Chap­ter 17 delves into Phoe­be’s mount­ing anx­i­ety as she strug­gles with Lila’s absence before the Blend­ing of the Fam­i­lies event. She finds her­self wor­ried that Lila may har­bor resent­ment, par­tic­u­lar­ly after Phoebe had left Gas‑X at her door with­out pack­ag­ing. Despite these con­cerns, Phoebe reflects on the joy and love she has found with Gary, real­iz­ing that Lila encour­aged her to embrace those emo­tions ful­ly. How­ev­er, when Phoebe sits down to write her maid of hon­or speech, she is filled with uncer­tain­ty. The words seem dif­fi­cult to find, and she feels as though she is writ­ing about a top­ic she can­not tru­ly believe in. The con­flict­ing emo­tions she har­bors toward Lila and Gary’s rela­tion­ship make the task feel more daunt­ing, and she becomes increas­ing­ly unsure about the sin­cer­i­ty of the words she is about to write for some­one else’s rela­tion­ship.

Her inter­nal con­flict deep­ens as Phoebe reflects on Lila and Gary’s bond. She real­izes that their con­nec­tion is not based on love, but rather on fear—fear of lone­li­ness, and the emo­tion­al need to fill the void of soli­tude. Lila and Gary’s rela­tion­ship seems built more on con­ve­nience than gen­uine affec­tion, and this real­iza­tion dis­turbs Phoebe as she reflects on how they both long for love but are unable to find it with each oth­er. At this moment, Phoebe’s path cross­es with Jim, who ini­tial­ly asks for her help with his own wed­ding speech, but soon becomes an unex­pect­ed ally in nav­i­gat­ing the tur­moil sur­round­ing the event. Jim’s doubts about Gary and Lila’s rela­tion­ship mir­ror Phoebe’s own con­cerns, and their shared con­tem­pla­tion of Gary’s authen­tic­i­ty and the depth of his emo­tions forms a pow­er­ful bond between them. As they brain­storm togeth­er, Phoebe finds com­fort in Jim’s will­ing­ness to be open about the uncer­tain­ty they both face, and the two friends begin to explore the com­plex­i­ties of the sit­u­a­tion with greater clar­i­ty.

Jim’s hon­esty takes a more per­son­al turn when he shares a nos­tal­gic mem­o­ry of his own feel­ings for Lila. He recalls the time when he, out of a sense of loy­al­ty to Gary, decid­ed to step aside for him, despite his own deep affec­tion for Lila. Jim reflects on the painful but self­less deci­sion to pri­or­i­tize Gary’s hap­pi­ness over his own desires, and this moment reveals a pro­found emo­tion­al sac­ri­fice. It’s clear that Jim’s rela­tion­ship with Lila was shaped by a deep sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty and friend­ship, which only adds to the emo­tion­al weight of the sit­u­a­tion. In a lighter moment, Jim sug­gests using mar­i­jua­na edi­bles to ease their cre­ative block as they both strug­gle with writ­ing their speech­es. This sug­ges­tion brings some com­ic relief to the oth­er­wise tense atmos­phere, and the humor­ous dis­cus­sion about para­noia adds a sense of lev­i­ty to the sit­u­a­tion. Jim’s light­heart­ed­ness helps Phoebe tem­porar­i­ly release some of the pres­sure she’s been feel­ing, offer­ing a much-need­ed moment of escape from the emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ty of the wed­ding.

As they wait for the effects of the edi­bles to kick in, the unique nature of their shared predica­ment becomes clear. Two friends, tan­gled in their own unre­solved emo­tions and per­son­al con­flicts, find them­selves try­ing to nav­i­gate the com­pli­cat­ed rela­tion­ships around them. As Phoebe con­tin­ues to work on her speech in her room, her thoughts wan­der, and she begins to reflect on her own life. She begins con­sid­er­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty of change, con­tem­plat­ing future options such as find­ing new hous­ing and explor­ing teach­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties that might allow her to start fresh. The idea of begin­ning anew fills her with a sense of pur­pose and excite­ment, pro­vid­ing an opti­mistic out­look for what lies ahead. While she is still in the midst of emo­tion­al uncer­tain­ty regard­ing the wed­ding and her place in it, she feels a renewed sense of con­trol over her own future. This chap­ter con­cludes with Phoebe feel­ing both accom­plished and hope­ful, hav­ing gained insight into her own desires and the courage to take action toward them. Her per­son­al growth is evi­dent, and the chap­ter high­lights her abil­i­ty to move for­ward with deter­mi­na­tion despite the com­plex­i­ties of her cur­rent sit­u­a­tion.