot! I brought one more…." David dug through his bag. "And if we're going to start any Matthew Perry Movie Marathon right, we have to start with this." He brandished the DVD case the same way a Mafioso boss might brandish a gun…. if all Mafioso bosses presented as socially awkward nerds.

Courteney gingerly took the DVD from her TV brother's hand. Staring down at it, her lips pursed through an emotional smile. "Fools Rush In…." she waggled the box. "He always claimed it was his best work."

"Besides with us," Matt piped up with his trademark smile.

"Amen…." Jenny whispered, her gaze flitting briefly heavenward. Glancing to Coco, she lovingly bumped shoulders with her. "You know, there are only three men in history who have ever had the number one movie and the number one TV show in America at the same time: Michael J. Fox, Tim Allen and Matthew Perry. And your mother… has worked with all three of them." Courteney just smiled and humbly blushed.

Everyone gathered around on the couch and Courteney inserted the DVD. The boys had to help her press the right button to get the player going, Lisa watching them with frustration.

"We've all been streaming too long…. No wonder my own son ditched me…."

As the film rolled, Coco found herself stealing glances down the length of the couch and carefully watching her mother watching the movie. Courteney seemed to be transfixed whenever Matthew appeared onscreen; she couldn't take her eyes off him. She largely seemed to tolerate the scenes where he was kissing Salma Hayek.

"Say, Court, didn't you make out with Matty on Leno once when he was doing the press junket for this?" Jennifer quite suddenly piped up.

"What?!" Marina squeaked.

"Is that so….?" Coco craned her neck all the way around her godmother to stare at her mom, intrigued, her eyes gleaming.

Courteney had turned a truly curious shade of fuchsia. "I did not make out with him…."

"Yes, you did," Lisa insisted. "I actually have a vivid memory of sitting at home, big as a house, and watching you two necking!"

"Floosh! We weren't….!"

"Anyone want proof?" Matt called loudly, ignoring Courteney's fierce glare.

"Yeah!" the younger girls giggled, even as Coco was a little leery. She had seen her mother and Uncle Matty lock lips plenty of times when they were on Friends. But this…. this was apparently different. Outside of that.

David was giggling himself as he pulled out his phone. "Everything is on YouTube now…."

Courteney's mouth fell open around a gasp of dramatic horror. "Where the hell is that on YouTube?!"

"Honey, probably everything about us from that time is on YouTube," Jennifer sighed. "Hell, there could be home video of LeBlanc picking his own nose and it would be on YouTube!" She didn't even flinch when Matt whacked her.

"Boom! Got a hit!" David looked far too smug and pleased with himself. Courteney had no choice but to pause the movie and watch, mortified, as the clip played…

FLASHBACK: Summer 1997

"Actually, no, because it's very strange, because women…. who have seen this movie, they've said…. very odd reactions… to it…."

"And how many films can make that kind of guarantee?" Jay Leno pressed Matthew. "It's very true…."

"You see Dante speak about a volcano, but…. nothing's…." Suddenly, Leno was drowned out by the audience erupting into whoops and cheers. The men turned their heads to see Courteney Cox emerging from the wings and onto the stage.

"It's like a moment!" Leno hollered, as Matty simply looked around, baffled. "I can feel the…. you know, I can feel the sexual tension!"

"Matthew?" Courteney asked.

"Yeah?"

"I just saw the movie."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and I…." Words failed her, as she ran into his arms, took him in her arms, straddled his lap and deeply kissed him as the studio audience erupted in wild cheers. Matthew, of course, was more than delighted to go along with it and return his co-star's kiss as Leno just watched. Courteney finally drew away sensuously and rose up languidly off of where she had been practically sitting astride Matthew's waist.

"So call me tonight. Before work tomorrow."

"I will. I promise. OK."

"OK. Bye…." And she strutted offstage, Leno half-chasing after her, no doubt bummed as to why he hadn't gotten a kiss too.

"See, now that sort of thing doesn't happen every day…." Matthew quipped, appearing slightly dazed.

END OF FLASHBACK

"Boo!" Lisa bawled, cat-calling. "You call that a kiss, Cox? We can't even see your face! Tell me you were at least using tongue!"

"Maybe she wasn't actually kissing him," Matt theorized, now feeling bad for suggesting the YouTube detour. "She could be doing it into his neck, like the technique all those soap actors use!"

"Don't give her an out, LeBlanc," David grunted, grinning.

"No, she's kissing him, all right," Jennifer smirked, turning her head to give Courteney a weirdly perceptive look. "You can tell by the way Matty's kissing her back…." Courteney hid her reddened face in her palms.

"Mondler wasn't even a thing yet. It was a PR stunt," she muttered into her hands. "Publicity in those days was sometimes contrived…"

Coco snorted. "Oh. Yeah, right. I bet. It sure looks like you kissing your 'fake husband' was totally 'contrived.'"

"Coco….. my heart:" Jennifer reached for her goddaughter's hand. "I love you, but you are not using air quotes correctly!"

"Your godmother's right," Matt concurred. "I had an entire storyline in one episode where I didn't know how to air quote!"

"Hmm," Courteney demurred. "So I guess that's who she got it from!" Matt grinned at her sheepishly, abashed.

"Can we just…. get back to the movie?" Courteney sighed, hand to her temple. Inside though, her heart was beating wildly. She distinctly remembered crashing that Jay Leno interview. The way she had straddled Matty's lap. The way she had brought her lips down to his….

David finally put his damn phone away and Fools Rush In resumed.

Coco was now ignoring the movie completely in favor of studying her mother more than ever. Watching her mom watch the movie, it was like Courteney was in a trance. At every frame that had Uncle Matty in it, she smiled giddily. When he landed a really rip-roaring joke, she shrieked with laughter, louder and longer than anybody else.

By the closing scenes, Coco glanced back to where her mom sat, only to find that the woman had gotten off of the couch and had drifted really close to the TV, drinking in Matthew up there on the screen, utterly entranced.

"You were so brilliant, honey…." Coco thought she heard her murmuring, the expression on Courteney's face suggesting that she wanted to reach out and touch him. "You're so brilliant…."

Coco's eyes found those of her godmother in the darkness, and they both shared a look of concern.

They started to watch The Whole Nine Yards after, but couldn't finish it before the watch party broke up. As Courteney was saying goodnight to Matt and Marina, Coco stole her godmother away into the foyer.

"I think Mommy needs help."

"Help how?"

"She needs to see a therapist! A grief counselor! Something!" Now it was Coco's turn to droop her own head into her palm. "I thought things were getting better…. But his picture is still on her nightstand… and the whole claim about how he's visiting her…."

"Well, it's a coping mechanism, honey. She seemed pretty convinced that she's been feeling his presence when she told me."

Coco glanced up sharply. "You knew about this?"

Jennifer nodded, having the good sense to at least look guilty. "Apparently, it's been going on since just after his funeral."

"And somehow you think that's healthy? You've been grieving too, no doubt, Aunt Jenny, but I don't see you wandering around and talking to the empty air!"

"Coco, everyone processes grief differently. For me, when I'm missing Matty, I read over all the old texts he wrote me. Watch a few Friends episodes, so long as I don't binge – when you're mourning, you have to find your limits."

"And don't you think my mom's blown right past her limits?"

"I don't know, baby. But right now, I'd say that's not for us to decide."

"But what if it gets worse?" Coco pleaded, near tears. "It's going to be fall soon. In a couple months, we'll already be at the year anniversary. What if you guys are negotiated into some commemorative tribute for him? What if she can't handle it?"

Jennifer thought for a moment. "Coco…. Do you know what grief is?"

Coco frowned at her. "I've grieved for my grandparents…. Even though I don't really remember them. I've even grieved for Uncle Matty… but not like that." She gestured back towards the sitting room.

"No, I'm not asking you how you grief. I'm asking you what grief is." At her goddaughter's look of bewilderment, Jennifer smiled sadly. "Grief is love which has no place to go. Now: have you ever heard of the phrase 'pillars of men'?"

Coco shook her head.

"Sometimes, we women use the expression to refer to men who have been really, truly positive influences, forces for good, in our lives. For your mom, those would be her father, your father, Johnny and Matthew." A beat. "Probably to a slightly lesser extent, LeBlanc and Schwimmer." She laid a hand on her goddaughter's shoulder. "When someone who had that profound of an effect on you dies, that effect, that presence, tends to linger – for better or worse. Your mother is grieving the absence of that in her life, as are we all, and that grief never goes away. It's lifelong. I'd watch her carefully, of course, but for right now, try to view what she's going through from a perspective of grace."

Her voice trailed off as they could hear Coco's mother's footsteps coming towards them. Appearing in the foyer, Courteney glanced between her daughter and best friend for a moment, and smiled gratefully.

"Thanks for coming, Jen-Jen…." The best girl friends buzzed cheeks.

"Anytime, my Cox-N-Hammer. Anytime."