Rachel, he gives him the go-ahead. Ross basically says that he is not okay with it but he wants to be, and the two's friendship deepens due to Joey's refusal to date Rachel unless Ross okays the deal. However, Joey and Rachel do not date long, and later, Joey encourages Ross to pursue Rachel in the season finale. Joey and Monica are close friends often joking around with each other. Joey allowed Monica to hire and fire him to prove to her employees that she was not a pushover. When he discovered that Monica and Chandler had developed a romantic relationship, he agreed to keep it secret until the two were ready to reveal it to the rest of their group. In an episode where he sees how close Chandler and Monica are, he dreams of himself and Monica in the same way. This later causes him to act weird around Monica. Finally, he reveals this to Chandler and Monica, it is that he wants a relationship like that, but Monica finds it nice thinking Joey thought of the two of them together. He also called Chandler moments after suspecting Monica of having an affair with a mystery male he had heard in her apartment. When Monica and Chandler needed their Engagement Picture taken, Chandler could not smile. In the newspaper announcement, it showed the photo was of Monica and Joey. Joey always enjoyed a close relationship with Monica, Rachel, and Phoebe; LeBlanc once speculated that Joey saw the girls as sisters more than potential romantic interests. However, the tension between Monica and Joey is at times fairly obvious, and it is made clear that the two have a very close, almost intimate, relationship, though it is never consummated on the show. According to the DVD commentary of the pilot episode, Joey and Monica were initially meant to be the principal love connection of the show but were overshadowed by the Ross-Rachel relationship. In Episode 1.07 "The One with the Blackout," Phoebe blurted to Joey that Monica has a crush on him when he was moving in with Chandler. In the Season 3 episode "The One With the Flashback", an instant attraction appears to form between Joey and Monica when they first meet (to the point that Monica silently thanks Chandler for choosing him as a roommate), but after Monica invites Joey inside her apartment for some juice and Joey