{joey tribbiani ff}
•book one•
Heather Bing moves to New York, hoping that her life will continue to be as perfect as it currently is. She has a comfortable place to live, friends to laugh with and a boyfriend that she truly loves.
"I could've reach...
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chapter one hundred and six ~ the one with the rooftop Joey's POV
Phoebe's boyfriend, Gary was a police officer and was entertaining the guys by offering to take them around the city in his cop car, with the idea that they could watch him stopping crimes and saving innocent civilians. Joey had been more than excited to go when the ride-along was discussed but then when the time came, he realised that he almost forgot about the one thing that he had been focused on for weeks. He almost forgot that he was proposing tonight. Ross tried to force him to come with them, Chandler wasn't as persuasive as he didn't seem to be happy with the idea of the ride-along but Joey's acting skills came into play when he pretended to be too sick to leave his room. However, his acting skills were so good that he actually convinced everyone that he was too sick to do anything, meaning that Monica cooked her famous tomato soup to make him feel better.
She pushed open the bedroom door, expecting him to be curled up in bed but was surprised when she walked in to see him fiddling with a bowtie in the mirror. "Joey, what are you doing out of bed? I thought you were sick?"
"No! I just told the guys that so they would leave me alone."
"Why would you lie to them?"
Joey sighed. "It's time."
"It's time?" Monica repeated, her voice getting muffled as she started crying.
"Yes, it's time, so stop crying and help me put this stupid bowtie on!"
They left the apartment shortly afterwards, making sure that they had everything with them so that they could make this proposal perfect and Joey ensured that he didn't miss the most important detail, the note. When Heather had heard that her boyfriend was bedbound and terribly sick, she felt awful and grabbed as many of his favourite things as possible before making her way over to the apartment. She held a sandwich, some magazines which she received weird looks for purchasing and a giant jar of jam because that seemed to be something that would cheer him up. But when she stepped into the apartment, it was empty, checking all of the rooms she was really confused because if Joey really was bedbound then how had he left the apartment. Heather dropped the things that she had brought onto the counter and looked around for any indication that there was someone around, only finding the soup that Monica had made first but then her eyes were drawn to the back of the door where there was a familiar note left for her.
Rooftop in 5 minutes – J
A sense of déjà vu swept over her as she reread the note several times before deciding that she needed to see what was going on, she was too curious to not follow it. So, she stepped out of the apartment, unaware that Monica poked her head out of the door of her own apartment, just to awe at what was about to happen. Her legs wobbled as she ascended the stairs, worried that something bad was going to happen when she got to the top but when she saw Joey waiting for her, she knew that everything was going to be okay. He had a wide smile on his face, hoping that it would disguise all of the nervousness that he felt inside of him. He never thought that he could be this nervous about something, he shouldn't be, but he just didn't want to get it wrong. Joey wanted this entire night to be perfect because that was what she deserved, plus, he had been working on this for a long time and didn't want his hard work to be ruined.
Heather's stomach dropped when her eyes took in the rooftop in all of its glory; fairy lights were hung all over the walls and above them to create a warming atmosphere. A smile creeped onto her face as she realised just how hard Joey must have worked to do this but she still hadn't realised exactly what was happening. Butterflies erupted in both of their stomachs; Heather was just in awe of everything in front of her and how handsome Joey looked in his suit, and Joey was anxiously waiting for the right time to pop the question, wondering how he could wait when she looked so perfect stood in front of him. But the voice in the back of his mind told him that he couldn't get this moment wrong, and to ensure that it wouldn't go wrong, he needed to be patient.
Holding out his hand, he asked. "Can I have this dance?"
Heather couldn't move forward quick enough, laughing breathlessly as he offered her his hand and they began dancing around the rooftop. It reminded them of the first time that they spent intimately, the first time that their feelings for each other were made known and that seemed like a lifetime ago. Making sure that they didn't dance too fast, or too slow, they kept in time to the music that was playing silently in their heads; both of them so peaceful that Joey almost forgot what this night was really about. Slowly, he dipped her backwards, noticing the worried expression on her face that mirrored the one that she wore the first time that he had done this. "Don't worry, I'm not going to drop you." He smirked, thinking back to the first time that he had uttered those words. "I'd never drop you." They eventually got too tired to continue dancing, and stopped, staring back at each other through the warm glow of the fairy lights and thinking about how lucky they were to have someone to love.
"Joey." She broke the silence first. "As beautiful as this is, what is it for?"
This was the moment that Joey had been leading up to for weeks, this was what he had been planning to do ever since he had a dream about their future. Of course, he had always wanted to have this moment with her, he had always imagined himself having a future with her but only recently had he ever thought about it in this much detail. His hands were shaking now that the time had come but he had no second thoughts, this was what he had wanted for a long time and he reassured himself as he knelt on the ground, pulling the small black box out of his suit pocket. Heather gasped, her hands covering her mouth as tears sprung to her eyes; out of everything that Joey could have done, this was not what she was expecting.
"Heather, I love you. I've never loved anyone in the way that I love you and I never want to experience this kind of love with anyone but you. When you first came into my life, I knew you were special but I didn't realise how special you would be to me. In the last five years you have changed my life in so many more ways than you think, you made me believe in myself, you made me feel smart and you made me happier. You are one of the only people that actually listens to me, that cares about me and I am grateful to you in so many ways. We started off as strangers, who became friends, who became lovers and now, I think we're ready for the next stage." He carefully opened the box, showing the beautiful silver ring that lay on the velvet cushion. "Heather Bing, will you marry me?"
She didn't need to look at the ring to know that it was beautiful, it was simplistic and stylish, it was exactly her taste and she was more than happy to accept it. But it wasn't just the ring that she was ready to accept, she was ready to accept this proposal from Joey because even though things wouldn't be easy for them, she knew that they would make it through anything, as long as they had each other. So, instead of answering verbally, she knelt down to Joey and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, nodding and crying happy tears because this was all she had ever wanted.
