The One With The Fake Dating

Rachel Green: Professional Life saver

Chandler's POV

Chandler had to get himself out of the apartment. He felt bad about leaving Joey without saying anything, but as soon as he had... that thought, he was hit with an all-too-familiar feeling of suffocation and anxiety, and he needed to get some fresh air before it became too much for him to handle. He scribbled some random excuse on the message board on their door, too lost in his thoughts to even pay attention to what he was writing down, and walked out of the apartment. Unfortunately, not even the smells of the city or the frantic jumble of sounds that the New York cityscape provided was enough to pull Chandler away from his realization. 

Could Joey really be in love with him? It would explain why he was so eager to "date" Chandler, and despite him meaning it as a joke in the car, it would explain why Joey seemed to be so ready to kiss Chandler whenever the moment arose...

No. NO. Come on, Chandler, pull yourself together. Joey wasn't in love with him. That would be ridiculous, right? Right, yeah, of course it would be. Those kisses were purely circumstantial, done in moments of panic and desperation. There was no way there were any romantic intentions in them whatsoever. Not to mention the fact that Joey was straight; his long list of ex-girlfriends and hookups made that very clear. Besides, even considering the miniscule chance that Joey wasn't one hundred percent straight, Chandler was flattering himself by assuming someone like Joey would even notice him romantically, let alone be attracted to him. 

He tried his best to ignore the flash of dejection that hit him with that thought. He already had enough to unpack at the moment.

So what if Joey started acting weird when Chandler joked about him being in love with him, he was probably just thrown off by the events of that day, making out with- no, not making out with, briefly kissing- your best friend in front of your boss isn't exactly something most people can just instantly brush off. And who knows, maybe he was telling the truth about not feeling well. He did look kind of pale when they got back to the apartment. (Chandler made a mental note to pick up some cold medicine if Joey still wasn't feeling well tomorrow, as well as some chicken noodle soup, which always cheered Joey up when he was sick.)

Feeling significantly better thanks to his much more reasonable conclusions, Chandler decided he was probably fine to head back to the apartment. Before he could turn back, however, he noticed his walk had brought him right to the front of Central Perk. Force of habit, he guessed. Might as well get a coffee while I'm here. 

Chandler walked in to the near-empty coffee shop, but before he could reach the counter to order anything, he heard a familiar voice calling his name. 

"Chandler! Over here!" He turned around to see Rachel waving at him from a table by the window. He was surprised he hadn't seen her before walking in, although he was probably just too preoccupied to notice her sitting right there. He decided to abandon the coffee, walking over to her table instead. 

"Hey Rach, what are you doing here?"

"Oh you know, just having a coffee and trying to recover from the disaster of a date I just had." She gestured to the seat in front of her, and Chandler took it. 

"Want to talk about it?" Chandler asked, already knowing the answer. Normally hearing about his friends' love lives only made him pity his own lack of romantic prospects even more, but today it was exactly the kind of distraction he needed. Plus, Rachel looked like she was dying to tell someone about her date, and Chandler was always down for a good venting session with Rachel.

"Yes PLEASE. I've been dying to talk to someone about it, but Monica's working late and I haven't been able to reach Phoebe for some reason."

"Well I'm honored to be your last resort," Chandler joked.