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occurred to her—how easy it was to give sage grown-up dating advice when you’d been with the same guy since you were fifteen. She just nodded. What could she say? I found love my sophomore year in college, and he’s married to our friend who’s ten feet away?
    â€œI know this must be hard on you,” Beth said gently.
    Stop, Rebecca thought, tears brimming unexpectedly in her eyes. Just stop . For some reason, the sympathetic tone in Beth’s voice was more cruel than any coldness she’d experienced from her friends over the past few years. Sometimes she thought she hid her feelings for Jake well, and other times it felt as though they were just below the surface—a fact that everyone knew but no one mentioned. “I’m fine,” she said.
    â€œI know,” Beth said. “But is fine enough?”
    Rebecca said nothing. She willed someone in the other room to please, for the love of God, come out and end this horrible conversation. She knew Beth was trying to be caring, but Rebecca didn’t need this kind of caring. Mothering was what Beth did best, and it was the absolute last thing Rebecca needed.
    Mercifully, Beth seemed to sense that her nurturing superpowers were not well received, and she turned her attention back to the bride-to-be. “I think I get what Suzanne is saying, you know? About how it feels like her wedding is for the whole world instead of for her and Dylan?”
    Rebecca shrugged. “I guess that’s part of marrying someone famous. You have to learn to live with the idea that the world is watching you.”
    â€œMaybe,” Beth agreed. “But I can see how it’s hard. The reporters have been all over her for months. She had to get Chad to leak a fake wedding date for September just to get them to back off for a while.”
    Rebecca thought about this for a moment. Invest yourself, she thought, as the authors of her book might say. You cannot create meaningful friendships if you are sitting on the sidelines .
    â€œYou know what? You’re right, Beth.”
    â€œI am?”
    â€œYes. Suzanne is our friend and I think we should try to help her.”
    â€œWhat? We can make Dylan Burke somehow not an international superstar?”
    â€œNo,” Rebecca said slowly. “The public will have their expectations, but maybe we can give Suze what she wants, too.”
    â€œI’m confused,” Beth said.
    Rebecca’s head was spinning. Maybe she could be the good guy for once. “Can you get Suze’s phone away from her and get it to me for a few minutes?”
    There was a clatter as the plastic margarita pitcher hit the kitchen floor on the other side of the wall, and Suzanne’s voice: “Oh, shhhhugarcakes!”
    Beth and Rebecca both smiled. “I think that’s doable,” Beth said. “What do you have in mind?”

 
    4
    When she finally stumbled to the bedroom she would share with Beth during the weekend, Rebecca felt quite tipsy. She was intoxicated both by the brutal margaritas Suzanne had concocted and the excitement of the plan the rest of them had created in snatches each time Suzanne left the room. Beth was already out cold, still wearing her clothes and draped diagonally across the bed.
    Rebecca hoisted her suitcase carefully onto the bed, trying not to think about what Beth had said about looking for her own Prince Charming. Such an absurd, outdated cliché. And still painful.
    She also wrestled with the idea that had planted itself in her brain lately and seemed to be taking hold despite her attempts to ignore it. It had been on the tip of her tongue tonight, and it had been hard not to say it to Beth. She was afraid that saying it out loud would make it true.
    Maybe, she thought in these moments, everyone is capable of truly loving just one person. And if you waste that love on someone who is unavailable, you simply don’t get another chance .
    After some fumbling with