“Not now, Henry!” Isabel a cal ed.

“Bl l , baaa!”

“I know,” Isabel a said. “I’m a disgrace.”

Every day at work, Isabel a was sure she was going to be fired. And, as if that weren’t stressful enough, Peggy, one of the copy editors, wouldn’t leave Isabel a alone. She asked her about every comma, every semicolon, until Isabel a wanted to scream. Peggy was in her forties and wore odd-colored pantsuits with large shoulders and funky buttons. Whenever Isabel a looked at her, she thought of her fifth-grade social studies textbook.

Peggy looked like she should be in there, with a caption that said, “Someday you wil work in an office and you wil have coworkers. Women and men work together as equals.”

Peggy alternately repulsed Isabel a and made her sad. She complained about her almost every night to Harrison. Then one day she came into work and found out that Peggy had been fired.

“They got rid of half of the copy editors,” Cate told her. “Crazy Pantsuits is gone.”

Isabel a went home that night and cried. “I feel so bad,” she said to Harrison. He rubbed her back and said, “I know.”

Lauren had been trying to plan a trip for al of their col ege friends for the past year. She’d started out suggesting that they go to the Bahamas, but was met with too much resistance. Final y, she planned a weekend in the Hamptons. “This is pathetic,” she kept saying. “This was supposed to be a trip for our thirtieth birthdays, and it’s a whole year later. And al we’re doing is going to the beach?”

“It wil be fun,” Mary told her. “The Hamptons wil be perfect.”

Beth White was excited about the weekend. She kept sending e-mails out to the whole group that said things like “Watch out for the divorced lady” and “It’s like a reverse bachelorette party for me!” It was making everyone uncomfortable.

“I think she’s lost it,” Mary said.

“No kidding,” Isabel a said.

Harrison lay on the couch and read the paper while Isabel a packed for her trip. Winston was curled up on his chest. Every so often, Winston lifted his head and licked Harrison’s chin. Winston was a little white fluff of a dog and when he sat stil , he looked like a stuffed animal. Isabel a loved him more than anything. As soon as she got her suitcase out, he wouldn’t look at her. He turned his head away and only paid attention to Harrison.

“Harrison, if we break up, would you give me the dog?” Isabel a asked.

Harrison lowered the paper and looked at her. “Excuse me?”

“Beth White is getting the dog, but she said that she had to fight Kyle for him.”

“Oh,” Harrison said. “I see.”

“So would you give me the dog?”

“No,” Harrison said. “If you broke up with me, I would kidnap Winston. Then I would take him around the country and photograph him in different states, so that I could send you the pictures and taunt you.”

“Fair enough,” Isabel a said. She sat down on the bed and rested her head on Harrison’s chest, right next to the dog.

“I love you,” she said.

He took the end of her hair in his hand, twirled it around his finger, and said, “Good to know.”

“You look tired,” Isabel a said to Mary. They were sitting on the top level of the double-decker train to the Hamptons. Mary stared out the window with dark circles under her eyes.

“I didn’t sleep wel last night,” Mary said. “Can I tel you something weird?”

“Always,” Isabel a said.

“Okay, but you have to promise not to tel anyone else. It’s real y weird.”

“I promise.”

“I woke up from a nightmare and I was biting Ken on the arm,” Mary said.

“Jesus, what was the dream?” Isabel a asked.

“Wel , I dreamt that Ken was marrying this big black woman. And he kept saying, ‘Sorry, sorry, I’m so sorry. We can stil be together, but I have to marry her.’ And I was crying, and then the woman came over and started fighting me. I bit her ankle, and then I woke up to Ken screaming.”

“That is real y weird,” Isabel a said.

“I know. What if that’s what I do now? What if I just keep biting Ken in my sleep?”

“I don’t think that wil happen,” Isabel a said.

“It might. Plus, I’m a bad mom.”

“No, you aren’t,” Isabel a told her. “Where did that come from?”

Mary sighed. “Henry was sick last week, and I didn’t even notice. He was rubbing his ear on the floor and whining, Niii, niii, before I noticed anything.”

“So? You took him to the doctor in time.”

“I guess so. Now I feel bad for leaving him this weekend.”

“I pushed someone on the subway last week,” Isabel a told her.

“Real y?” Mary asked.

“Yeah, it just happened. Does that make you feel better?”

“Yeah, it kind of does.”

Lauren bought about a mil ion bottles of wine for the house, and when everyone walked in they said, “Oh, that is too much wine. We’l never get through that.”

“I planned for five bottles a girl for the weekend,” Lauren said. “Believe me, we’l go through it.”

“No,” everyone said. “No, that’s too much.” By the second night, more than half of it was gone and everyone stopped talking about it.

Beth White talked the whole weekend. From the moment she got there, she went on about her divorce. “Such a hard decision,” she said. “But I’m in a much better place now.”

Isabel a tried to avoid getting caught alone with her. “I know she needs to talk about this,” she said to Lauren, “but she has a therapist, right?”

Lauren shrugged. “God, I hope so. I know way too much about their bedroom life now. Way too much.”

“I’m not changing my name back,” Beth told them. “I thought about it, but I’m going to stay Beth White.” Isabel a didn’t think this was a wise decision.

“Why wouldn’t she go back to Beth Bauer?” she asked Lauren. “She doesn’t have any kids. It’s so weird.”

“I don’t know,” Lauren said. “Maybe she’s afraid no one wil remember who she is.”

“Maybe,” Isabel a said. The thought left her uneasy.

The last night, they went out to a seafood restaurant. They returned to the house stuffed and tired. Everyone was drinking wine and talking when they noticed that Beth White was crying in the corner.

Her head was down and her shoulders were shaking. She was crying so hard that no one could understand what she was saying. “What happened?” Mary whispered to Isabel a. She just shook her head. “I have no idea,” she said. They sat and listened to Beth gasping for breath.

“She’s choking,” Isabel a thought. She tried to remember the proper steps for CPR in case they needed to use it. They al stood around and watched until Isabel a stepped forward and knelt in front of her. She touched Beth’s leg and said, “This is a normal reaction.” Lauren was standing to her right and shook her head at Isabel a. Final y, their friend Sal ie took Beth by the arm and walked her upstairs. The rest of them dispersed in silence. No one wanted to talk about what they had just seen.