The wedding setting for Part 3 draws the main characters back into the same space, compelling them into surface-level interactions that further the theme of Romantic and Professional Rivalry Within Close Circles. Since “Courtney and Geoff’s wedding [is] the sixth of the season” (82), Mia, Marco, Adam, and Richie struggle to engage with one another in an authentic manner. Their lives have changed since 2007, and the way they relate to each other at such events is more contrived than it once was. 

The characters discuss their jobs and relationships to create the illusion of interest in one another’s lives. As Satya says to Marco: “These conversations are so dumb. It’s like, we all know what everyone else is doing, Mark Zuckerberg, has made sure of that, but we still sit here and act like we don’t” (114). The reference to “Mark Zuckerberg” is an allusion to the increasing prevalence of Facebook and other social media sites in the lives of their generation, while Satya’s insistence that “we all know what everyone else is doing” implies both an increased type of social surveillance and more opportunities for comparing their lives with everyone else’s. The characters feign interest in each other because they remain in competition, feeling desperate to prove their security and happiness to each other. Since they no longer see each other as frequently, they must prove their worth to each other at these intermittent, celebratory gatherings.

The dynamic between Mia, Marco, and Emily is particularly emblematic of the characters’ romantic and professional tensions. Marco and Mia broke up roughly four years prior, but they are still reconciling with who they are to each other. Marco and Mia are both trying to prove that their lives are better since they ended their relationship, and Emily ends up in the middle. For example, Emily and Mia discuss medical school and journalism without any authentic interest in one another’s lives, subtly attempting to prove their “value” as individuals and thus as partners to Marco. In this scene, Marco cuts in to say that Emily is “not just in med school. [She’s] a surgery resident” (116)—a clarification which implies that he is trying to convince himself that Emily is just as talented and accomplished as Mia and makes just as good a match. 

Mia also corrects Emily when she asks about the Daily News, informing her she is, in fact, about to start a job at the Times—this clarification is also a message to Marco that she is both fine without him and just as successful as his new partner. Meanwhile, she tries to convince herself that she is unbothered by Marco and Emily’s relationship and engagement. She wants to believe that she is okay, because she fears that admitting otherwise would mean admitting that her choice to break up with Marco “hadn’t been deliberate and well-thought-out, but rather a failure of imagination” (124). In the narrative present of Part 3, Mia must remain defensive of her single life to avoid feeling inferior to Marco’s new partner.

The narrative uses flashback and symbolic imagery to underscore how the past continues to impact the characters’ relationships in the present, particularly for Mia and Marco. Throughout the section, Mia and Marco are seated directly across from each other. They can see and hear one another, but they infrequently interact. Their physical positioning at the table implies that they remain connected to one another, but once again, physical proximity forms a contrast with inner emotional tension. Their repeated flashbacks convey their regret and longing. Throughout the evening, Mia cannot stop studying and thinking about Marco, also noting how often she finds him looking at her. These moments imply that she still hopes there is a chance for her and Marco. 

However, the wine stain scene symbolically implies otherwise. The stain on the dress suggests that Marco is a proverbial stain on her heart that she cannot get out. Emily tries to help her remove the stain to no avail, suggesting that Mia and Marco’s relationship is over once and for all. The exchange between these internal and external, physical and emotional dynamics affects a stifling, melancholic mood, where the characters find themselves indelibly connected and simultaneously desperate to escape one another’s company.