OH! DARLING | joey tribbiani

forty five

It had been two weeks since Rachel and Ross broke up. The two couldn't be in the same room without starting a fight with each other which led to uncomfortable tensions within the group of friends. Quinn, on Rachel's side, would give the cold shoulder to Ross whenever she saw him and would only speak to him in blunt, short sentences if needed. Joey was also pissed at Ross, especially after accusing him of being a cheating, dishonest guy, but after a week he had gotten over it and now mostly felt bad for his friend. The rest of them tried to remain pretty neutral in the situation, especially Monica who was stuck between her best friend and her brother.

The gang minus Ross and Rachel were over at Joey and Chandler's apartment for a night of Chinese takeout. Quinn sat in Chandler's Barcalounger, observing her boyfriend as he struggled to hold a piece of General Tao chicken with his chopsticks and propelled the food to the floor.

"Honey, why don't you use a fork instead?" The redhead suggested while piling chicken fried rice on her utensil.

"Yeah, that'd be better," a sheepish smile appeared on Joey's face, internally admitting tonight wouldn't be the night where he mastered the art of eating with chopsticks.

Right as he got up from his Barcalounger to grab the fork Phoebe was handing him, someone knocked at the door and Chandler answered it.

"Is he here?" Rachel asked, speaking about Ross.

"No," Chandler reassured her.

"Great, here's your moisturizer," Rachel handed him the bottle of lotion she had borrowed from him a few days ago and walked in the apartment, ignoring the embarrassment on Chandler's face. "Hi!" She greeted her friends. "You guys are going to love me. Okay, check it out... Thursday night, six tickets, Calvin Klein lingerie show and you guys are coming with me."

Joey, Chandler, Phoebe and Monica didn't answer to the news and avoided making eye contact with the dark blonde while Quinn was too busy munching on her food.

"Okay, I said that out loud, right?" Rachel asked when she got no response.

"Yes, yes," Chandler answered, "it's just that we kind of already made plans with Ross."

"Oh. Well, okay," Rachel sighed, trying not to let her disappointment show. "Well, there you go."

"No, it's just that he got this new home theater dealy and he wants us to check it out," Phoebe explained.

"Yeah, he's really excited about it," Chandler added on. "He even recorded show times on his answering machine."

"Urgh, what a geek," Quinn mumbled to herself as she grabbed her water bottle to help swallow down her food before she could tell Rachel that she wasn't going to Ross'.

"We're sorry honey," Monica apologized in the meantime.

"It's okay."

"Rach, I'm not going," Quinn said, making her friend stop in her tracks and turn around as she was walking to the door. "I had my mouth full so I couldn't tell you earlier but I'm going to the Calvin Klein lingerie show too, Jonathon invited me as his plus one."

"Oh that's great!" Rachel cheered, jumping and clapping her hands as she did so. She was happy she wouldn't be alone but she would've still preferred to have all of her friends with her.

"Yeah, we can go together, Jonathon won't mind you tagging along with us," the redhead told her friend.

"Oh I love you," the dark blonde rushed over to where Quinn sat and hugged her. "I love you, I love you, I love you."

Quinn chuckled as she hugged her friend back. "I love you too Rach, we'll have so much fun."

"I want to go too!" Joey whined, frustrated with himself for accepting Ross' invitation because he thought there was no way for him to attend the lingerie show with Quinn.