Chap­ter 21 begins with Phoebe wak­ing up beside her hus­band, who appears to be peace­ful­ly enjoy­ing a deep, rest­ful sleep—something she finds her­self envi­ous of. As she glances at her phone, she notices it’s devoid of any mes­sages, and a feel­ing of uncer­tain­ty begins to seep in. She remem­bers that today is Gary’s wed­ding day, which leads her to ques­tion her choic­es. Phoebe strug­gles with guilt, ques­tion­ing whether she has made a mis­take by walk­ing away from Gary and find­ing her­self with some­one who does not feel like her true part­ner. This inter­nal con­flict marks the begin­ning of her emo­tion­al jour­ney through the day, as she grap­ples with the com­plex­i­ties of love, com­mit­ment, and the con­se­quences of her deci­sions.

Lat­er, when Phoebe enters the bridal suite, she finds Suz and Nat already pre­pared, sig­nal­ing that the wed­ding is fast approach­ing. The room is filled with excite­ment and antic­i­pa­tion, but Phoebe notices that Lila, dressed in a flo­ral silk robe, remains dis­tant and seem­ing­ly aloof. As the women show­er Lila with enthu­si­asm, Phoebe observes her friend’s qui­et demeanor, sens­ing an under­ly­ing ten­sion that con­trasts sharply with the out­ward cel­e­bra­tion. Dur­ing this moment, a styl­ist named Tiff begins to work on Phoebe, sug­gest­ing a side bang, a small yet sig­nif­i­cant change that excites Phoebe and trans­forms her look. This minor adjust­ment to her appear­ance helps to shift Phoebe’s focus away from the mount­ing ten­sions and adds a refresh­ing spark of con­fi­dence to her, allow­ing her to feel more con­nect­ed to the moment.

The mood in the suite changes when Jim enters with an eccen­tric offer­ing of spoons, hop­ing to make amends for his pre­vi­ous behav­ior. How­ev­er, his attempt to apol­o­gize only seems to deep­en the ten­sion, espe­cial­ly when Lila remains silent, her aloof­ness unset­tling Phoebe. It becomes clear to Phoebe that Lila’s calm exte­ri­or may mask deep­er uncer­tain­ties about the wed­ding and her rela­tion­ship with Gary. Lila’s moth­er, Patri­cia, offers cham­pagne to the group, but Lila sur­pris­ing­ly declines, opt­ing to stay sober, fur­ther adding to the sense of unease. The qui­et that envelops Lila dur­ing these moments speaks vol­umes, and Phoebe is left to won­der about the sta­bil­i­ty of her friend as she approach­es such a mon­u­men­tal event in her life.

With all the women ready, Lila asks Phoebe to help her with her dress, com­ment­ing on its beau­ty while voic­ing a deep-seat­ed fear that the wed­ding may be doomed. In this vul­ner­a­ble moment, Phoebe real­izes that Lila’s con­cerns are root­ed in gen­uine wor­ry about her future with Gary, some­thing that has been build­ing beneath the sur­face. The two engage in an hon­est con­ver­sa­tion about love and loy­al­ty, with Phoebe attempt­ing to reas­sure Lila about Gary’s com­mit­ment, though her own voice trem­bles with uncer­tain­ty. It becomes clear that Phoebe is not entire­ly con­vinced about the sta­bil­i­ty of Lila and Gary’s rela­tion­ship, but she still offers her sup­port to Lila in a bid to soothe her nerves. Their exchange allows them both to con­nect on a deep­er lev­el, offer­ing a fleet­ing glimpse of under­stand­ing amidst the emo­tion­al chaos that is unfold­ing.

As they pre­pare to leave the bridal suite, anoth­er obsta­cle aris­es when Lila rejects the black town car, insist­ing it does not meet her expec­ta­tions of a vin­tage option for the wed­ding. This small, seem­ing­ly triv­ial issue sparks a heat­ed con­fronta­tion, with Phoebe try­ing to rea­son with Lila about how the details of the day should not over­shad­ow its true mean­ing. Lila’s tears betray her deep inse­cu­ri­ties and fears about her mar­riage to Gary, as she express­es doubts about their love and ques­tions whether she’s mak­ing the right choice. Phoebe, see­ing her friend’s vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, steps in to offer emo­tion­al sup­port, sug­gest­ing that Lila pri­or­i­tize self-care and free­dom from the mar­riage if it doesn’t bring her hap­pi­ness. This moment of under­stand­ing high­lights the com­plex emo­tions Lila is nav­i­gat­ing, and Phoebe’s will­ing­ness to lis­ten fur­ther strength­ens their bond.

Lila, in her moment of reflec­tion, acknowl­edges that despite the grandeur of the wed­ding, some­thing about it feels wrong to her. Phoebe, now more attuned to Lila’s inner tur­moil, reminds her of the prac­ti­cal­i­ties and fleet­ing nature of wed­dings. The exchange becomes a piv­otal moment of emo­tion­al con­nec­tion, where the two women rec­og­nize that love does not always con­form to soci­etal expec­ta­tions or tra­di­tion­al roles. Their con­ver­sa­tion cul­mi­nates in a recog­ni­tion of the deep­er, more mean­ing­ful aspects of love, with Phoebe express­ing her grat­i­tude for Lila’s influ­ence on her through­out the week. This emo­tion­al exchange not only deep­ens their friend­ship but also under­scores the com­plex­i­ty of rela­tion­ships, both roman­tic and pla­ton­ic, and the impor­tance of under­stand­ing one’s true desires in a world that often pri­or­i­tizes appear­ances over authen­tic­i­ty.