Chap­ter 24 begins with Mar­la insist­ing on stay­ing in the con­ser­va­to­ry, unwill­ing to leave until she has a chance to see Gary, all while the wed­ding brunch con­tin­ues in full swing. The atmos­phere at the event is marked by mixed emo­tions, with guests shar­ing sub­dued con­ver­sa­tions and a sense of loss hang­ing in the air. Mar­la points out the food, but her words are under­scored by whis­pers, as some guests remark that the occa­sion feels as though some­one has died. Even in the absence of the groom, the fam­i­ly mem­bers share humor­ous, yet bit­ter­sweet sto­ries from Gary’s child­hood, which paint a pic­ture of love and affec­tion for him. These anec­dotes reveal how deeply his absence is felt, a blend of nos­tal­gia and long­ing for the con­nec­tion they once had with him, ampli­fy­ing the sense of empti­ness in the air.

As the day pro­gress­es, Jim makes attempts to con­tact Gary, empha­siz­ing the impor­tance of his pres­ence and the weight of the sit­u­a­tion. Mean­while, the fam­i­ly offers var­i­ous forms of com­fort, acknowl­edg­ing the recent breakup Gary went through and try­ing to pro­vide emo­tion­al sup­port, even as they all feel his absence. Phoebe, too, feels a deep con­cern for Gary’s well-being and decides to send him a text to let him know about the ongo­ing sto­ry­telling ses­sion and the sup­port he has back at the hotel. As she reflects on the sit­u­a­tion, her thoughts drift to her own past, specif­i­cal­ly her ex-hus­band, and the emo­tion­al traces their mar­riage has left on her. She begins to think about how her past rela­tion­ships still cast long shad­ows over her present, mak­ing her ques­tion what she real­ly seeks in con­nec­tion and whether the echoes of the past will ever fade.

In the hotel lob­by, the arrival of new wed­ding guests brings some life back to the oth­er­wise somber space, spark­ing light­heart­ed con­ver­sa­tions with Pauline. Phoebe tries to immerse her­self in these con­ver­sa­tions, which dis­tract her momen­tar­i­ly from her grow­ing con­cerns about Gary. Yet, even amidst the small talk, she is remind­ed of Lila’s absence, and the para­dox of wed­dings takes hold of her. There’s a sharp con­trast between the joy that one bride should be expe­ri­enc­ing and the sense of aban­don­ment that oth­ers are feel­ing, includ­ing her own con­flict­ed emo­tions about the sit­u­a­tion. The event, once meant to be a cel­e­bra­tion of love and union, has been over­shad­owed by a sense of loss and uncer­tain­ty, and Phoebe’s feel­ings about wed­dings are mixed with both sad­ness and con­fu­sion.

Lat­er, while shop­ping at Mar­shalls, Phoebe’s phone buzzes with a mes­sage from Gary, who com­ments on the humor­ous sto­ries being told about him at the wed­ding. Their text exchange deep­ens as Gary opens up about his emo­tion­al state, reveal­ing that he’s strug­gling with feel­ings of inad­e­qua­cy after his recent breakup. He con­fess­es that he spent the night by his deceased wife’s grave, pro­cess­ing his emo­tions and reflect­ing on the pro­found changes he’s gone through since their time togeth­er. This moment of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty opens up a con­ver­sa­tion about the dif­fi­cul­ties of nav­i­gat­ing rela­tion­ships and the courage required to face one’s true feel­ings. Through their exchange, Gary also shares insights into Lila’s true inter­ests, includ­ing her avoid­ance of art-relat­ed dis­cus­sions, adding depth to his under­stand­ing of her per­son­al­i­ty. He admits that he regrets not call­ing off the wed­ding when he sensed that some­thing was wrong, fur­ther high­light­ing his strug­gle with trust­ing his instincts.

As Phoebe and Gary con­tin­ue their con­ver­sa­tion, they find com­mon ground in their shared expe­ri­ences and mutu­al under­stand­ing of the com­plex­i­ties of rela­tion­ships. Their exchange becomes a space for hon­esty and con­nec­tion, where both share can­did thoughts and laugh­ter, slow­ly forg­ing a deep­er bond. In these moments, they both come to the real­iza­tion that per­son­al growth and the jour­ney toward becom­ing who they tru­ly want to be takes time, effort, and a will­ing­ness to be vul­ner­a­ble. The exchange between Phoebe and Gary rep­re­sents a sig­nif­i­cant turn­ing point in both of their lives, hint­ing at the pos­si­bil­i­ty of new begin­nings and trans­for­ma­tive con­nec­tions. As the chap­ter draws to a close, Phoebe reflects on the upcom­ing phase of her life, under­stand­ing that she is stand­ing on the precipice of a new chap­ter, one that will require her to nav­i­gate both the beau­ty and the chal­lenges of her past expe­ri­ences as she moves for­ward. The pos­si­bil­i­ty of heal­ing and growth is with­in reach, and Phoebe’s jour­ney toward self-dis­cov­ery feels more cer­tain with each step she takes.