More than Just Friends

Chapter Four

All was silent in the apartment hallway. Not a door was open, not a person was walking; all was silent.

Suddenly faint laughter echoed through the hallway from the stairwell and moments later, Ross and Rachel burst up the stairs, giggling and grabbing onto each other as they ran through the corridor towards a very familiar door.

"Shh, shh!" Ross hushed through his smile as he grabbed his key. "The neighbors are going to come out if we're not quiet!"

Rachel nodded but kept her smile. "You sure Phoebe isn't home?"

"Yeah, she told me she'd be out, which means we can have all the fun in the world."

Rachel giggled quietly and grabbed onto his arm as he unlocked the door and pushed it open. As they stumbled in, they were completely caught off guard when they found the apartment covered in scented candles with Phoebe right by the doorway, back turned towards them as she massaged an old man lying on her massage table.

"Phoebe?!" Ross questioned, making her turn around. He quickly dropped Rachel's hand as she took a step to the side.

"Oh hey guys! What's up?" she asked cheerfully, oblivious to the shocked looks on their faces.

"Phoebe, what are you doing here? You told me you'd be working tonight!"

"I am, see?" Phoebe answered, motioning to her client. The old man groaned and began to move a little to which Phoebe gently patted his back. "No no, just relax Mr. Edwards."

Ross felt a sudden pain in his side and looked to see Rachel hitting him with her elbow, her smile now faded and replaced with an evil look.

"Phoebe, you can't massage people in my apartment," Ross said.

"What? Why not? I did it at Monica and Chandler's."

"And they knew about it?" he questioned.

"Um... well... not really..." Phoebe looked down and shuffled her feet. "But I don't see the big deal about it."

"The big deal is that I don't want to come home to find a naked, greasy stranger in my apartment, and I'm sure if Monica and Chandler had known, they wouldn't have allowed this either."

"Ok fine, fine. Mr. Edwards, it seems like I'm going to have to cut your appointment short today." The old man grunted and Phoebe handed him a bigger towel as he sat up. She turned back towards Ross and only then did she spot Rachel with him. "Hey wait a minute, what are you two doing here anyways?"

Ross and Rachel looked at each other nervously.

"We, uh... we were just going to-"

"-watch a movie!" Rachel finished, shooting him a quick glance. It was clear she was not happy about this and he knew he'd be getting an ear-full afterwards.

"Ooh, a movie! That sounds like fun!" Phoebe exclaimed. "I just rented this new movie from the store. Can we watch that?"

Rachel frowned and Ross noticed, but there wasn't much he could do about it. "Um, yeah sure Pheebs, anything's fine."

"Oh yay!" she joyed, digging into her purse for the movie. "Mr. Edwards, how would you like to watch a movie to make up for your massage?"

"That sounds pleasant dear," he answered, lying back down on the massage table facing the TV. "Boy, I hope Gary Cooper is in this."

As Phoebe busied herself with setting up the movie, Rachel reached over and gave Ross a quick punch to the arm before plopping herself down on the couch with a huff. Ross rubbed his arm and let out a sigh. She had every reason to be angry with him. Neither of them had planned on spending their night like this.