Chap­ter 9 begins with Phoebe join­ing Lila’s wed­ding par­ty, which car­ries an eerie, almost cult-like sense of cama­raderie. Lila intro­duces Phoebe to her friends, includ­ing High Bun, who despite her name now wears a long fish­tail braid, and Neck Pil­low, sport­ing an eye-catch­ing dia­mond neck­lace. The intro­duc­tions are quirky and light­heart­ed, with humor reveal­ing the unique per­son­al­i­ties of the group mem­bers, espe­cial­ly Mar­la, the groom’s sis­ter, and Juice, the groom’s daugh­ter, who prefers to be called by her unusu­al nick­name. The inter­ac­tions are a blend of humor and odd­i­ties, cre­at­ing a pecu­liar dynam­ic between the char­ac­ters that makes Phoebe both intrigued and slight­ly uncom­fort­able.

As the con­ver­sa­tion pro­gress­es, Phoebe observes Lila’s demeanor shift—she becomes qui­eter and less assertive around the wed­ding guests, reveal­ing a more reserved side of her­self. This trans­for­ma­tion caus­es Phoebe to feel pro­tec­tive of Lila, remind­ing her of her own wed­ding expe­ri­ences where sim­i­lar shifts in mood occurred. Though Phoebe tries to light­en the atmos­phere with humor, Lila remains sub­dued, while oth­ers engage in sar­cas­tic ban­ter and famil­iar exchanges, which only make Phoebe feel more out of place. The con­trast­ing dynam­ics among the group mem­bers become clear­er, as Phoebe reflects on her role in the wed­ding and her dis­com­fort with the ten­sions sim­mer­ing beneath the sur­face.

Lila begins to share the sto­ry of how she met Gary, the groom, at her mother’s art gallery, and the group eager­ly dis­cuss­es this con­nec­tion. They are espe­cial­ly intrigued by the coin­ci­dence that Gary was also her father’s doc­tor, which adds a lay­er of sig­nif­i­cance to their rela­tion­ship. Dur­ing the sto­ry­telling, there’s a humor­ous exchange about a nude paint­ing, but the mood shifts quick­ly when ten­sions arise with­in the group, result­ing in an awk­ward silence. The sto­ry about Lila and Gary’s meet­ing is both charm­ing and unset­tling, as it reveals more about their rela­tion­ship and the awk­ward­ness in the room, set­ting the tone for the unfold­ing dynam­ics. The group’s reac­tions to the sto­ry sug­gest under­ly­ing dis­com­fort, and it becomes evi­dent that the group’s inter­ac­tions are far from seam­less.

As the con­ver­sa­tion draws to a close, the women pre­pare to depart for the wed­ding venue, but the dynam­ics shift again when the top­ic of trans­porta­tion comes up. High Bun and Lila decide to dri­ve a vin­tage con­vert­ible, but the car’s old mechan­ics require Phoebe’s help, as she is famil­iar with stick shifts. This marks the begin­ning of a change in the group’s mood, as the jour­ney toward Bowen’s Wharf is filled with a blend of antic­i­pa­tion and nos­tal­gia. The car ride reveals dif­fer­ent sides of the women, with Phoebe observ­ing their con­trast­ing per­son­al­i­ties and inter­ac­tions. Their con­ver­sa­tions drift from light­heart­ed ban­ter to deep­er, more per­son­al exchanges, as they nav­i­gate through the traf­fic chaos, punc­tu­at­ing the jour­ney with humor despite the under­cur­rents of dis­com­fort.

Upon reach­ing Bowen’s Wharf, the group’s arrival is met with a mix of excite­ment and unease, as Phoebe notices Gary in the crowd. Their past con­nec­tion from the hot tub is briefly acknowl­edged, but the moment is over­shad­owed by the awk­ward­ness of the sit­u­a­tion. Juice’s out­burst about her recent­ly “deceased” vir­tu­al dog named Human Princess shifts the tone of the gath­er­ing, reveal­ing deep­er emo­tion­al cur­rents with­in the fam­i­ly. The men­tion of loss and mem­o­ries brings a more somber under­tone to the event, high­light­ing the com­plex­i­ties of fam­i­ly rela­tion­ships. The chap­ter ends with the group being invit­ed to con­tin­ue their gath­er­ing on a boat, main­tain­ing a bal­ance of fas­ci­na­tion, ten­sion, and unex­pect­ed emo­tion­al rev­e­la­tions among the char­ac­ters. This scene encap­su­lates the emo­tion­al intri­ca­cies of the gath­er­ing and the under­cur­rent of unspo­ken feel­ings that will con­tin­ue to shape the inter­ac­tions between the char­ac­ters.