"Okay Phoebe you can cut up the carrots," Monica says and hands the washed vegetables over to Phoebe.

"Oh yea!" Phoebe smiles like a little kid and immediately starts to chop ruthlessly at the carrots. Monica grimaces at the mutilation being done to her carrots, but knowing it will keep Phoebe occupied she turns to tear the lettuce.

"Hey guys," Rachel says, walking in.

"Hey Rachel," Phoebe smiles.

"Do either of you have any idea what’s wrong with Joey?" Rachel asks with a sigh, shrugging off her jacket and tossing it to the side, making Monica wince again.

"No…why, you know something?" Monica says quickly, suggesting the complete opposite.

"Well no that’s why I was asking you guys," Rachel says. "But obviously THAT won’t get me anywhere."

"Well it’s not our fault Joey told us not to tell you," Phoebe sighs, rolling her eyes.

"WHAT?" Rachel proclaims.

"Er…oops," Phoebe mutters.

"Phoebe!" Monica moans.

"What? Why doesn’t he want me to know?" Rachel asks desperately. "I mean I’m his friend!"

"It’s nothing Rachel, don’t worry about it," Monica says, trying desperately to recover from the damage done by Phoebe.

"Yeah he just doesn’t want to make this huge big deal about it," Phoebe adds for good measure.

"Yeah and I understand that completely…" Rachel says sincerely before whining, "But guys I wanna know!"

"Okay, uh…" Monica thinks for a second before saying simply, "He’s…in love."

"Huh?" Rachel asks.

"Huh?" Phoebe echoes.

"You know Phoebe," Monica mutters between her teeth. "That girl he knows…"

"Oh, oh!" Phoebe exclaims. "That GIRL he KNOWS!"

"What? What girl he knows?" Rachel asks.

"Oh just this girl," Monica says. "He met her…at the coffee shop." Monica shrugged. Hey, it wasn’t a lie; Joey did meet Rachel when she stormed into Central Perk dressed in wedding gown and dripping wet.

"Well why didn’t he say anything?" Rachel asks softly, pouting.

"Well you know…" Phoebe shrugs. "He’s Joey! Joey doesn’t have serious relationships!"

"You don’t think he could?" Rachel asks Phoebe.

"Nope, not at all," Phoebe nods.

"Oh Phoebe that’s horrible!" Rachel proclaims, gaping.

Phoebe pauses, realizing some how she managed to make herself the bad guy here. Monica shrugs when she looks at her.

"Well…yeah," Phoebe admits, instantly hanging her head.

The door opens and Chandler walks in followed by Ross.

"Hey," Ross says and the others exchange small greetings.

"Where’s Joey?" Monica asks. "I thought we were going to have dinner together tonight?"

"Mon I tried, he won’t move," Chandler sighs.

"What’s wrong with Joey?" Ross asks.

"Oh, he’s in love," Rachel says in a wistful tone.

"Rachel you know about that?" Chandler asks in a loud and forced tone. He glances at Monica and Phoebe who both throw their hands up in frustration.

"Yes I think it’s sweet," Rachel insists. "That Joey’s so hung up over this girl."

"Joey?" Ross asks. "Wow, there’s something you’d never see coming."

"Oh Ross stop it, Joey is just as emotional romantically as the rest of us," Rachel insists.

"Gah, okay," Ross scoffs and Rachel simply shoots him a look.

"Okay you know what I think he should come over," Rachel says, heading for the door. "I’ll go try to talk to him."

Rachel leaves and travels wordlessly across the hallway and opens the door to Joey’s apartment. She walks in and shuts the door slowly behind her. Joey is slumped over in the chair, in the same exact outfit he was in yesterday when he came to visit. He has a large bowl of popcorn in his lap and he glaring at the TV where a man and a woman are speaking to each other.

"Oh but Greg, it’s not that simple!" the woman on the TV moans.

"Yes, yes it is Maria," Greg insists. "It’s that simple because I love you!"

"Oh it’s NEVER that simple you FOOL!" Joey shouts and proceeds to throw a pillow at the TV set.

"Joey?" Rachel walks to his side and Joey look up at her, surprised.

"Oh, uh, hey Rach, what’s up?" Joey asks before turning back to the TV and wordlessly flipping through the channels.

"Oh nothing much," Rachel shrugs. She pulls over a stool and sits beside him, deciding to start with small talk. "Living with Ross sucks."

This brings a small smile out of Joey so Rachel continuous.

"I mean he won’t let me do any of the things you let me do here," she says. "I mean he won’t even let me stack up the coke cans into pyramids."

"What?" Joey gapes.

"I know," Rachel agrees.

"Uh, well Ross is…Ross," Joey shrugs and turns to the TV again. Rachel frowns, she had thought for a moment he would maybe even get out of the chair, but no luck. She shakes her head; there’s no sense in beating around the bush.

"So Monica and Phoebe told me about this girl you like," Rachel says. That one simple sentence gets more of a reaction out of Joey then she expected. He actually falls forward out of his chair. He leaps to his feet and spins around to face her, slightly panicked.

"T-they TOLD you?" Joey gasps.

"Yeah," Rachel says, not understanding his sudden paranoia. "And Joey I think it’s great! I mean, I would watch out for Phoebe, she doesn’t seem to agree with me. But love is a great thing! I don’t understand why you didn’t want me to know."

"Huh?" Joey frowns. "What did Monica and Phoebe TELL you?"

"That you’re in love with some girl you met from the coffee house," Rachel says.

"Well…" Joey pauses, thinking back to the day when Rachel came into his life. "Yeah."

"Well tell me!" Rachel grins. "What’s she like?"

"Uh…well she’s really pretty," Joey stammers. "And…and she’s smart, and she’s sweet. And she never gets mad at me even when I do really stupid things." Joey looks at Rachel who’s still smiling at him. He steps closer to her and Rachel stands up to face him. "And she has these great eyes that are just so wide and deep at the same time. She…I dunno, just thinking about her turns me into this gushy romantic. And I’m not the gushy romantic."

He gulps and leans in closer to Rachel. Rachel eyes him skeptically, unsure what he’s doing. However, he has walked her straight into the kitchen counter top so there’s no where for her to go. He’s staring at her, his eyes bearing a serious gaze that is uncharacteristically Joey.

For some reason past her comprehension Rachel can’t tear her eyes off of his. A shiver runs up and down her spine as she can feel Joey’s arms reaching past her to rest against the counter top, locking her in. A thought of how crazy this is runs through her mind but she’s suddenly aware of how close he is to her and the thought is immediately banished.

"But there is one thing she did," Joey mutters.

"Y-yeah?" Rachel whispers, suddenly finding it hard to speak.

"She made me switch to light mayonnaise," Joey says and smiles. Rachel grins up at him as he leans in towards her, his lips dangerously close to hers.

"Joey?"

The door to the apartment flies open and Joey and Rachel jump apart as if lighting struck. Ross walks in, oblivious to the almost-kiss just a moment before.

"H-hey Ross!" Joey greets him loudly.

"Hey," Ross says again, only lightly noting Joey’s odd behavior. After all, he was Joey. "Listen Monica sent me over to tell you two dinner’s gonna get cold."

"Oh, right, dinner!" Rachel proclaims.

"Dinner! Yeah, can’t miss dinner," Joey agrees loudly.

"Oh Joe you’ll come?" Ross asks.

"Me? Refuse food?" Joey manages to squeak. "Absolutely not! Food ho!"

Joey bolts from the apartment as quickly as he can and across the hall into Monica and Chandler’s. Ross gazes after him, eyebrow raised and Rachel is still standing in the living room, staring out into space.

"Rach?" Ross calls, snapping her back to reality.

"Huh?" she asks.

"Come on, dinner," Ross says, gesturing to the door.

"Oh yeah, yeah," Rachel smiles and leaves the apartment. She walks into Monica and Chandler’s to see everyone else seated at the table. She catches Joey’s eye and he looks away immediately.

She takes her place at the table next to Phoebe and Ross and looks immediately down at her plate.

Things just got really weird really fast.