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Chapter 235: Breakup Season
🕑 Added 2025-05-01 05:05:36 +0000 UTCAdam’s words made Monica start doubting herself.
The Following Week
Monica and Peter broke up.
And then it was as if a switch had been flipped.
Saturday Night
MAX’s Diner
Since both Monica and MAX worked here, the group had recently started gathering at the diner more often. After all, they couldn’t just drink coffee and have awkward conversations every day.
A little alcohol every now and then made the emotions hit just right.
“Enough!”
Rachel and Ross were arguing—again.
“I think we need to take a break.”
Rachel suddenly said.
“Okay, waiter! Two cold drinks, please.”
Ross tried to crack a joke.
“No.”
Rachel looked at Ross, suddenly feeling nothing at all. She spoke calmly, “I mean we need to take a break from each other. We need some time apart to cool down.”
“What?”
Ross was stunned. That “temporary break” was just a polite way of saying “breakup.” As soon as he realized what was happening, his anger exploded. He roared, “Fine! We’re done!”
With that, he shoved his chair back, ignored the stunned looks from their friends, and stormed out.
“What happened?”
The commotion was so loud that MAX, who was still working as a waitress, hurried over to ask.
That’s right.
Even though she had a sugar daddy—Adam—she wasn’t like the other girls who relied entirely on their wealthy benefactors, spending all their time dressing up and pleasing their sponsor.
She still worked as a waitress, earning a modest income and striving to be financially independent.
Even when she later enrolled in college, she chose to take out student loans and continue working part-time to cover her living expenses rather than using Adam’s money.
Adam, as her sugar daddy, mostly gave her the confidence to strive for a better future.
It might seem like a failure in some ways.
But at least Adam still got all the benefits of being a sugar daddy. Otherwise, he would have protested long ago...
“I just can’t take it anymore.”
Rachel explained, “He’s too insecure. He keeps interfering with my work.”
Everyone immediately understood.
After Rachel ran away from her wedding and started working, it had already been nearly three years. Her main job was waitressing, and on the side, she tried writing.
But she wasn’t good at anything.
Even with Adam’s guidance, she never managed to write anything publishable, and over time, she lost interest.
As for her waitressing? A total disaster.
Three years in, she still frequently got orders wrong and kept customers waiting until they gave up and left.
Adam was very familiar with this kind of behavior.
It was the classic case of someone who didn’t care and wasn’t even trying.
So, even if she worked another three years, Rachel’s skills wouldn’t improve much.
At least she had Gunther, her manager who secretly liked her, helping her out. But when the owner noticed her incompetence, even Gunther could only convince them to give Rachel one last chance—a full retraining.
But the moment Rachel heard about the retraining, she lost it.
Being a waitress was humiliating enough. After working there for three years, she was practically a senior staff member. And now they wanted to treat her like a newbie and train her from scratch? That was beyond embarrassing.
But when they tested her on basic restaurant knowledge, she was completely clueless. Even she was embarrassed.
So, she quit.
She wanted to pursue her passion for fashion.
Attractive people live life differently.
While chatting with Monica, a man who worked at a department store overheard their conversation and interrupted, saying he had a job that was perfect for Rachel.
Rachel, of course, was thrilled and immediately accepted. And the job really was great.
But Ross immediately realized that this guy was obviously interested in Rachel. Otherwise, why would a complete stranger go out of his way to offer her a job?
To make sure Rachel wouldn’t be “stolen” by this guy, Ross launched a full-scale “marking my territory” campaign.
He sent her flowers, love-themed gift baskets, and even hired a singing telegram to perform love songs for her at work.
That guy backed off—for now—but Ross’s antics seriously disrupted Rachel’s work and put her in an incredibly awkward position.
The worst part?
When Rachel needed to stay late to make a good impression at her new job, Ross insisted on celebrating their “relationship anniversary” in her office. She was so distracted that she almost made a huge mistake at work.
That’s what led to Rachel’s explosive reaction tonight.
“Uhh…”
MAX was speechless.
This was way too much drama.
“Heh.”
Adam just chuckled and said nothing.
He honestly didn’t care about their constant breakups and makeups.
To be fair, Ross did bear a lot of responsibility for what happened.
But Rachel wasn’t blameless either.
Because Ross’s instincts about that male colleague? Completely correct.
Everyone knew it.
Rachel knew it too.
But she pretended not to notice and kept accepting invitations—dinners, seminars, networking events. Her intentions might not have been romantic, maybe she just wanted to integrate better into her new workplace.
But her lack of rejection led to more and more interactions, which directly triggered Ross’s insecurity.
He foolishly thought Rachel was naive and unaware of the guy’s true intentions, so he panicked and felt the need to constantly mark his territory—leading to all those cringe-worthy gestures.
Even the “anniversary” office incident was Ross’s desperate attempt to hold onto Rachel when he sensed she was drifting away.
Mathematically speaking, Ross had an irrational “if I don’t act now, I’ll lose her forever” mentality. It turned him into an overbearing, possessive version of himself.
If he kept being denied intimacy for too long, it was only a matter of time before he snapped.
In reality, both of them were equally at fault.
From Adam’s perspective, it was hard to tell if Ross and Rachel even had real love.
Ross’s feelings seemed more like an obsession with his childhood crush.
Rachel’s feelings, on the other hand, were more about comfort during a vulnerable period.
Their relationship was a mix of friendship and romance, but it leaned more toward friendship than actual love.
So, Adam didn’t bother getting involved. He just let things play out.
“I broke up with Susie too.”
Chandler suddenly announced.
“What?!”
Everyone was shocked, including Adam.
Adam immediately turned to Chandler with concern. “Did you break up with her, or did she break up with you?”
You couldn’t blame him for treating Chandler differently.
When you had a big friend group, it was impossible to care about everyone equally.
Right now, the Friends group was still intact, so things were manageable.
But soon, there would be the How I Met Your Mother crew, the Big Bang Theory gang, the hospital colleagues, and his close female friends.
Do the math, and suddenly he’d be juggling nearly thirty people.
Naturally, some friendships would be closer than others.
That’s why Joey and Phoebe often seemed to disappear from his priority list.
Among the six, Chandler was number one.
Since Monica and Chandler were a pair, they were the two Adam cared about most.
(End of Chapter)
