Chap­ter 16 opens with a light-heart­ed moment the morn­ing after a wild night, as Lila teas­es Phoebe for clean­ing the room, her hang­over from the pre­vi­ous night’s cel­e­bra­tion evi­dent. Though Lila seems dis­ori­ent­ed, she casu­al­ly men­tions their plans for the day, includ­ing the surf­ing les­son await­ing them, yet her tone reflects lit­tle enthu­si­asm. Juice, her com­pan­ion, push­es for them to hur­ry, as they are already behind sched­ule, but Phoebe, sens­ing the need for space, decides to stay behind and give Lila some alone time amidst the chaot­ic wed­ding prepa­ra­tions. Phoebe’s deci­sion to hold back hints at a grow­ing under­stand­ing of the emo­tion­al under­cur­rents in the group, as she nav­i­gates her own feel­ings and oblig­a­tions with­in this tur­bu­lent atmos­phere.

As Lila pre­pares for the day, she shares her doubts about her abil­i­ty to surf, admit­ting she nev­er want­ed to take part in the activ­i­ty in the first place. Despite ini­tial­ly promis­ing Juice a morn­ing of surf­ing, Lila now feels a reluc­tance, reveal­ing her under­ly­ing dis­in­ter­est. This moment of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty con­trasts sharply with Phoebe’s qui­et intro­spec­tion, as she con­tem­plates her own place in the wed­ding fes­tiv­i­ties and the role she is expect­ed to play. Beneath the sur­face, ten­sions regard­ing her feel­ings for Gary begin to sur­face, adding com­plex­i­ty to Phoe­be’s inter­ac­tions as she process­es her emo­tion­al state. Lila’s casu­al approach to the day’s events jux­ta­pos­es with Phoebe’s more seri­ous inter­nal dia­logue, high­light­ing the dif­fer­ences in their per­spec­tives and their evolv­ing rela­tion­ships with the peo­ple around them.

At the beach, Phoebe and Gary fum­ble as they strug­gle to fit into their wet­suits, pro­vid­ing a light­heart­ed moment that breaks the ten­sion between them. Their awk­ward­ness, while comedic, also draws them clos­er, with Gary’s laugh­ter mak­ing Phoebe smile and adding warmth to the moment. The ease of Gary’s humor con­trasts with the dif­fi­cul­ty of their shared chal­lenge, and Phoebe begins to appre­ci­ate the authen­tic­i­ty of his laugh­ter, which brings a sense of ease amid the dis­com­fort. The inter­ac­tion deep­ens their con­nec­tion, allow­ing Phoebe to let go of some of her pre­vi­ous reser­va­tions, even as the com­plex­i­ties of her feel­ings con­tin­ue to linger beneath the sur­face. Their shared laugh­ter sig­nals the grow­ing com­fort between them, while also set­ting the tone for the day ahead.

When they meet Aspen, their surf instruc­tor, Phoebe recalls her yoga lessons from the pan­dem­ic, which help her feel more ground­ed and present as she pre­pares to catch her first wave. As she man­ages to stand on the board for the first time, the exhil­a­ra­tion of suc­cess quick­ly turns into a thrilling tum­ble into the ocean, where the salt­wa­ter and the rush of the waves over­whelm her sens­es. This expe­ri­ence, though brief, allows Phoebe to feel a sense of free­dom and vital­i­ty that she had been miss­ing. The dynam­ic between the trio—Phoebe, Gary, and Juice—grows more famil­ial as they cheer for Juice, who quick­ly mas­ters the waves, fur­ther bond­ing them through shared moments of joy and suc­cess. The play­ful cama­raderie strength­ens their con­nec­tion, mak­ing the day feel more like an adven­ture among close friends than an oblig­a­tion.

As the ses­sion pro­gress­es, the waves grow larg­er, and the trio’s laugh­ter grows loud­er, sig­nal­ing their deep­en­ing bond and increas­ing enjoy­ment of the activ­i­ty. The expe­ri­ence becomes one of exhil­a­ra­tion, not just from the waves but from the sense of uni­ty they feel as they con­quer the surf togeth­er. After­ward, they head to Flo’s for lunch, cel­e­brat­ing their accom­plish­ments from the day while Phoebe reflects on the grow­ing emo­tions she feels for Gary. The cama­raderie of the day and the sim­ple joy of being togeth­er high­light the com­plex­i­ty of her feel­ings, blend­ing hap­pi­ness with a sense of bit­ter­sweet­ness. Phoebe’s desire to con­nect with Gary inten­si­fies, but she remains appre­hen­sive about ful­ly open­ing up to him, fear­ing that the moment might be fleet­ing and not last.

Despite the under­ly­ing ten­sion, Phoebe finds her­self immersed in the warmth of the day, try­ing to savor the joy and sim­plic­i­ty of the moments spent with Gary and Juice. As they go through mun­dane errands, Phoebe is able to find humor in life’s sim­plic­i­ty, draw­ing clos­er to Gary in ways she hadn’t antic­i­pat­ed. The ease with which they nav­i­gate these small tasks togeth­er cre­ates a sense of nor­mal­cy, one that Phoebe hasn’t expe­ri­enced in a long time. Yet, as the day draws to a close, she feels the sub­tle pang of real­iza­tion that moments like these are frag­ile, and the warmth she’s found might not last for­ev­er. Still, she’s grate­ful for the con­nec­tions she’s made, and she finds her­self wish­ing for more of these small, joy­ful moments with Gary. These fleet­ing instances remind Phoebe of the deep­er emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ties she’s fac­ing, push­ing her to con­front the uncer­tain­ty of her feel­ings while appre­ci­at­ing the rare moments of hap­pi­ness she’s able to share with those around her.