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"Rachel, do you have any muffins left?" Julie asked once everyone had shuffled their drinks after Rachel passed them out in the wrong order.
"Yeah," She nodded without turning to look at her, "I forget which ones."
"Oh, you're busy, that's ok, I'll get it. Anybody else want one?" Julie smiled at the rest of the friends as she stood up.
"No thanks."
"No, I'm all set."
"Oh, you're losin' your apron here, let me get it," Julie re-tied Rachel's apron for her before going to check out the muffins, "There you go."
"Thank you," Rachel smiled fakely at her before turning to the friends with a huff, "What a bitch."
"Oh, listen you guys," Julie called as she came back over to the friends, "I have this friend at Bloomingdale's who's quitting tomorrow and he wants to abuse his discount. So, anyone want to come with me and take advantage of it?"
Phoebe shook her head. "I can't, I have to take my grandmother to the vet."
Monica looked to Veronica with a hopeful look but she just shook her head. Veronica was not about to cheat on Rachel and in her place of worship no less.
Monica sighed and gave Julie a sheepish shrug. "Okay, um, I'll go with you."
Julie grinned. "Great."
"Hi, honey," Ross called from the door to Central Perk as he took off his jacket.
"Hey, sweetums," Chandler immediately answered.
"Hello to the rest," Ross rolled his eyes as Julie rushed up to greet him.
"Hi!" The rest of the friends called.
"Monica, what're you doin'?" Joey turned to her with wide eyes, "You can't go shopping with her? What about Rachel?"
"And in Bloomingdale's of all places?!" Veronica whisper-yelled with a pointed look, "It's like you want her to hate you."
Monica sighed as she bit her lip. "It's gonna be a problem, isn't it?"
"That's putting it lightly," Veronica scoffed.
"Come on, you're going to Bloomingdale's with Julie? That's like cheating on Rachel in her house of worship," Chandler pointed out and Veronica smiled at him. That's exactly what she'd thought.
"But I'm..."
"Monica, she will kill you," Phoebe cut her off bluntly, "She will kill you like a dog in the street."
Before Monica could say anything else Ross joined them as Julie went to order a cup of coffee for him.
"So, uh, Jules tells me you guys are going shopping tomorrow?" He smiled.
"Yeah, uh, it's actually not that big a deal," Monica brushed it off, already planning to ask Veronica to help her come up with a lie to cancel.
"It's a big deal to me," Ross unknowingly guilt-tripped her out of that plan, "This is great, Monica. I really appreciate this."
Monica smiled weakly. "You're welcome."
"Woof, woof," Phoebe barked as Ross walked away from them.
"Even though you're cheating on my best friend I'll still plan an amazing funeral for you," Veronica promised her.
"Thank you," Monica threw her head onto Veronica's shoulder, "Don't let Joey eat all the food."
"Don't worry, we'll finish the food together," She stroked her hair comfortingly.
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"Bijan for men? Bijan for men? Bijan for men?" Joey sighed when no one would try the perfume. He smiled when he saw one of the sales reps from the women's section. "Hey, Annabelle.
"Hey, Joey," She smiled as she looked around the floor, "So did you hear about the new guy?"
"Who?"
"Nobody knows his name," She shrugged, "Me and the girls just call him the Hombre man."
They were cut off by a Clint Eastwood-esque voice. "Hombre?"
Joey frowned when he saw the tall man dressed as a cowboy spraying customers left and right. "What's he doin' in my section?"
"I guess he doesn't know," Annabelle shrugged.
"Well, he's gonna. I'll see you a little later, okay?" With that, he turned and made his way over to the Hombre man, "Hey, how ya doin'?"
He smiled. "Mornin'."
"Listen, I know you're new, but it's kinda understood that everything from Young Men's to the escalator is my territory."
"Your territory, huh?"
"Yeah," Joey nodded as a customer walked past them, "Bijan for men?"
"No thanks."
"Hombre?"
"Yeah. All right."
The Hombre man smirked at Joey. "You were saying?"
"Oh, hey Joey," Veronica smiled when she saw him. She'd been all but running through the aisles and pulling clothes and shoes off the racks left and right. Mario, her go-to personal shopper at Bloomingdale's, was sure he'd gotten whiplash from how fast she was going.
"Ronnie? Hey," He pulled her into a hug, "What're you doing here? I thought you weren't going to go shopping with Julie."
"Oh, I'm not," She shook her head, "But Mario called me about a new Dior collection arriving today. So, how's the sales rep thing going?"
Joey shrugged with a frown. "It wasn't bad but then they brought this new guy in; the Hombre man. He's going through the bottle like no tomorrow."
Veronica patted his shoulder with a smile. "Don't let him get to you. You're the most good looking sales rep I've seen working here."
"Really?" He grinned.
"Mhm," Veronica nodded enthusiastically before her jaw dropped, "Who is that?"
Joey pouted when he followed her gaze to see her gaping at the Hombre man. "C'mon Ronnie! Not you too."
"Oh, that's him, isn't it?" She shook her head as she tried to keep from staring at him, "I'm sorry."
"Miss King, I found the perfect Manolo Blahnik shoes to go with the Chanel skirt!" Mario grinned as he showed her the shoes.
"Ooh," She grinned, "I love them! Joey why don't you come with me, I could use someone else's opinion on all the clothes I'm trying," Veronica asked him, thinking it would give him a good break from the Hombre man.
"Uh, I don't know if I can," He frowned sheepishly but Maria shook his head.
"Nonsense! If Miss Veronica wants another sales rep to join her then of course it is okay. She is one of our best customers, after all," Mario pulled Joey along with them.
"I shop a lot," She admitted with a shrug.
Veronica had managed to make Joey feel better by the time she'd finished trying on all the clothes she'd picked out. She hugged him goodbye as she and Mario went to pay for everything she'd liked.
"Veronica!"
"Monica, Julie," She smiled tightly at the two when she bumped into them after paying for everything.
"Hey," Julie smiled brightly at her, "We just got done shopping and we were heading to lunch."
"You should join us!" Monica jumped in, trying to make herself feel less guilty. She figured if Veronica joined them then Rachel wouldn't be as angry at her.
"Oh, no," She shook her head and gave Monica a pointed look, "I have too many bags so I'm just going to-"
"We'll help you carry them," Monica insisted as she and Julie grabbed some shopping bags.
Veronica smiled tightly at Julie and gave Monica a glare behind her back.
"Thank you, I owe you!" She whispered to her.
"If it comes down to it, I will throw you under the bus."
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"Hey, where is everybody?" Veronica shrugged off her jacket.
"They took Ben to the park. Where've you been?" Rachel asked as Monica trudged into the apartment carrying too many shopping bags to count.
Veronica had decided that she should carry all her bags since she'd forced her into cheating on Rachel.
"Just out," Monica panted as she dropped into the dining chair, "Had some lunch, just me and Ronnie. Thanks for your jacket."
"Oh, no problem," Rachel smiled as she put the jacket on, "You can borrow it, by the way. Here are your keys, hon."
"Okay," Monica nodded as she fished through Veronica's shipping bags to find her own.
"Mon, if it was just you two at lunch then how come it cost you $102?" Rachel frowned as she looked down at the receipt she'd found in her jacket pocket.
Monica's eyes widened as she turned to Veronica, who glared at her. She'd made sure to rip up her own receipt to keep their tracks covered and she'd explicitly told Monica to do the same.
Before Veronica, the best liar of the friends, could answer Monica in her nervous stupor blurted out. "You know what probably happened? Someone musta stolen my credit card."
"And sorta just put the receipt back in your pocket?" Rachel scoffed.
"That is an excellent, excellent question," Monica sighed as she bit her lip. She really wishes she'd let Veronica come up with the lie.
"Monica, what is with you?" Rachel arched a brow as she looked between her and Veronica, "Who'd you have lunch with?"
"Judy!"
"For the love of God, stop making it worse!" Veronica huffed when Monica didn't give her a chance to lie her way out of it for them.
"Who?"
"Julie," Monica sighed.
"What?!" Rachel snapped.
"Jody!"
"Just stop talking," Veronica begged.
"You were with Julie?" Rachel asked, her eyes wide with betrayal and sadness.
"Look, when it started I was just trying to be nice to her because she was my brother's girlfriend," Monica admitted with a sheepish look, "And then, one thing led to another and, before I knew it, we were...shopping."
"Oh," Rachel gasped, "Oh my God."
"I never went with them, Rachel. I promise!" Veronica jumped in, "You can even ask Joey."
"Rach, wait. We only did it once. It didn't mean anything to me," Monica promised.
"Yeah, right," She scoffed, "Sure!"
"Really, Rachel, I was thinking of you the whole time. Look, I'm sorry, all right. I never meant for you to find out!"
"Oh, please, you wanted to get caught," She glared at her as she held up the receipt, "At least Veronica had the decency not to rub it in my face like this! Actually, I don't know which is worse."
"That is not true!" Monica begged, trying to get her to listen to them.
"I just didn't want you to get hurt," Veronica rushed to explain, "I didn't even want to go in the first place! I didn't go! I got roped into it, I swear."
"Okay, I just have to know one thing. Did you go with her to Bloomingdale's?" Rachel's face fell when Monica nodded, "Okay, I just really, uh, I just really need to not be with you right now."
"Rachel," Veronica called out but she just shook her head and walked out of the apartment, "I didn't even go with them to Bloomingdale's!"
"Ow!" Monica yelped when Veronica hit her over the head.
"I should throw more than just a bus on top of you!"
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"I don't know what else to say," Monica whined as she and Veronica followed Rachel around Central Perk trying to get her to forgive them.
"Well that works out good because I'm not listening," She snapped as she wiped down a table.
"I feel terrible, I really do," Monica begged.
Rachel turned to glare at them. "Oh, I'm sorry, did my back hurt your knife?"
"Rachel, honey, you know I'd never do that to you," Veronica frowned, "I barely even had a full conversation with Julie at lunch."
"Rachel, say that I'm friends with her, we spend some time together. Is that so terrible?" Monica asked.
"Yes."
"It's that terrible?" Monica's eyes widened.
"Yes. Monica, you don't get it. It's bad enough that she's stolen the guy who might actually be the person that I am supposed to be with, but now, she's actually," Rachel cut herself off with a sob, "But now she's actually stealing you."
"Me?" Veronica let out a watery scoff, "Rachel, that's crazy. Nobody could ever steal me from you, no matter what. I mean, you're my...We're, we're...Oh, I love you."
"I love you too," Rachel cried as she pulled her in for a tight hug.
"I love you guys!" Monica sobbed as she joined in the hug, "I mean, just because I'm friends with her doesn't make me any less friends with you."
"You guys, um I know that this really doesn't have anything to do with me, but um I love you guys too," Phoebe joined them with a cry as Veronica broke the hug to let her join.
The four stayed in a tight hug as they sobbed.
"Oh, I really needed that," Phoebe grabbed a tissue as she went back to the couch.
"Look, I know that you're in a place right now where you really need to hate Julie's guts. And I know you feel like you have to do it too for Rachel but she didn't do anything wrong. I mean, she was just a girl who met a guy, and now they go out. I really think that if you gave her a chance, you'd like her. Would you just give that a chance, for me?" Monica begged the two.
"I'd do anything for you, you know that," Rachel promised with a sniffle.
"Whatever you guys want," Veronica agreed.
"I'd do anything for you too," Monica sobbed as the three hugged again.
"Phoebe!" Veronica called for the blonde with a sniffle, "Get in here, I'd do anything for you too."
"Wait, wait, wait, wait!" Phoebe snapped as she rushed over to join the hug.
"I love you, guys," Veronica gave them a watery smile.
"We love you too!" The three echoed.
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"Morning, Joey," Veronica smiled as she stood by him.
"Morning," He smiled before he paused as his brows furrowed, "Wait, what are you doing here? The place hasn't even opened yet."
"They always let me in early," She shrugged as her eyes trailed over the Hombre man.
"All right, everybody, I'm openin' the doors," The floor manager called as he turned to Joey and the Hombre man, "You boys ready?"
"Ready."
Joey nodded his head confidently as he uncapped his perfume bottle. "Yeah, I'm ready."
With that, the doors opened and the first customers of the day walked in. The Hombre man, in his haste to beat Joey, wasn't paying attention to wear he was spraying and ended up spraying perfume into someone's eye.
"You idiot, you stupid cowboy, you blinded me, I'm suing!" The man clutched his eye in pain.
"Oh my god, Todd! What the hell did you do?" The floor manager marched over with a glare.
The Hombre man quickly lost his Clint Eastwood voice for a much higher one. "I'm sorry. I am such a doofus. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry."
"My God, what happened?" Annabelle rushed over to catch the latest gossip.
"These new kids, they never last. Sooner or later, they all...stop lastin'," Joey trailed off as he wrapped an arm around Veronica happily.
Annabelle nodded as she watched the Hombre man walk away. "Listen, uh, what do you say I buy you that cup of coffee now?"
She'd ditched Joey's original offer in favor of going with the Hombre man. But after seeing him drop the Clint Eastwood vibe, she'd changed her mind.
Joey shook his head. "Nah, I'm going to get coffee with Miss Veronica."
Veronica laughed at that before she grabbed his hand and dragged him away.
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〚𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄〛
I hope you guys are liking season two so far. Please don't forget to vote and comment, it really makes my day when you guys leave comments!
Have a great day and stay safe ♥♥