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"Wow, this is so cool, you guys. The entire city is blacked out!" Rachel stared out the window.
"Mom says it's all of Manhattan, parts of Brooklyn and Queens, and they have no idea when it's coming back on," Monica explained as she held the phone to her ear.
Rachel's eyes widened. "Wow, you guys, this is big."
"I know," Veronica smiled, "I can sleep at noon and no one can judge me for it."
Joey smiled at her and held his hand out for a high five.
"Pants and a sweater? Why, mom? Who am I gonna meet in a blackout?" Monica scoffed, "Power company guys? Eligible looters? Could we talk about this later? Okay, bye."
"Can I borrow the phone? I want to call my apartment and check on my grandma," Phoebe asked.
Monica handed her the phone before helping Rachel and Veronica light candles.
"What's my number?" Phoebe asked.
The three women gave her weird looks.
Phoebe scoffed. "Well, I never call me."
"Come help me look for candles at our place?" Joey asked Veronica.
"Sure," She grabbed a candle and made her way over to him.
Joey held his hand out for her as they walked across the pitch black hall. Veronica held onto his hand tightly. He opened the door for her and she set the candle down on the counter.
"I can't believe the whole city's blacked out!" Veronica said.
"Yeah, it's so crazy," Joey laughed.
The two walked around the apartment looking for candles, which was hard enough in the mess Joey and Chandler lived in. The complete darkness they were operating in did not help, neither did the candle Veronica brought over.
Soon enough, the two bumped into one another as they walked around the apartment. Joey wrapped his arms around Veronica's waist as they fell onto one of the barcaloungers.
"Oh my God! I'm so sorry," Veronica laughed as she looked up at Joey.
"Don't worry about it," Joey smiled.
Joey's grip on her waist was still strong as they smiled at one another.
"Hey, did you guys find any more candles?" Ross' voice brought them back to reality.
Veronica stumbled off Joey, his grip falling to her arm to help her stay upright.
"All I found was the menorah on the counter," Veronica pointed.
The three walked back to the girls' apartment.
"And officiating at tonight's blackout is Rabbi Tribbiani," Ross laughed.
Joey rolled his eyes. "Well, Chandler's old roommate was Jewish, and these are the only candles we have. So, Happy Hanukkah, everyone."
"Ew, look. Ugly Naked Guy lit a bunch of candles," Phoebe called.
The friends rushed towards the window to see. They grimaced as they watched him accidentally burn himself.
"That had to hurt!" Rachel frowned.
Before they could say anything else the phone rang.
"Hello?" Monica answered the phone, "It's Chandler! Are you okay? What? I have no idea what you just said. Joey?"
Monica waved him over and handed him the phone.
"What's up man? Oh my God! He's trapped in an ATM vestibule with Jill Goodacre!" Joey grinned.
The friends had decided to gather around the couch and wait out the blackout. They'd gone from playing board games to discussing their sex lives.
"Okay, I'll go," Monica smiled, "Senior year of college, on a pool table."
"Whoa!" Everyone cheered for her.
"That's my sister," Ross huffed.
"Okay, my weirdest place would have to be the women's room on the second floor of the New York City public library," Joey smirked.
"Oh my God! What were you doing in a library?" Monica teased him.
Veronica hid her face in Joey's shoulder to stifle her laugh.
"Pheebs, what about you?" Joey changed the subject with an eye roll.
"Milwaukee," She said.
"Ross?"
"Disneyland, 1989, 'It's a Small World After All.'"
"No way!" The friends gasped.
Ross smirked. "The ride broke down. So, Carol and I went behind a couple of those mechanical Dutch children... Then they fixed the ride, and we were asked never to return to the Magic Kingdom."
"What about you Ronnie?" Joey looked down at the girl cuddled up to him.
Rachel scoffed. "Give her a minute to choose which one was the weirdest place she'd done it."
"Hey! It's not that bad, I mean it was just a roof, a plane," Veronica trailed off as she thought, "Okay, so maybe it is kinda a lot. But the weirdest has to be freshman year of college in the Dean's office. No, wait, definitely the police station!"
The friends watched her with wide eyes as she smiled innocently.
"Rachel, your turn," Veronica smirked.
Rachel shook her head. "Oh come on, I already went."
"You did not go!" Monica scoffed.
"Come on," Everyone was begging by now.
Well, except for Veronica. She already knew all the interesting details or lack thereof in Rachel's case.
"Oh, alright. The weirdest place would have to be," Rachel sighed, "Oh, the foot of the bed."
"Step back," Ross laughed.
"We have a winner!" Joey teased.
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"Look Ross, I'm telling you, she has no idea what you're thinking. If you don't ask her out soon you're going to end up stuck in the zone forever," Joey explained.
"I will, I will. See, I'm waiting for the right moment," Ross promised.
Joey gave him a look.
"What?" Ross' eyes widened, "What, now?"
"Yeah! What's messing you up? The wine? The candles? The moonlight? You've just got to go up to her and say, Look, Ronnie, I think that-" Joey cut himself off.
Ross gaped at him. "Did you just say-"
"Shh!" Joey covered his mouth.
Ross pushed him away. "You said Ronnie!"
"Yeah, so," Joey scoffed, "Look at her, she's sitting right over there — right in front of me. So I said her name."
"Are you sure that's the only reason," Ross smirked.
"I'm sure," Joey huffed, "Now back to you and Ra-"
Ross cut him off. "Shhhh!"
"What are you shushing?" Rachel asked as she walked over to them.
"We're shushing because we're trying to hear something. Listen," Ross stuttered, "Don't you hear that?"
Rachel paused before nodding her head. "Yeah."
She hadn't heard a thing. But pretending she did just made everything easier.
She walked away from them before things could get any more confusing.
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"This is just Bactine. It won't hurt," Monica promised.
Ross had gotten attacked by a cat while he and Rachel were on the balcony. His neck was full of scratch marks.
"Ow!" Ross winced.
"Sorry, that was wax," Joey smiled sheepishly. He was in charge of holding a candle up for Monica to see Ross' injuries.
He was not in charge of it anymore. Veronica took the candle from him and stood by Monica.
Once they'd finished cleaning up all the scratch marks they turned their attention to the cat.
Veronica shuffled close to Joey, grabbing onto his arm as Phoebe brought the cat over to them.
"Keep that thing away from me!" Veronica yelped, hiding behind Joey.
"Ronnie's always hated cats," Rachel explained, "My grandmother's cat was never very nice to her."
"It was not a cat. That thing was a demon from hell!" Veronica scoffed.
Joey laughed, wrapping an arm around her and shuffling away from Phoebe.
"Oh, poor little Tooty is scared to death," Phoebe petted the cat, "We should find his owner."
"Why don't we just put 'poor little Tooty' out in the hall?" Ross glared at the cat.
"During a blackout? He'd get trampled!" Rachel gasped.
Ross nodded his head. "Yeah, and?"
"That sounds like the cat's problem, not ours," Veronica shrugged.
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"Everybody, this is Paolo," Rachel was grinning as she walked into the apartment. Paolo, I want you to meet my friends."
Veronica shoved herself off of Joey as soon as she got a glimpse of the man Rachel walked in with. They'd been sitting next to one another while playing Monopoly and Veronica had been taking a nap on his shoulder.
Joey huffed as he stood by Ross. Neither of the two was impressed with their newest guest.
"Paolo, this is Monica."
Monica giggled as Paolo shook her hand. "Hi!"
"And Joey."
"Hi!" Monica said on his behalf.
"And Ross."
"Hi!" Once again Monica was giggling.
"And this is Veronica."
Veronica pushed Monica towards Joey before she could say anything. She held her hand out for him with a giggle.
Paolo smiled at her as he greeted her in Italian.
"He doesn't speak much English," Rachel explained with a smile.
"Who cares," Veronica sighed dreamily, "Everyone should just speak Italian."
"I'm Italian too y'know!" Joey huffed.
"Shut up whatever your name is, Paolo's talking," Veronica wave him off, her eyes never leaving Paolo.
Joey and Ross shared a look before they glared at Paolo.
The girls spent the rest of the night with their full attention on Paolo.