Roxie Bing | she's the one

(1.18) The One With All The Poker

The seven of us were sat or stood in various places, scattered around Monica and Rachel's apartment.
We all whistled the Colonel Bogey March tune in unison as we passed envelopes in documents in an order.
The documents that we were folding and enveloping and organising and stamping were for Rachel, who was on the search for a new job.

"Uh, Rach. Do you really want a job with Popular Mechanics?" Monica questioned her.
"Well, if you're going to work for a mechanic, those are the ones to work for." My brother - as usual - couldn't help but crack a joke.
"Look, I'm going for anything! I cannot be a waitress anymore. I'm sick of the lousy tips, I'm sick of being called 'excuse me'." Rachel ranted. She'd been completely uptight about the career situation for days.

"Rach?" Ross got Rachel's attention, snapping her away from her rant. "Did you proofread these?"
"Uh, yeah, why?" Rachel was obviously lying through her teeth.
"Convincing." I commented, and she glared at me with a 'now-is-not-the-time' look.
"Uh, nothing, it's just I'm sure they'll be impressed with your excellent 'compuper' skills." Ross broke the bad news after we'd spent an hour already getting an entire pile of resumés ready to hand out to potential employers.

And just like that, the hour had gone to waste, and we began whistling again as we passed the envelopes in the opposite direction, ready to start again.

***

I was sat watching an animal documentary on our television set when I heard the door to our apartment open.
When I swung round, I saw Joey. He was smiling affectionately at me.

"Hey." I smiled, jumping up from the spot I'd been slumped in for two hours and walking over to the counter to chug some bottled water.
"Hey." He smiled back, leaning against the fridge. "So... that was fun the other night."
I nodded in agreement. "I actually had a lot of fun, too. More fun than I've had in a while." I admitted.
"And when you said 'let's just have fun', you meant -"
"No strings attached, Joey." I told him, bluntly.
"Yeah, cool." He shrugged, nonchalantly. "I mean, I can do that. I do it all the time."
He had less confidence when he spoke and he avoided eye contact, causing me to ask the question, "you're cool with no strings attached, right?"
"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, just sex, right? What kind of a man could complain about that?" Joey stammered over his words and I still wasn't convinced, but I was sure he'd tell me if he had an issue.
"Just sex. Right." I repeated, setting the groundwork of what we'd discussed in stone.
"Anyway, uh, shall we go to the coffee house?" Joey swiftly changed the subject, still seeming as awkward as seconds before, but I went along with it.
"Yeah. Let's go."

***

"I don't know. Ask him!" Chandler pointed at Joey as we walked in to the coffee shop together. I wasn't sure what question he was dumping on him, but we were about to find out.

"Joey, how come you guys have never played poker with us?" Rachel quizzed him as the pair of us sat down.
"Yeah, that's true. We've never been invited. Is it some sort of guy thing?" I joined in the questioning.
Joey shrugged. "We just don't know any women who can play poker."
Monica groaned the loudest and accused, "that's such a lame excuse!"
"Yeah, what a typical guy response." Rachel rolled her eyes.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Do any of you know how to play?" Ross flipped the question back onto us.
The four of us exchanged glances before all admitting in unison, "no."
"But you could teach us!" Rachel bargained, to which the three boys responded with another synchronised, "no."
"What? Why? Are you afraid we'll beat you?" I laughed, knowing that it would wind them up.
"No. It's just that it's a complex game to learn." My brother spoke condescendingly.
"Well, if you and Joey can learn, I'm sure we could manage." I shrugged, receiving scowls from Joey and insulted expressions from Chandler.
But it worked. And they folded and they agreed to teach us poker, to which the four of us girls high-fives and the three boys hung their heads in dread.

***

The first poker game that we'd wore the boys down into teaching us hadn't gone as well as we'd hoped, and Monica - as usual - took the loss the hardest.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" She stamped as she got up from the table.
"So you were lying." Phoebe was less than impressed with Joey.
"About what?" He asked.
"About how good your cards were."
"I was bluffing." He corrected her.
"And what is bluffing? Is it not another word for lying?" Phoebe demanded. It was written all over each of the boys' faces that they regretted agreeing to play with us.

"Well, sorry to break up this party, but I have to go and fax resumés." Rachel excused herself from our gathering, only to met by a chorus of 'woah''s by the boys.

"Rach, we have to settle." Ross told her.
"Settle what?"
"The game. You owe us money for the game."
"Oh. Right." Rachel's expression deflated in that split second as she remembered.

"Come on, guys. It's their first time. Maybe we should just forget about the money this time." Joey defended us, which made me unintentionally smile.
"Hell no! We'll pay!" Monica insisted.
"Monica, I had another answer all ready." Phoebe rolled her eyes.
"No, I'm with Monica. We'll pay what we owe." I backed her up, despite Rachel and Phoebe's disappointment.
"And you know what? We want a rematch." Monica continued, not ready to admit defeat.
"That's fine with us. We could use the money." Ross laughed.

"So basically, you get your ya-ya's from taking money from all of your friends?" Rachel questioned him, unimpressed.
"Yeah." Ross admitted, without hesitation or shame. And then he stood up to face Rachel and her disappointed-in-him expression. "Look, Rach, this is poker. I play to win. And in order for me to win, other people have to lose. So if you play poker with me, don't expect me to be a nice guy. Because once those cards are dealt..." Ross trailed off awkwardly.
"Yeah?" Joey prompted.
"I'm not a nice guy." Ross finished the speech.

***

Chandler has gone back to Ross' to have a beer with him, leaving Joey and I with the apartment to ourselves.
We left Monica's apartment after helping to tidy up and walked across the hall together.

"What was that whole speech Ross did?" Joey scoffed as soon as we were out of the door.
"I don't know, but I'm guessing it was for Rachel's benefit." I gave my opinion.
"Yeah, I'd say so." Joey agreed as we both entered the apartment and leant on the counters. "He's really pining over her, huh?"
"Yeah, he really is. Here." I handed Joey the pack of Doritos we'd left out on the side.
"Thanks." He grabbed an entire handful and devoured it within five seconds.
"Now sex?" I suggested.
Joey raised his eyebrows, almost dropping the Dorito bag, but then smiled. "You're the perfect girl."
I laughed, before grabbing his hand and dragging him towards his bedroom. "Come on."

***

It was our second poker game and we'd pretty much listened to Rachel and Ross flirtatiously bicker for the entirety.

When the game seemed to be coming to a close, Rachel received the phone call that she'd been anticipating all might, the one where she'd be told whether she got the job she'd interviewed for.
She jumped up out of her seat and greeted the person on the other end before saying with a disappointed tone, "no, I understand."
The rest of us exchanged glances of empathy for Rachel's situation.

Despite Rachel's low mood, she insisted that we continue to play the poker game where she raised Ross, a deemed risky move by everyone else who backed out immediately.
And then - to our surprise - Ross folded, and it was a win for the girls.

Phoebe, Monica and Rachel cheered while grabbing the wine and celebrating the victory of a female win.

But I knew better. And Joey knew better.
Ross had let Rachel win. He'd seen her confidence get knocked after being rejected by the job that she'd wanted, and he'd known that she needed a small win to boost her. He'd put his pride aside and he'd let her win, despite having the winning cards himself.
And Joey and I smiled at each other.

"That was sweet." I whispered to Ross.
"What was sweet?" Chandler had overheard, and within seconds, figured out what we were referring to, and realised that Ross hadn't lost at all.
It then became a battle to stop Chandler grabbing the winning cards and confirming this for himself.

A/N: I'm not too happy with this chapter but I'm just proud of myself for actually updating this for the first time in in 2 months 😂
If there is anyone still reading at this point and had been waiting for an update, I thank you and I promise you I won't leave it so long next time! This book is still on my priorities, I just keep getting a mental block every time it comes to it!