{joey tribbiani ff}
•book one•
Heather Bing moves to New York, hoping that her life will continue to be as perfect as it currently is. She has a comfortable place to live, friends to laugh with and a boyfriend that she truly loves.
"I could've reach...
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chapter one hundred and four ~ the one with ben growing up Heather's POV
When I heard that Ross and Carol were going to take Ben to audition for a commercial, I wasn't really sure about forcing him to do something that he might not want to do but when they gave me the address and asked if I could come along to help keep him busy; I was suddenly warming up to the idea. It was no secret that out of all the aunts and uncles that Ben had, I was his favourite because out of all of them, I was the only one that spent time with him. Well, apart from Monica, who was his blood relative but he complained that she wasn't very fun and tried to stop him from having fun, by explaining rules and making him watch educational channels rather than cartoons on the TV. I didn't ask any questions about what the commercial was about or how long we were going to be cooped up in the waiting room because that didn't matter, I was just excited about spending time with my non-related nephew and almost ran into the room when I arrived. Carol spotted me first, waving me over as she leaned down and talked to her son who was playing with a figurine on the floor. "Ben, look, who's that?"
I couldn't help but smile as I saw his head lift up, his eyes sparkling with excitement when he recognised me on the other side of the room and he didn't even wait for permission before hurtling over to me. "Aunt Heather!"
"There's my favourite boy!" I squealed as he almost knocked me over from the impact of his hug, but I relished in wrapping my arms around him and giving him a tight hug. Knowing that as he got older, he wouldn't want to hug me like this in public. I leaned back, keeping my arms on him but noticing the way that his features had changed since the last time that I had seen him. He was getting bigger each time and soon enough he would be starting school. "Look how big you've grown!"
"Look at my dinosaur!" He held up the figurine in his hand so that I could see it and made it roar in my face, before I ushered him back over to where his parents were sitting. "Wow, that's so cool."
"Daddy gave me it." I huffed, gesturing to the proud look that Ross was wearing on his face, glad that he had stopped his sons' phase of playing with Barbies. "That's not a complete surprise."
The door to the waiting room opened as I made myself comfortable on the floor with Ben playing with his dinosaur in between my legs; there weren't many chairs left and I didn't mind being on the floor because this way I was able to play with my nephew some more. The only time that I lifted my head was when I recognised the voice of the person who had just walked in. "I'm in. They're going to let me audition."
"Really?" Ross replied, patting his shoulder as I continued to ignore my boyfriend, noticing that he hadn't even addressed me yet. "That's great."
"It turns out one of the casting ladies has actually seen me in a play, so, I steered clear of her."
Carol's eyes darted around the room until they landed on one of the kids. "That kid looks familiar."
"Yeah, he's done tons of commercials." Joey explained to her. "I've seen him in, Sugar Smacks, PlayStation and that one for the phone company. In fact, he was so good in that one, he actually convinced me to switch phone companies. Chandler was mad."
"Yeah, well he's not going to get this one, alright?" Ross snapped, looking down at his son, who was making silly faces at me and giggling. "Ben is way cuter than that kid. I mean, look at you!"
"Wouldn't it be great though if I got to play Ben's dad?"
Ross narrowed his eyes at his friend. "Joey, you look nothing like Ben."
"I look more like him than you do."
Carol shook her head. "You know, I really don't know you well enough for you to do that."
"I'm so sorry." I muttered to her, shocked that Joey would make a joke like that when he didn't even know the woman, I was embarrassed of him in that moment.
But nothing could embarrass me more than when Joey turned up to my apartment that night, bearing in mind that he hadn't talked to me in days and had cancelled several of our dates. When he first arrived, I thought that maybe he had come to apologise but that wasn't the case when he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. "I need a baby!"
"Out of everything that you could have said, that was not what I was thinking."
"Come on, get in the bedroom." He ushered me out of my seat on the couch. "I need a baby!"
I brushed his hands away and stared at him intently. "Joey, what are you talking about?"
"How clear do you need it? I need a baby!"
"I heard you, but I don't understand where this is coming from." I replied, my hands resting on my hips now. "We both agreed that we didn't want kids yet, why the sudden urgency now?"
He sighed, rubbing his neck before speaking quietly. "I need one so that I can be his dad."
"Well, I'm pretty sure that that's a given if we have a baby."
"No, not just in real life but for commercials."
"You want us to have a baby right now, just so you can do commercials with it?" I repeated as he nodded and I was shocked at what he was saying. "Joey, that isn't a reason to have a baby."
He shook his head angrily. "I knew you wouldn't agree to it."
"Of course, I wouldn't! It's a stupid reason to have a baby and besides, why would I want to be anywhere near you after the way you've been treating me recently?"
"What are you talking about?" This time he looked confused, which was new because usually I was the one looking confused at him but I was too angry to think about that right now.
"I'm talking about the fact that you've been lying to me. You've been sneaking off with Monica and for some reason, Chandler is perfectly fine with it. You keep cancelling our dates and we've barely spent any time together; this is the longest conversation we've had in weeks and we're arguing."
"Look, Heather, I'm sorry that you've been feeling this way. I never meant to upset you."
I bit back my tears, which were clouding my eyes. "Just be honest with me, do you still love me?"
"What?"
"Do you still love me? Because if you don't then there's no point in hurting each other like this and-"
"Heather, I still love you." He said sternly, cupping my cheeks with his hands as he stared deeply into my eyes. "I will never stop loving you. Never, ever think that I don't love you."
a/n: i have a new phone & it's taking me ages to work out how to use it 🤪 -lizzie ⭐️
