"How could you do this to me?"

Emily stood with her arms folded, staring Ross down in the bathroom of the Waltham house. Just outside the door, all of their family and friends mingled in the living room, enjoying the reception buffet. Ross and Emily should have been out there with them. They should have been laughing with their friends, drinking champagne, and having their first dance together as a married couple–which, Ross reflected, would also be their first dance together ever.

"Listen, Emily, I can explain–" Ross said desperately.

"Explain?" exclaimed Emily. "What kind of bloody explanation could you possibly give for saying someone else's name at our wedding? You're still in love with Rachel!"

"No!" insisted Ross. "No, I'm not. I just got a little distracted–"

"Distracted! Your excuse is that you got distracted during our wedding ceremony? What else could you have possibly been thinking about?" She laughed humorlessly. "I suppose I don't need to ask. You were thinking about Rachel."

"No!" said Ross again. "I mean, yes, I was. But not because I'm in love with her! I'm mad at her! Very mad!" He raised his fists and bared his teeth to demonstrate his anger. "She showed up to ruin our wedding and I was just so angry that I–I just couldn't focus."

Emily narrowed her eyes. "She showed up to ruin our wedding? What do you mean?"

"She just came to tell me she was still in love with me, but–"

Emily threw her arms in the air in exasperation. "Oh, this is rich!" She laughed somewhat hysterically. "My new husband said his ex's name at our wedding, but don't worry, it's only because she's still in love with him! Honestly, I can't believe you right now!"

Ross took a deep breath. "Look, Emily, I'm really sorry about what happened, but all of our friends and family are here to celebrate our wedding. Can't we just put all this behind us and celebrate with them?"

Emily looked down at the floor, crossing her arms. "No, I don't think I can. I need some space, Ross."

Ross took a small step back. "Is this enough space for you?" he joked with a hopeful laugh.

Emily just glared back at him.

"Oh," Ross managed. "O-okay then. I'll just head outside, and you can come join me when you're ready." He turned to step out of the bathroom. "Take your time, sweetie!" he added loudly for the benefit of the guests. Maybe they wouldn't notice anything was wrong.

Emily slammed the door in his face. Ross turned around to find his friends crowded around him, sympathetic grimaces on their faces. Rachel was there. Why was Rachel there? Why wouldn't she just go home?

He couldn't deal with this–with any of them–right now. Ross pushed past them wordlessly and headed toward his parents.

"I hate you!" Emily yelled through the door.

"And I love you!" Ross yelled back, hoping no one else had heard what she said.


Chandler heaped another spoonful of corn onto his plate, taking his time as he served himself. No human in history had ever wanted this much corn, he was certain, but the longer he took to make his plate, the longer he could avoid talking to anyone else in the room. Everything was turning upside down. In a single day, their group dynamic seemed to have exploded.

Was this all his fault? Would meeting up with Monica again tonight make things worse? It might be better just to break things off with her right now; they could go back to their regular friendship and maybe Ross would forgive him for his lapse in judgment.

The problem was, he didn't want to break things off with her. Selfish as it was, he still planned on going to her room tonight as they had planned.

"Hey." Chandler turned to see Joey standing next to him. He was holding a steak in one hand, chewing on it like it was a piece of pizza. "I want to talk to you."

"Oh. Sure." Chandler pushed the corn off his plate and back into the serving dish. Despite having hardly eaten at all today, he wasn't really hungry. "What about?"

"About your little stunt last night," Joey said sternly.

Chandler rolled his eyes. The last thing he needed right now was a lecture from Joey.

"Don't you roll your eyes at me!" Joey snapped.

"I didn't do anything wrong!" Chandler insisted, although he wasn't sure he believed himself.

"You betrayed Ross!" Joey snapped, pointing his steak accusingly at Chandler.

"Monica says I did nothing wrong!" Chandler countered.

"Well Monica doesn't know about the guy code. You don't date your friends' sisters or exes. We've been over this! Too many times, in fact. You seem to have a hard time remembering the rules, mister."

"Okay, I've messed up a few times," Chandler admitted, waving the corn spoon around. "But don't I deserve a little forgiveness here? I mean, it's not like I was just messing around with Monica. She's not some girl I'm going to sleep with and then not call her again. I would never do that!"

Joey raised a challenging eyebrow.

"...to one of my close friends," Chandler added hastily. "I care about Monica. A lot."

"So what happens next then?" said Joey gruffly. "Are you going to see her again? Are things going to get serious? Are you like her boyfriend now?"

"I don't know," Chandler admitted, poking the corn again. "We didn't talk about that."

"Well, whatever happens," said Joey, "you have to make sure you do not, under any circumstances, end up in a relationship with her."

"Because Ross would be upset?"

"No," said Joey. "That's just the start. You're going to complicate things if you start dating one of our friends. I mean, look at Ross and Rachel. I thought they had finally gotten over their breakup, but now with this whole Rachel at the wedding thing, the fighting is going to start up again. What if you start dating Monica and then you break up and start fighting too?"

"What if we don't?" said Chandler desperately. "What if she's actually the one for me?"

"I doubt it," Joey said with a snort of laughter, shaking his head and taking another bite of steak.

"Why couldn't this work out?" asked Chandler, wondering if he should be offended.

"She's Monica," Joey emphasized. "She's all about commitment and marriage and babies. You're… Chandler. You're all about avoiding commitment and marriage and babies. How do you see that one working out?"

Chandler looked back to the corn, unable to answer.

"Plus," said Joey, "she's like, way out of your league. She's easily a nine or a ten, and you're more like–"

"I get it!" Chandler snapped, cutting Joey off before his self-esteem could be slashed any lower.

"I'm just trying to help you," Joey said in a lighter tone. "You went through a real crisis when Ross and Rachel broke up. How do you think you'd handle it if it was your own relationship that fell apart and you had to see Monica every day?"

Damn it. Ninety-five percent of the time, Joey was completely useless at giving advice. Why did he have to be right only when Chandler didn't want to hear it?

"Yeah, alright," said Chandler, defeated, shoving the serving spoon back into the corn and putting his plate back. "You're right. It's simpler if we just end things now."

"Wait until tomorrow when we get back home," Joey advised. "Trust me, you do not want to be on an international flight with a woman you just dumped. I made that mistake one too many times."

Chandler couldn't argue with that. And besides, that meant he could see Monica again tonight. Surely it wouldn't hurt to sleep with her one more time, he told himself. Besides, it would be rude to cancel on her now. I'm just being polite.

"Yeah, okay," Chandler agreed, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Good man," said Joey with a firm nod. "And look, since I know you have a hard time controlling yourself around women–"

"Said the pot to the kettle," Chandler muttered.

"–I'm going to help you out," Joey finished. "I'll cancel my plans with Felicity tonight and keep you company. I won't leave your side until we get back home in New York and you can make a nice, clean break."

"Gee, thanks," said Chandler through gritted teeth, already planning his getaway.


Monica chewed on her fingernails as she watched Chandler talking to Joey at the buffet, finding it difficult to take her eyes off of him. What had gotten into her? She hadn't thought about Chandler in this way since she first met him on Thanksgiving of 1987–nearly twelve years ago, back when she was a senior in high school. She honestly hadn't considered him as any sort of romantic prospect since then, but now she couldn't stop thinking how great his hair was, how handsome that suit looked on him, what they would get up to when they met up later tonight–

"Hello? Earth to Monica?" Rachel's voice cut through her thoughts, and Monica tore her eyes away from Chandler to see her best friend standing next to her. She still looked quite out of place, wearing her sweat pants in the room full of fancy wedding guests. "Are you alright? You seem distracted."

"I'm fine," Monica said quickly. "What's up?"

"Can I stay in your hotel room tonight?" Rachel asked. "I would get my own, but I'm already twenty-seven hundred dollars in debt after buying a last-minute plane ticket to London."

Monica hesitated. Chandler was supposed to come to her room after the reception, and they certainly couldn't do any of the activities Monica had planned if Rachel was there. "It's pretty small," she told Rachel. "There's only one bed."

"Well that's fine," Rachel assured her. "We can share. I don't take up that much space!"

"I do!" Monica improvised. "I really like to sprawl out. And I kick in my sleep!"

"Since when?" Rachel asked. "Monica, is something wrong?"

"No!" said Monica defensively. "Is something wrong with you?"

Rachel gave a mirthless snort of laughter. "Well, I flew halfway across the world to tell Ross I loved him only for him to reject me and marry someone else. So yeah, I'm doing great right now."

Monica had been so caught up in the euphoria of having sex with Chandler that for a minute she had lived in a world where Rachel had not confessed her love for Ross right before his wedding. "Rachel, what were you thinking?" she asked, snapping back to reality.

"I don't know," Rachel sighed. "It's just… it's me and Ross, you know? I thought he'd want to know if we still had a shot at being together."

"He was getting married," Monica reminded her.

"I know, I know!" Rachel whined. "Everybody told me that. But when I got there, he just looked so miserable! Maybe I was saving him from a horrible marriage!"

"He wasn't unhappy because of Emily!" Monica told her. "He was mad at Chandler!"

"Chandler?" Rachel asked, bemused. "What was he mad at Chandler for?"

Monica pursed her lips. She had spent the entire day wishing that Rachel was in London so that she had someone to talk about this with, but now that Rachel was here asking her about it, Monica was hesitant to say anything. Would Rachel judge her for acting impulsively in a moment of loneliness and desperation?

Monica didn't meet Rachel's eyes. "Chandler and I sort of… had sex last night."

"WHAT?" Rachel yelped loud enough that several guests stared in their direction. Rachel took a quick look around the room, then grabbed Monica by the arm and dragged her into the hallway by the bathroom. She pulled Monica to the ground and they both sat in the corner, Monica a bit uncomfortable as she tried to arrange her legs under her dress. "Tell me everything!" Rachel demanded.

"What is there to tell?" asked Monica awkwardly, glad that Rachel seemed more excited than judgemental.

"Everything!" Rachel repeated. "How did it happen?"

Monica shrugged. "I was a little depressed about Ross getting married and me being alone, and… well, I guess Chandler was a little too comforting."

"I'm going to need more than that!" said Rachel. "Was he any good? Did you have a secret crush on him? Are you two like a couple now?"

"Yes, no, and I don't know," answered Monica. "We haven't really talked about it."

"Oh," said Rachel. "Well, what do you want?"

Monica shrugged again. "I don't know," she told Rachel honestly. "If he were any other guy, I'd definitely want to see where this goes. But he's Chandler, you know? He's one of my best friends and he's our neighbor. What if things don't work out? I could lose him as a friend and it could totally mess up our group dynamic. What if it's like Kip all over again? Or–" she cut herself off before she could say what if it's like you and Ross?

"But what if it's not?" Rachel countered. "What if you two are really great together and everything is perfect and you fall in love and you get married and have kids and–"

"Okay, I think you might be getting a little ahead of yourself," Monica laughed, although she was having trouble pushing those thoughts out of her mind.

"I'm just saying," Rachel continued, calming down a little, "you have the chance to have a boyfriend who's also your second best friend."

"Second?"

"Well, I'm still going to be your first best friend," Rachel said. "I'm just saying, it would be amazing." She paused before adding longingly, "It would be like what I had with Ross."

Monica looked at her friend, who was now gazing back toward the party with a sad expression on her face. "Rachel, let me ask you something: if you had the chance to do it all again, would you still go out with Ross? Would you still want to date him, knowing that he'd break your heart? That you'd have to watch him marry another woman?"

Rachel considered the question for several seconds before turning to look back at Monica. "Yeah," she said finally. "Yeah, I think I would."

"Really?" Monica asked. "You'd do that, knowing how painful it would be later?"

"Yeah," Rachel said again. "I mean, it was really great while we were together. I think that's worth a little sadness and anger, you know? Besides, if we hadn't dated… I think I'd always be left wondering. There would always be a small part of me thinking that maybe I missed out on something great." She clasped Monica's hands in hers. "Monica, please don't miss out on what could be the greatest love of your life because you're afraid of the future."

Monica looked down at their intertwined hands. How had Rachel known the exact words she wanted to hear? "You're right," she said, looking back at Rachel. "I have to give this a shot."

"I think you do," Rachel said sagely with a nod. "And so do I."

"Thank you, Rach–wait, what?"

"I still have a shot with Ross. He said my name at his wedding. That has to mean something. This can still work out! It's not over!" Rachel started to stand.

"No–no, Rachel, I think it is," Monica said frantically, gripping Rachel's hands harder as she tried to pull away. "He's married now, you can't just–"

The two women froze as Ross entered the corridor and knocked on the bathroom door. "Emily?" he called. "Emily, how are you doing in there?"

There was no response.

"You've been in there for a while," Ross continued. "People are starting to worry."

Still, there was no answer.

"You know, when I locked myself in the bathroom at my wedding," Rachel whispered to Monica, "It was because I was trying to pop the window out of the frame and get the hell out of there."

Ross snapped his head around, noticing Monica and Rachel for the first time. He stared at Rachel with wide eyes, obviously having heard what she said.

"Emily, I'm coming in!" he told the door. He opened it and stepped inside, Monica and Rachel on his heels. Sure enough, the window was wide open, the curtain blowing in the breeze. Emily was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh, look at that," said Rachel. "Same thing."

Monica thought she could detect a note of satisfaction in her voice.