Roxie Bing | she's the one

(1.5) The One With The East Laundry Detergent

"Saturday night, the big night, date night, Sat-ur-day night." Chandler did a small dance for the rest of our unenthusiastic bunch as we sat in Central Perk.
"No plans, huh?" Joey took an educational guess.
"Not one."
"Not even breaking up with Janice?" Ross suggested and I nodded in agreement.
"Oh, right. Shut up." Chandler warned him, dismissing the idea altogether.
"Chandler! Nobody likes breaking up with someone. You've just got to do it." Monica said.
Chandler went on to explain why it was so difficult to break up with someone.
"Why do you have to break up with her?" Joey asked. "Be a man. Just stop calling."
I grunted. "You are disgusting, aren't you?" I pointed out and he rolled his eyes.
The conversation was settled when Phoebe offered to break up with the person she was seeing at the same time out of support for Chandler.

A few minutes later, an attractive woman is a slim-fitting red dress and a confident demeanour walked into the coffee shop.
"Hi, Joey." She half-smiled as she walked past before stopping at the counter.
"Oh my God. Angela." Joey gushed under his breath and sitting upright.
"Being dumped by you obviously agrees with her." Monica pointed out, eyeing up the woman.
"Are you going to go over there?" Phoebe asked him.
"Not yet. I don't want to seem eager." Joey said, sitting back again. He counted to three-Mississippi before deciding that that amount of time was sufficient. He then stood up confidently and headed over.

I watched intently as Joey spoke to the blonde woman. He leaned in close to her and spoke in a whisper.
The scenario bothered me for a reason unknown to me and I rolled my eyes, but unfortunately my brother noticed. "What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing." I quickly said. "She just seems exactly Joey's type." I eyed up the blonde, perfect-figured, sexily dressed girl.
Ross laughed. "I was under the impression Joey didn't have a type."
"Anyone who puts out quickly." Phoebe added and they chuckled.
I rolled my eyes again.

***

"Roxie, I'm telling you, this guy is perfect for you." Joey was following me around our apartment and I was trying my best to get away. He'd been attempting to convince me to join him on a double date with Angela and I'd been trying not to listen.
"Forget it." I told him as I scrubbed another dish in the sink.
"Come on. This guy is great. His name is Bob. He's Angela's brother. He's smart, he's sophisticated, and he has a real job. Me, I go on three auditions a month and call myself an actor."
"No, Joey." I told him and he showed me his puppy dog eyes.
"Come on, Rox. Why not? You've made it clear you don't want to date me. Have you changed your mind?"
I rolled my eyes. "Stop asking me that. Because no, I haven't."
"Exactly. So why can't you help me out? If I do this for her brother, I might stand a chance with Angela again."
I paused, slightly considering it.
"It can be your way of repaying me for staying in my apartment rent-free." He grasped at straws to convince me.
"You live rent-free in my brothers apartment too. So nice try." I snapped.
"Okay, that may be true." He shrugged. "But please, Roxie? I'm just asking a favour. Are we not friends?"
I huffed. "Fine."
He fist pumped the air and then pulled me into a tight hug. "I owe you one."

***

"So what does Bob look like? Tall? Short?" I prodded Joey for more details as we sat at the bar of the restaurant we were about to double date at.
"Yup." He replied, sipping a drink and avoiding the question.
"Well, which?"
"Which what?"
I took a deep breath. "You've never met Bob, have you?" I accused him.
"No, but -"
"For goodness sake, Joey. For all you know, this guy could be horrible -"
I was cut off by Angela shouting to Joey from the door and I saw the guy she was with.
"Horribly attractive." I finished my own sentence.

"I've got to tell you - Bob is terrific." I smiled widely.
Angela and I were stood in the mirror in the bathroom.
"He is, isn't he? He's also unbelievable in bed." Angela said casually and I stood still.
"Wow." I nearly choked. "My brother never even told me when he lost his virginity."
She looked at me with an utterly confused expression. "That's nice."
I looked back into the mirror and frowned at the confusion of this night. What was going on?

We were back at the table and I was telling the others about a story from university, but I was getting continuously put off by the affection that I'd deem inappropriate between Angela and Bob.
"Joey, I've got something in my eye. Can we check it?" I urged him to leave the table with me and we headed towards the bar.

"Joey! What the hell?" I snapped as soon as we'd got to the bar.
"What? They're close!" He insisted.
"Close? She's got her tongue in his ear!" I pulled a disgusted face.
"Like you've never got a little rambunctious with Chandler." He said casually and I gagged.
"Joey, this is sick. This is disgusting. This is -" I took a look over at the 'siblings' again. "It's not really true, is it?"
Joey pulled a guilty face.
"Joey! What were you thinking?"
"Look, I'm not proud of this, okay?" He said but then smiled. "Okay, maybe I am a little."
I shoved him hard. "I'm out of here."
He pulled me back by my arm and pulled me close to him. "Wait, Rox. Come on. I want her. You like him. I think he likes you. I'm thinking if we put our heads together, we can break them up."
"Joey -" I tried to insist but his puppy dog eyes came out again. "Fine."

Joey and I strutted into the coffee shop, linking arms.
"How did it go?" Rachel asked us.
"Oh, great." Joey smiled.
"We ripped that couple apart and kept the pieces for ourselves." I smiled and high-fived Joey.
"What a beautiful story." Ross sarcastically commented. "I'm fine, by the way." He added, gesturing to the ice pack that Rachel was holding on his head that neither Joey or I had noticed.
"Hey, where's Chandler?" I wondered.
"He needed some time." Phoebe told us.
At that moment, Chandler sprinted past the window of the coffee shop yelling, "I'm free! I'm free!" at the top of his lungs.
The rest of us laughed.

A/N: I hope you're all enjoying this. I feel like it's been a bit slow starting but it's going to pick up really soon with the development of Joey and Roxie.

What are you all thinking so far? PLEASE let me know, it would be massively beneficial to me.

I'm going to try and update a little faster but it's very sunny where I am and I'm spending most days on the beach with my babies 😂

As always, please vote and comment if you're enjoying it. Thank you for reading!