Chapter 3

Chap­ter 3, titled “REAL LIFE: Mon­day,” plunges Har­ri­et into an emo­tion­al whirl­wind as she faces the pres­ence of her ex-fiancé, Wyn Con­nor, at a gath­er­ing host­ed by their mutu­al friends. The chap­ter opens with Sab­ri­na glee­ful­ly reveal­ing Wyn’s sur­prise arrival, send­ing Har­ri­et into a spi­ral of con­fu­sion and tur­moil. Hav­ing secret­ly bro­ken up with Wyn months ago, Har­ri­et strug­gles to keep her com­po­sure as old feel­ings resur­face. The event is an emo­tion­al land­mine, and the awk­ward­ness between her and Wyn is pal­pa­ble.

Their inter­ac­tion takes a par­tic­u­lar­ly uncom­fort­able turn when Wyn plants a forced kiss on Har­ri­et, which leaves her both phys­i­cal­ly and emo­tion­al­ly unset­tled. This kiss, far removed from the inti­ma­cy they once shared, sym­bol­izes the chasm between their past and present. Har­ri­et feels out of sync with her emo­tions, try­ing to nav­i­gate the pain of their breakup while their friends remain bliss­ful­ly unaware of the true nature of her feel­ings for Wyn.

As the evening unfolds, Har­ri­et is fur­ther weighed down by the group’s teas­ing and rem­i­nisc­ing. The cel­e­bra­tion of love and nos­tal­gia makes her feel like an out­sider in a space she once felt at home in. The ten­sion deep­ens when Sab­ri­na shares that her father plans to sell the house that has been the group’s refuge and gath­er­ing place for years, mark­ing a sig­nif­i­cant loss for all of them. The house, a sym­bol of their shared his­to­ry, is on the brink of being torn down by the forces of change.

In a stun­ning twist, Sab­ri­na announces her engage­ment to Parth, despite her past resis­tance to the con­cept of mar­riage. This rev­e­la­tion shocks every­one, espe­cial­ly Har­ri­et, who is still pro­cess­ing her own unre­solved feel­ings towards Wyn. Sabrina’s announce­ment caus­es Har­ri­et to feel even more iso­lat­ed, as the group cel­e­brates a kind of com­mit­ment and per­ma­nence that she feels dis­con­nect­ed from.

The ten­sion esca­lates when Sab­ri­na men­tions how her and Wyn’s long-term com­mit­ment inspired her own shift in per­spec­tive on mar­riage. This only adds to Harriet’s dis­com­fort, as she grap­ples with the truth of her breakup with Wyn and the chal­lenge of con­fronting her emo­tions in front of their friends. Should she reveal the truth? Or should she con­tin­ue to main­tain the pre­tense for the sake of the group?

Through­out the chap­ter, Harriet’s inter­nal con­flict is explored with great depth. She is caught between her desire to let go of her past with Wyn and the over­whelm­ing emo­tion­al pull that keeps her teth­ered to him. The news about the house’s impend­ing sale, cou­pled with Sabrina’s engage­ment, mag­ni­fies her sense of loss, mak­ing it hard­er to avoid fac­ing the real­i­ty of her sit­u­a­tion. The chap­ter poignant­ly high­lights the ten­sion between mov­ing on and hold­ing onto the past, with Harriet’s strug­gle at the fore­front of the emo­tion­al land­scape.

Ulti­mate­ly, this chap­ter becomes a micro­cosm of the broad­er theme of change and loss. Harriet’s emo­tion­al journey—her com­pli­cat­ed rela­tion­ship with Wyn, the unrav­el­ing of old friend­ships, and the unavoid­able pas­sage of time—mirrors the group’s col­lec­tive fear of what lies ahead. As the house is poised to leave their lives and Sab­ri­na moves toward an entire­ly new future, Harriet’s bat­tle to rec­on­cile her past with her present is just begin­ning.