"So now, what exactly is the point of the box?"

Author's Note:
          Hi, everybody! For the past couple of weeks, I've been thinking a lot about this book and how I haven't updated it in such a long time. The truth is, I don't have inspiration to continue it. I never thought I'd be able to continue it this far, but here we are. You might have noticed the last four chapters are not visible anymore. And that's because I wanted to end this story on a happy note. I didn't want to leave anything out in the open because that would be unfair to you, the readers. Thank you for staying with me through the journey of "Kiss Me". And I hope you decide to stick around and read some of my other stories and future stories I plan on publishing soon.
          Thank you.

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"Ugh...turkey. Ugh, giving thanks. Ugh!" Chandler gagged as soon as he came into the apartment.

"Look, everyone. It's the spirit of Thanksgiving." Phoebe joked.

"Are things with you and Joey any better?" Rachel took a seat on the couch.

"They couldn't be worse. Apparently, he spent eight hours calling me last night just trying to get me to talk to him." Chandler let out a sigh.

"Oh, wow. Eight hours. So, you probably could use one of those plug–in telephone headsets, huh?" Rachel glanced up at him.

"Should we all expect Christmas gifts that can be stolen from your office?" Ross raised an eyebrow at her.

"You shouldn't." Rachel retorted.

"Speaking of Christmas, um, since Monica and I are starting a new business, and we have, like, no money, um, this year, maybe we could do Secret Santa, and then we each only buy one gift, and–and there's the added mystery of, you know, who gets who." Phoebe went on.

"Who gets whom." Ross corrected her. "I don't know why I do that." He went back to chopping vegetables. Ross had to go, and Chandler and Rachel watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.

"I think I'm going to take a nap. Turkey makes me sleepy." Rachel got up from the couch.

"We haven't eaten yet." Monica reminded her.

"I know, but all the work you're doing to get it ready, and I just..." Rachel waved it off and went into her room.

"Hey, by any chance, did either of you pick Rachel for your Secret Santa? 'Cause I want to trade for her." Chandler came into the kitchen.

"I picked her." Phoebe set down her knife. "Ooh, thank God you want her. Ooh!" She quickly stood up.

"Wow. Why do you want to get rid of her so badly?" Chandler furrowed his brows.

"Because she exchanged every gift she ever gets. It's like impossible to get her anything she likes." Phoebe reminded him. "Come on, let's trade!" She jumped up and down.

"That's not true, that's not true." He mimicked her. "I got her that backpack, and she loved it. I remember how much she was crying the day that big dog ran off with..." He countered. "Well, there was no big dog." He finally understood. "Alright, this sucks 'cause I already got her this briefcase, and I had 'R.G.' put on it. Her initials." He clarified when Phoebe didn't understand.

"Maybe you can give it to somebody else. Like Ross Geller." Monica suggested.

"You know what, though? It's kind of a, uh, girly briefcase." He scrunched up his noses.

"Who cares? He works in a museum." Monica scoffed.

"Hey, what time is it? The big game its about to start." Chandler asked us.

"Since when do you watch any games?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Ross and Joey aren't here. You can watch the parade if you want." Phoebe let him know.

"Thanks." He went straight to the TV.

"What's wrong with this freezer?" Monica started jabbing at the ice. "Ow! Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" She cried out.

"God, what happened?" Phoebe and I ran over to her.

"Ice in my eye!" She held a hand over her eye.

"People are trying to sleep in here." Rachel peeped her head out the door.

"Monica got ice in her eye, and it hurts." Chandler came over to us.

"Open it up, let me see." Phoebe tapped her shoulder.

"I can't. It really kills." She groaned in pain.

"Well, maybe you should put some ice on it." Chandler suggested, making Monica glare at him with one eye.

"Looks pretty bad, Mon." I cringed.

"Honey, maybe we should take you to a doctor." Rachel thought out loud.

"No. My eye doctor is Richard. I can't go to him when I don't have a boyfriend." She argued.

"He's really picky about his patients." Chandler joked in a serious tone.

"Okay, you've got to go. What's his office number?" Phoebe grabbed the phone.

"Like I remember his office number." She rolled her eyes. Well, eye. "Speed dial seven." She caved in. Phoebe set up an appointment with the on–call doctor since Richard was out of town. Later, I headed back to the apartment.

"Oh, a secret admirer left this at the coffeeshop earlier." Rachel pointed to the slightly bigger gift on the counter.

"How did I not notice that?" I furrowed my brows sand unwrapped it. "Oh my God." I pulled out the Cartier rose gold bracelet along with the Tiffany and Co rose gold necklace and a beautiful ring. "It's exactly like the ones Joey gave to me." I gasped. That's when I saw my and Joey's initials together on the key part of the necklace, which kind of gave it all away.

"There was a note, too." Phoebe handed it to me. I opened up the little card and saw four little words that mean the world to me. I still love you.

"Where is he? Where the hell is he?" I looked up at everyone else.

"Our apartment?" Chandler guessed. Before anyone could say anything else, I ran out the door. I gave up when it came to dinnertime.

"I couldn't find him anywhere." I dropped my bag and coat.

"You must be freezing." Rachel ran over to me with a blanket.

"What's with the box?" I furrowed my brows.

"Hi." Joey's muffled voice came through the small hole.

"Joey? What are you doing in there?" My jaw dropped to the floor. "Chandler, you told me he was at your place." I glanced back at my brother.

"I lied!" He spat out.

"So now, what exactly is the point of the box?" The others gathered around the box.

"Joey?" Chandler said in a stern voice.

"The meaning of the box is threefold. One, it gives me the time to think about what I did to Suparna. Two, it proves how much I care about my friendship with Chandler. And three...it hurts." Joey listed out.

"Chandler, can I speak to you, please? Privately?" I placed my hands on my hips.

"Um, sure." The two of us stepped outside of the apartment into the hallway.

"I thought you said Joey kissed Kathy. Why did Joey say you put him in there because of what he did to me?" I squinted my eyes at him.

"Well, he didn't kiss her exactly." He chuckled nervously.

"Spill it." I demanded.

"Okay, fine. She was comforting him after your guys' breakup. But I blamed him for you breaking down that afternoon at Central Perk." He finally confessed the truth.

"You idiot!" I screeched and hit him multiple times.

"Alright, alright, that hurts!" He swatted my hands away from him.

"Do you know how much pain you caused me? This entire time, I thought he was the one falling in love with another woman. But it was you!" I accused him.

"He still called her pretty." He argued.

"So what? I call my boss handsome, but that doesn't mean I'm cheating on Joey. Sure, we get jealous when the other stares at someone else, but we know we belong to each other." I shook my head in disbelief.

"Just let me have my fun until dinner's over. Please?" He begged me.

"Fine." I rolled my eyes. Soon, the turkey was done, and Monica finished setting up the table. We all gathered around the table when there was a knock on the door.

"Oh, I'll get it." Phoebe went to get the door.

"Gotcha!" Joey laughed.

"That doesn't sound like thinking to me." Chandler scolded Joey.

"Sorry." He apologized.

"You know, I don't think you should be talking at all in there. I think you got too much thinking to do to be talking and making jokes." Chandler suggested strictly.

"Okay, okay, you got it." Joey agreed.

"Ross, could you pass me the yams?" Rachel asked him.

"Sure. Oh, and Chandler's got the mashed potatoes if you want to exchange them." Ross was still salty that Rachel exchanged the gold necklace he gave to her for store credit.

"Will you stop? What is the matter with you?" Rachel scoffed.

"There's nothing the matter with me. See, I'm not completely devoid of sentiment. See, I have feelings." He said.

"Okay, fine." Rachel got up from the table and went to her room.

"You can't tell, but I'm trying to break the tension by mooning you guys." Joey called out.

"Since when did he become you?" I looked over at Chandler.

"Alright, look. If this is just a big joke to you, then forget about it, alright? This means something to me and to my sister. If it doesn't mean anything to you, you should get out of there. Otherwise, you're just an idiot in a box." Chandler went over to hm.

"You're right, and I'm sorry. Th–This means a lot to me. I want you to be my friend again, and I want Suparna to be my girlfriend again. I swear, I won't say another word tonight." My fork slipped out of my hand.

"So you're going to start taking this seriously?" Chandler posed to him.

"Absolutely." Joey answered.

"That sounds like another word to me." Chandler shouted at him, making me hit him upside the head. "Are you going to take this seriously?" My brother reiterated. "Okay." He came back to the table when he didn't get an another word from Joey.

"Could you give this to Suparna? Tell her it's from that secret admirer." Joey had no idea I was in the room.

"Sure." Chandler grabbed the box and handed it to me.

"Let him out of the box. Please, please, please let him out of the box." I begged my brother. Chandler ran to the box and lifted up the top.

"So...?" Joey trailed off.

"We're going to be fine. We're going to be fine, alright? I mean, you did some real good thinking in there." Chandler assured his best friend and roommate. The two hugged it out.

"You left me those beautiful earrings. You gave me back my bracelet and–and my necklace and the promise ring. Chandler told me the truth, but that doesn't change anything. I don't care if you're Tom Cruise or the president, but you don't get to make me feel this way!" Tears streamed down my cheeks.

"What if I was your husband? Would that make you feel this way?" His voice broke.

"A–A–A what?" I stuttered out, my eyes widened in shock. Chandler handed Joey back the box, and from inside the box, Joey got down on one knee.

"Suparna Bing, I know I've caused you a lot of pain in the last few weeks, but damn it, woman, I can't forget about you. You're in my heart, in my dreams, in my apartment...you're everywhere." He shook his head before staring up at me. "Will you make me the happiest man in the world—scratch that—the universe by marring me and becoming my wife?" He proposed and revealed the ring in the box.

"Oh my God." I gasped. "You two set this whole thing up, didn't you?" I took a step back. "You weren't actually flirting with Kathy. You faked our breakup." I pointed at Joey. "And you pretended to be mad at Joey and forced him into a box." I turned to my brother.

"Pretty great planning if I do say so myself." Chandler and Joey high–fived.

"And I needed to get a blessing from somewhere." Joey smiled.

"I need to think about this." I sat down on the couch where everyone stared at me. "Yes!" I exclaimed and got into the box in front of Joey. "Yes, yes, yes!" I wrapped my arms around Joey's neck and kissed him for the first time in what felt like eternity.

He placed his hands on the sides of my face and deepened. The others applauded before crowding around us to join in a group hug. A single tear dropped down my cheek as I looked into his eyes, so full of love, passion, and adoration.

"I love you."

"And I love you as well."

THE END