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it'd been about three hours since ella and chandler had gone upstairs and been able to do what they never though they would. for the last hour or so they'd just been talking, and talking, and talking about everything except what had just happened between the two. eventually the conversation led to the topic of ross and rachel because, how couldn't it.
"you really think they're gonna get back together?" ella propped her head up with her hand staring down at chandler who was still laying down on his room's bed. "yeah, but i doubt it'll last," chandler tilted his head to look right back up at ella. "i bet they won't even last a week," ella jokingly continued. "oh three days tops," chandler smugly bet before the room fell silent for just a moment. "you're so pretty," ella cupped chandler's cheek in her hand. "oh really? i was just about to say the same about you," chandler sweetly bounced back at her. "well, i should probably go back to my room now," ella disappointingly looked over at the alarm clock on the nightstand that read 3:12am. "do you have toooo?" chandler shyly begged in a sing-songy tone. "unless you want everyone to immediately find out about what just happened, i suggest i go," ella unwilling got herself out of the bed and reached over to put her sundress back on. "fine...i'll see you tomorrow," chandler sweetly but disappointingly said goodnight. "see you tomorrow." that was the last the two spoke about or even mentioned what had happened for a while, like always.
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it'd been weeks since the two had slept together and as always, they'd been pretending nothing happened between them. ross and rachel's lingering drama and resentment towards each other definitely helped distract the group from any small jokes about it and awkward moments the two exchanged during this time. it wasn't until joey's new girlfriend entered the friends lives and shook ella and chandler's corrupt cycle.
"rachel?" gunther walked over to the orange couch. "yeah?" "when's your birthday?" gunther raised an eyebrow at the green. "may fifth," rachel innocently answered him. "our taurus!" ella added with a smile "ah yes, and our over-sensitive pisces," monica shot a fake smile to ella. "and our over-controlling virgo," ella returned a playful fake smile back. "—anyways, why?" rachel looked back to gunther. "oh i-i'm just making a list of people's birthdays," gunther lied through his teeth. "oh mine's december—" ross began but was cut off by gunther just walking away uninterested. ✧ as ella and rachel took an abnormally long trip to the bathroom, a beautiful woman walked into central perk and naturally, chandler noticed immediately. "oh, she's pretty. pretty ah, pretty girl, the pretty—she's pretty," chandler practically drooled over the mystery woman. "why don't you go over there and ask her out?" "i could die," chandler instinctually let out before remembering he agreed to stay friends with ella after what happened at the beach. but, of course thats not what he really wanted but was allowing to linger. the group continued to banter and tease chandler until the mystery woman finally spoke up after the uncomfortable stares coming from the group. "can i help you?" it didn't take long before chandler made his best efforts to flirt and joey came in to interrupt and announce he'd actually been dating the woman, kathy. eventually, rachel and ella came out of the bathroom to see the stunned group along with a gleeful joey and conflicted new woman next to him. "are you alright? you look like you just saw a ghost," ella innocently and half-jokingly asked the bing. "a ghost has nothing on what just happened here," phoebe spoke up concluding the extremely awkward moment everyone had witnessed.
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after some sweet and tender moments were exchanged between chandler and kathy throughout the week, chandler had quickly become infatuated with kathy even more. it wasn't until joey accidentally forced chandler to face his biggest fears that chandler actually had to deal with his blooming feelings for his best friend's girlfriend.
"we absolutely have to finally go see 'the sound of music' next month," ella turned to chandler as the two sat on the notorious barcaloungers watching 'cheers'. "oh–yeah." "why did you just give me a weird 'yeah'?" ella confusedly turned to the bing as they sat just a few inches apart. "my 'yeah' wasn't weird, you're weird!" chandler childishly threw out in hopes of turning the conversation back on her. thankfully, joey came home to interrupt the strange exchange between the two. "perfect you two are already here–i need you guys to go on a double date with kathy and i because she thinks you're dating," joey delivered with a huge smile on his face. "why would she think we're dating?!" chandler tried his best to hide his nervousness and underlying jealousy. "because i might've told her you were–" "joey!" ella tilted her head at the clearly guilty tribbiani. "she assumed and i just went with it! it'd just be for tonight–or however long we're dating for..." joey trailed off in even more guilt. "joey!" chandler and ella yelled out in unison. "please at least for tonight! i promise dinner will be on me! speaking of which, chandler could i borrow some money?" ✧ "so, how did you guys meet?!" kathy began to sweetly interrogate the pair. "well, technically it was at rachel and monica's graduation party and him and ross showed up looking like the 80s had throw up on them. but, as for the first actual conversation between us–i guess it was when i helped rachel escape her wedding and we ended up at central perk," ella explained. "...and thats when you guys started dating?" kathy naively took a sip of her beer. "oh, no. aside from him technically asking me out that night, i had to wait till rachel's birthday for ross to tell me chandler had feelings for me," ella lightly giggled. "oh but it was so obvious!" joey passionately jumped in. "how?!" chandler finally spoke up. "i lived with you two!" joey exclaimed at the two in a duh tone. "so is that when you two got together...?" kathy confusedly trailed off. "well you see–" "its a little uh–" "joey we cannot keep this up. kathy, we're not actually together..." ella finally admitted, before kathy lightly freaked out on joey. "so, why aren't you guys together? you definitely fooled me!" kathy lightly joked as she bounced the focus back on the two. "well, i wasn't ready to get into a relationship for a while, then we were kind of in a relationship without a label on it for a while, then i met someone, and..." "see why it was better for me to lie?" joey finally cut off ella's rambling.
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it was only a few hours later when both pairs broke off for the night. ella and chandler walked the streets of new york for hours as they usually did after "dates" before chandler was dropping her off at her apartment for the night.
"chandler, i cannot keep living like this. i know we're pretending like nothing happened but i cant stop thinking about what happened, about us..." ella nervously trailed off. chandler took a second to think about what he wanted to say. she'd made it clear she wasn't interested in moving 'them' forward but, he felt he couldn't tell her that he was really in love with her and just wanted to finally be in a relationship with her. the only other thing he could think to bring up was the only other issue that hadn't seemed to pop up since the beach. "well...what about brian? you can't keep bringing us up and still be unspokingly involved with him." "well...i've kinda stopped seeing him." "what? since when?!" chandler slightly freaked out taken completely off guard. "since what happened at the beach...i can't believe i was making you go through my indecisiveness and hurting you like that–i just couldn't keep living like that—" "—el, i just wish you'd said something sooner. of course this would be everything i've ever wanted–but-" "but." "but, i kinda have feelings for kathy now—" "kathy?!" ella freaked out on him as she was caught off guard. "i know! i know..." chandler shamefully repeated. "kathy." "kathy. and i don't want to finally start what could be the best thing to ever happen to me while knowing i have blooming feelings for someone else," chandler so apologetically explained. "well...i guess my only advice is to tell joey as soon as possible," ella cleared her throat forcing a warm nonchalant tone. "i know, i know. i just have to figure out how i'm going to tell one of my best friends i'm falling for his girlfriend."
❁ ⇔ 1480 words a/n: sorry for the hold up on season 4 life's been insane so i haven't been writing as much but i have a good chunk of the next chapters written i just have to add all the details to them! thanks for reading and i hope you're enjoying so far, till next time <3
