When Ross first laid eyes on Rachel Green, he was 18 and she was 16, the same age as his Sister, Monica. That moment marked the beginning of a decade of unrequited Love. It was the kind of male teen angst that is often ridiculed by those who never suffered from it. Rachel was a very pretty girl. She was also clever. Ross was smitten. Ross longed to discover one girl, in his entire life, who was pretty, clever, and loved him. Two out of three ain’t bad.

Ross endured the agony of knowing that Rachel Green was growing, learning, and living without him. The great milestones in Rachel’s life, like first date, first kiss, first Love, and first lover, passed by unseen by Ross. It should have been Ross, Ross, Ross and Ross. In Rachel’s maturation, he saw his own life grinding past in futility. Rachel and Monica were lifelong best friends. Year after year, Rachel dangled just out of reach.

At Columbia, Ross met a gorgeous blonde engineer who also checked two out of three boxes. But Carol had the potential to hit the trifecta. She and Ross both wanted someone, and she saw in Ross the character that few women that age could recognize. They married shortly after graduating. They were very good to one another. They both expected it to be their one and only marriage. Carol was Ross’s very first lover.

Carol began to regret her marriage after around two years, and was definitively set on divorce after three years. Ross and Carol entered relationship counseling. Those tortuous meetings revealed an irreconcilable difference: Carol was a lesbian. She had never had a girl-girl relationship, and so had had difficulty recognizing who she really was.

Ross went through all the stages of grief. After six months of struggle, they were divorced. Carol became a dear friend who knew everything about him. Ross was left with no confidence that he was competent to enter into another relationship. He did very little dating over the next two years, and had no lovers.

After school, Monica and Rachel shared a series of apartments in Manhattan. It was then that Ross became close friends with Rachel. She was like another Sister, except for his burning lust for her. Seeing the parade of boyfriends and casual partners that passed through her life was torture for Ross.

Ultimately, it was unsatisfying for Rachel, too. She was now 26. She had at all times wondered she would be happily married by that age. Instead, she had just gotten out of a messy, destructive relationship, and was back at square zero, without a relationship and without the will or self-confidence to enter into a new one.

Rachel Green grew up in Long Island, and identified with New York City from an early age. Once she outgrew her braces and acne, she was a stunner. If Rachel had not been skilled and industrious, she could have gotten by on her looks. She was skilled and industrious, however. She graduated from NYU and used both sides of her brain in her field. She was a buyer for a fashion line.

Rachel had at all times had her choice of men, but she often made poor choices. Many handsome men lacking in character. She seemed to be drawn to bad boys. She had never had an abusive relationship, at least not a physically abusive one, but that came down to luck. She had dated a couple of men her father’s age, one of them married.

With great difficulty, she had just ended a six-month relationship with a dashing man who was manipulative and not interested in a permanent relationship. She took a holiday from Romance for a few months. She was cleaning her romantic palate of the sour taste of her failed relationship.

Ross saw, for the first time, room in Rachel’s life for him. He wouldn’t be a new relationship; he would merely be promoted from friend to boyfriend. For the first time in her life, Rachel Green wanted a mature, safe, reliable relationship. Anybody that knew him would say that Ross Geller was nothing if not mature, safe, and reliable.

Prone to honesty, Ross haplessly wore his heart on his sleeve. Everyone knew he had a gigantic crush on Rachel Green. So did most men who met Rachel Green. He resolved to tell her his feelings. He would not ask her for a date. They knew each other far too well to call it a date. He would ask her for a relationship. He never got the chance.

Ross loitered nervously near the door that opened onto the balcony of Rachel’s apartment. He watched Rachel talk on the phone for what seemed like an eternity. He planned to stroll onto the balcony as soon as Rachel hung up, as if the timing were mere happenstance.

He heard her say the word “goodbye,” and he made his move. He strolled onto the balcony, drink in hand, looking conspicuously casual. Just as Rachel was about to hang up her phone, she said, “Oh, wait, one more thing…” and she entered into an entirely new conversation.

Ross was flummoxed. He looked about helplessly, and pretended to admire the view, which consisted of row after row of apartments very much like the one he was in. Rachel glanced at him and gave him a quick smile, a signal that he was welcome to overhear her conversation. After another eternity passed, Rachel said goodbye once more, and actually hung up.

Ross clumsily turned toward Rachel. He was afraid she would make or receive another phone call before he could engage her in the most crucial conversation of his life. He began, “Rachel….” Rachel put her finger to his lips to silence him. She gave a serious look, and took her finger off his lips, saying, slowly, “You came out here to talk, didn’t you?”

“Yes. I….” She put her finger to his lips once again. She paced a few steps, back and forth, while Ross waited.

“You’ve been thinking. You’ve been thinking a lot…even for you.” He smiled. “You’ve been thinking about relationships, haven’t you? Because you’re a relationship guy…aren’t you?” He nodded. His eyebrows and forehead showed that he was concentrating intensely on her words.

She continued, again slowly, “You’ve been thinking about me…about us.” She looked into his eyes, seriously. “You’ve been thinking about what it would be like for us to be in a relationship, you and me.” His expression changed to one of surprise. “You’ve been thinking about where we would live, and the places we would go, and the things we would see and do, together.” His mouth opened slightly, shocked at her words. “And…you’ve been thinking about what our pet’s names would be….” They both chuckled.

Rachel continued, “You’ve been thinking about what it would be like for us to grow old together, you and I.” He rested an elbow on the railing and leaned on it. “And, you’ve been thinking you’d like to try, to see how far we could go.” She paused. “Haven’t you?”

Ross swallowed and said, incredulously, “It’s like you’re reading my mind.”

She smiled a bit as she said, “Ross, right now I feel I know everything you think and feel…because you want me to…don’t you?”

“Yes.” Ross was dumbstruck.

Rachel smiled and said, “Yes!” Ross stood up straight. Rachel continued, softly, “Yes. Let’s be in a relationship, and see how far we can take it.”

Ross moved to embrace her, but she held up her hand to stop him, saying, “There is one thing you haven’t thought of, Ross.” Rachel took a few steps back. “Right here and now, on this balcony, in this moment, is an opportunity that can never come again.” She flicked her head toward the window, and said, “This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to freak those people out!”

Ross glanced at the window to see their four friends staring out, curious about what Ross and Rachel could be talking about so earnestly. Ross and Rachel laughed out loud, stepped into a tight embrace, and kissed passionately for the first time. Their friends’ jaws dropped in unison at the sight.

Ross and Rachel kissed for a long time, open-mouthed. Rachel cradled his face in her hands, and drew back to say, “Mmm, you are delicious!” They kissed some more, and noticed the state of extreme shock on their friends’ faces, and they laughed again.

Still holding her close, Ross asked, “What now?”

Rachel was matter-of-fact, “Now, I’ll put together an overnight bag. You take me home, and fuck my brains out.”

Ross recoiled a bit, “I was hoping for something more romantic for our first time together.”

She said, “Ross, you’re thinking of showing me what a tender and generous lover you are, aren’t you?”

Ross nodded, “Yeah!”

She said, “Check my math, Ross. You could hold back, restrain yourself, to put on a show for me, and neither of us would enjoy it fully. Then, for our second time, we could let ourselves go wild. Or…we could postpone the tender and generous lover exhibition for a few minutes, so that you could fuck my brains out.” She raised her eyebrows inquiringly.

“I understand.”

“Those are my terms.”

He said, “I reluctantly agree.”

“Well, let’s go get those folks up to speed.” She led him by the hand through the door into the apartment. Everyone inside looked at them with intense expectation. She smiled confidently. He smiled like a fool, completely overwhelmed. She put her arm around his waist, and announced, “Ross and I have decided to be in a relationship together. We are officially a couple!”

They were met with applause, cheers, and warm hugs. Everyone sat down. Rachel sat on Ross’s lap, just for fun. The happy couple fielded questions for a bit, and the atmosphere was one of revelry. Eventually, Rachel kissed Ross chastely on the cheek, and disappeared into her bedroom.

Ross grinned like a simpleton while everyone closed in around him to get his side of the story. Soon, he was relieved by Rachel’s reappearance. She had a bag over her shoulder and wore a jacket. Ross got up, grabbed his jacket, and the couple waved goodbye and left. When the front door closed behind them, their friends howled in amazement at the dramatic and unexpected turn the evening had taken.

Ross and Rachel smiled and held hands as they rode down in the elevator, hailed a cab, and rode to Ross’s apartment. They kissed whenever the chance arose. In the lobby of Ross’s building, they were alone, waiting for the elevator. Rachel asked, “I don’t want to seem conceited, Ross, but you’ve been thinking about this for ten years, haven’t you?”

He laughed bashfully, “Oh, yes! I’ve played this moment over in my mind thousands of times.”

She smiled, and said, knowingly, “Uh-huh. I imagine a lot of those times had a happy ending for you….”

He looked down at the floor as they entered the elevator, with an embarrassed laugh, “Well, yes, I admit I acted the whole thing out a few times. That is, a few hundred times!”

She chuckled and said, with determination, “Now, it’s about to happen. In a few moments you’ll have me, for real.” He looked down at her seriously. The intense moment was interrupted by the opening of the elevator, and the presence of two of Ross’s neighbors, who said hello and raised eyebrows as Ross and Rachel headed to his apartment.