The One With The Fake Dating

Keeping Up Appearances

Joey's POV

It had been about a little under a week since the awkward night at the bar, and things hadn't been looking great for Joey's cover. He had figured that having everyone meet his boyfriend once would be enough to make people believe he was gay, or at the very least bi. And for the most part it was, except for one hold out. Tyler was not only refusing to believe Joey was telling the truth, but he had started spreading rumors around the set that Joey was lying about his sexuality. Well, they probably wouldn't be considered rumors since they were true, but that was besides the point. Joey really wished Tyler would just shut up and mind his own business. What was worse was that Joey was pretty sure at least a few people were starting to believe what Tyler was saying. When Joey walked onto set on Wednesday he started to feel like something was off. Jessica wasn't joking around with him as much as she usually did, and she seemed slightly uncomfortable during some of their scenes, specifically the ones relating to his character's sexuality. And he was sure that there were a couple of times when people stopped their conversations because he was passing by. 

He had been trying to avoid asking Chandler to help him out with his cover, but it was starting to look like he wasn't going to have a choice. There wasn't really a logical reason for why he didn't want to ask for help, Chandler was still fine with going along with their plan. But Joey couldn't bring himself to ask his friend to do anymore couple-y things with him. Not after their "date" at the bar. Joey had started feeling uncomfortable with what they were doing after that night, the  hand holding and drunken flirting. But not for the reasons he thought he might. He wasn't uncomfortable with the fact that he was pretending to date another man, or even that he was pretending to date Chandler Bing. In fact, the reason was kind of the opposite. At some point that night, Joey had actually started to enjoy their "date". Like, a lot. More than he could remember enjoying a lot of his many, many real dates in the past. He didn't know what that meant, and he didn't want to keep pushing things and find out. Chandler had definitely noticed Joey was acting a bit off the morning after that night, but luckily for Joey, Chandler wasn't someone who would ever willingly suggest that they talk about their feelings. Especially not about something like this. For a while, Joey and Chandler were content to go about their days as normal, ignoring any left over sense of awkwardness between them. 

Now, though, it was starting to look like Joey was going to have to make things awkward again. He spent the cab ride home from Wednesday's rehearsal trying to build up the courage to ask Chandler to make another appearance in front of the cast. He needed to come up with something that wouldn't seem like an obvious attempt to remind everyone that he had a boyfriend, but everything he thought of just felt very forced, and not like something that would stop the rumors for very long. He was still feeling anxious when he noticed the Central Perk sign outside his window, signaling the end of his drive. He pulled out his wallet to pay at the end of the drive, which made him feel even worse when he realized he didn't have enough cash with him to cover the cost. He glanced up at the driver, and judging by the look on his face, he was not in a generous mood. Joey tried to put on his most apologetic look before explaining his situation to the impatient looking driver. 

"Okay, so, you're gonna laugh at this..." The look on the man's face didn't seem like one of someone who is in the mood to laugh at whatever Joey was going to say. "I, uh, I just checked my wallet and I think I'm just a little bit short-" He was cut off before he could finish explaining.

"Do you have the money to pay for your ride or not?"

"Not right now, no. But I'm gettin' my paycheck at the end of the week, you could come back then and I'll definitely have enough to pay you!"

"You want me to leave you here after a free ride, then drive all the way back here in a few days just to get paid? Nice try, pal, but that's not how this works."