Beyond Friends Episode Forty Two "She's A Beauty"
Guest Stars -
Matt LeBlanc as JoeyM
Courteney Cox as Monica
Tea' Leoni as Linda
"The Most Beautiful Girl In The World"
Joey and Rachel walked down the street towards Rachels place. The week after Alisons famous appearance at the Java Joint, she appeared in a new stage version of the Rocky Horror Show. Alison had sent Chandler and her the tickets because without them she would have never done it. Chandler confessed he had seen the movie and wasn't too wild about seeing the stage version.
"And besides that, Monica is coming over tonight to force feed me again." Chandler said as Rachel showed him the tickets.
For the past three weeks Monica had been coming by with her experimental cooking recipes. New things she wanted to be tested and tasted before she went public with it at the new restaaurant. It was getting closer and closer to opening day and she was freaked. To say the least they were well fed on the weekends, contending with leftover bowls of stuff even a school cafeteria would be afraid to serve.
Rachel called Joey right afterwards and asked if he was free. He was, but could he tear himself away from the see through bikini contest? Anything for Rachel.
"What time do you want to be picked up?" Joey had asked.
"She really did a good job up there. I should know, acting and singing is really a tough thing to do. Like walking and chewing gum." Joey said as they continued the walk home.
"Yea." Rachel said.
"How come you didn't ask Ross to this?" Joey asked. "Thats been on my mind all night long."
"Hes been really busy, I can't explain why." Rachel said. "Dino world is unpredictable." Rachel stopped to stretch a little bit. She turned a bit and looked. "Is it my imagination or has that man been following us for the last block or so?"
"I dunno." Joey said. "Keep walking."
Rachel and Joey began to walk again, she could not help but look back every two seconds. The man would be there one minute and then the next second he would be gone. Like he wasn't even there.
"What was that all about?" Joey asked as they sat down.
"I don't know. I doubt we will find out before the night is through." Rachel sighed.
Back at the apartment Monica whisked gracefully through the kitchen while Chandler sat at the stool in front of the counter. His designated spot since he had been rudely told to "Get your butt outta here." by Monica. She quickly apologized.
"The kitchen is my zone, if something strange is in here in then I can't cook as well." Monica said.
"I am now making us dessert. This dessert takes longer than that nice casserole I just prepared so it will be half done by the time we are done eating." Monica said to Chandler who was now thinking about what a fork would taste like. He was starving!
"Thats great." Chandler agreed as Monica pulled the pan out of the oven and she scooped a portion onto his plate. Chandler rubbed his hands while Monica closed thr oven.
"It was really nice you had that glass of citric acid ready for this, I needed just about all of that." Monica said as Chandler grabbed a spoon.
He looked up.
"Monica I don't have citric acid in my fridge." Chandler stuttered. Monica gave him a cross look.
"Sure you do, its this stuff in this covered glass here." She took it out of the fridge.
"Monica, that is not citric acid." Chandler said backing away from his plate. "My next door neighbors kid gave me his science project to watch while they went on a weekend trip."
"Is this what I think it is?" Monica said. Chandler weakly nodded. "OH!"
"Sorry." Chandler said as Monica tossed the remainder of it into the trash.
"What are you gonna do about your neighbors kid?"
"I'll deal. He's failing science anyway. This was gonna be a great casserole."
"Tell me about it." Monica said. There was a knock at the door.
"Who could that be?" Chandler said.
"Could it be Joey and Rachel?" Monica said as she went for the door.
"No, she wouldnt knock." Chandler said.
Monica opened the door. It was Linda.
"Hello Linda." Chandler said to her. She cast a look at Monica. Monica exchanged an fierce look at her back.
"So how is Steve?" Monica asked her as she closed the door behind Linda. "I'll get that."
"Thanks." She said not looking at Monica. "Chandler I came to apologize for what happened to us."
"From what I hear you said you were going to California when you actually stayed here and dated Monicas fiancee'" Chandler said. "I know all about it."
"I'm so sorry for causing you and your friends so much pain. I had no idea Steve was getting married when I met him. It was just love at first sight. Are you all right?"
"He's more than all right, he's completely over you." Monica spoke up.
"Steve left me a week ago, for a paralegal at the company he works at. I should have expected it, after all he left Monica for me, I should have know it was gonna happen. Sooner or later it will happen to her too." Linda said stopping. "Are you having dinner? I shouldnt keep you then."
"No please." Monica said. "We have too much here. Why don't you have some?"
Chandler looked at her with a shocked expression. She winked and he sat back.
"What are you having? I don't want to be any kind of a bother." Linda said looking at the casserole pan. "Hamburger Pepper Casserole." She determined as she stirred the ladel around the pan. "I love this stuff."
Chandler slid her his plate. She promptly scooped out a portion and pratically gobbled it down. Poor girl, she had no idea what else was in that casserole. "I love this."
"Take the pan. I'm sure you will want some more later." Monica said as she covered the still warm pan with some saran wrap.
"Oh, I don't want to steal your dinner..."
"Go ahead." Chandler encouraged. "Too spicy. Just Perfect for you."
"Wow. I come to apolgize and I get a free dinner. I ought to cheat on people more often." Linda observed."Bye." She said as she walked out the door.
Monica and Chandler poked their heads out the door and watched her leave.
"Oh my god." Chandler said looking at Monica. "You are so evil."
"I know." Monica said smiling. "What about you, you didn't exactly stop me."
"I didn't want that to become leftover for anyone I liked." Chandler said. "Ok, WE are evil." He said smiling.
"Do you think she will find out?" Monica asked as they walked back in.
"She will, I've kept stuff for the kid before, most starts to smell in a day or so."
"I can hardly wait."
They walked back in and closed the door.
The next day
Rachel was sitting at her usual spot underlining a ten page speech in Joeys speech for his soap opera. She heard a bit of a commotion down the hallway. Rachel looked up and saw a man and a couple of people with cameras.
"Rachel Green!" The man in front yelled. "Are you Rachel Green?"
"I am." Rachel said getting up from her school desk. "How may I help you?"
"Oh you don't need to help us miss, but we can certainly help you. You are the winner of the Estee Lauder Fresh Faces contest!"
"But I don't recall entering it." Rachel said sitting in disbelief.
"It wasnt that kind of contest." The man explained. Joey came out of the room. "We had undercover operatives looking around at the women of New York. You may remember that you were followed by such a person last night."
"Yeah," She looked at Joey. "That was the guy that was following us last night from the opera house."
"So we are here to offer you, Miss Rachel Green, a contract with Estee Lauder. We will even give you a representative agent."
"She doesn't need an agent." Joey said wrapping his arm around Rachels shoulder. "I'm her agent." He said confidently.
"Joey?" She asked.
"And you name is ..." The man asked getting a pad.
"Joseph Tribbiani." Joey said. "I am also on Days of our restless children." The name failed to ring a bell with the reporters. "Don't tell me you never heard of it." Still more silence. "I guess you havent then."
"We will see you tomorrow afternoon then Miss Green?" The man said and left with the press. Rachel turned to Joey.
"Do you know anything about being an agent Joey?" Rachel asked him.
"No, but we're bound to find out." Joey said hugging her. "Rachel, smile! This is your big break!"
"Yeah, a great big break." Rachel said as cheerfully as she could.
"Great." Joey said. "Can you finish up the script for me? I'm going to lunch."
"You were just at lunch." Rachel pointed out.
"No, I was with the directors wife, I'm going to lunch now." Joey said as he left.
Rachel sat back and started to work, while at the same time trying to figure out what had just happened.
