Wow we’ve only scratched the surface of the the ICONIC “Ross is a fucking dickbag” moment that people in the 90’s really heatedly debated over whether or not he was, in fact, a massive asswad (spoiler alert: he was)
Ross “WE WERE ON A BREAK” Gellar spent weeks/months being possessive and paranoid about his girlfriend of ALMOST A YEAR having a PLATONIC FRIEND AT HER JOB THAT HE AND NONE OF THEIR FRIEND GROUP WAS INTERESTED IN. She had a friend to work with and talk about fashion with, her ONLY FRIEND who fits those needs, whom fuckboy Ross is so convinced is only her friend to get her to fuck him (projecting much? it’s literally what he did to Rachel for YEARS before she finally decided to date him but that’s a whole other can of gross dude worms for another post) He sends her obnoxious ammounts of flowers/teddybears/gifts to her office specifically to make sure he “marks his territory” so Rachel’s platonic work friend gets the picture (because even though his sister points out that even if her friend Mark DOES want to sleep with her, that doesn’t mean he automatically gets to, since Rachel is an adult who can make her own choices and that Ross should trust her even if he doesn’t trust Mark. Ross promptly throws all that out the window.)
So on their anniversary Rachel has a work crisis which she has to work late on and she EXPRESSLY TELLS ROSS she does not have time for a date that night and would reschedule. So, feeling neglected and like she was choosing work over him again, in true Ross fashion, he just SHOWS UP at her work with a picnic he tries to force on her, accidentally starts a fire in her office, and finally fucks off back home when she yells at him for making her nightmare night at work worse with his needy bullshit.
When she gets back to her apartment, he’s waiting there for her and she gives him a chance to apologize, which he mistook as her apologizing to HIM for, idk, not getting fired so he could have an anniversary date that night instead of at a convenient time for both of them like any other rational, respectful pair of adults would do? This leads to a huge fight and Rachel, understandably fed up with Ross’s bullshit, suggests they “take a break” from the relationship.
Now, I don’t know what that means to you, but to me and everyone I’ve ever asked, “taking a break” and “breaking up” are two different things in that the former means you’re still together and just giving each other some space before you try to fix the relationship or end it for good, while the latter is just ending things for good right then and there. Ross gets upset that the woman he obsessed over for over a decade wants space from him, goes to a bar, gets drunk, and then at the behest of Chandler and Joey, calls Rachel to try to smooth things out.
Rachel, in the meantime while that was going on, got a call from her work friend Mark, who invited himself over and brought chinese food for them to eat. It’s made pretty clear that Rachel wanted to be alone and that she had no romantic interest in Mark, nor did anything happen. When Ross calls, he hears Mark in the background, immediately gets pissed off, gives her no chance to explain, then hangs up and goes and dances/kisses/goes home and sleeps with another woman HOURS AFTER THEY WENT ON A BREAK, OVER AN ASSUMED INFIDELITY THAT NEVER HAPPENED.
Then when he finds out the next morning that Rachel didn’t sleep with Mark and wants to make things work, he spends all morning trying to hide his infidelity from her (running all over town to cover his trail) and then begs her forgiveness when she finds out on her own. She didn’t take him back because why the fuck should she have, and Ross proceeds to spend the remaining seasons of the show bitching about how he was in the right because….“WE WERE ON A BREAK!!!”
TLDR; Ross was, is, and always will be trash, and a break is not the same as a break up.