While the Merry Widows did their best to comfort Alexa after she revealed the details of the conversation with Penny, Abigail snuck off to the library to call Chase. He picked up after four calls in four minutes. Abigail wasted no time with pleasantries when a wedding with high-value press coverage was at stake. “What did you do?”

Chase must have expected the attitude because he wasn’t fazed at all. “Mom, I told you, I’m working this weekend.”

“I understand. But Penny just called Alexa and told her that the wedding is off. Off! And we’ve only just nailed down a beautiful historic home for the ceremony and reception. It’s stunning. A showstopper. It’s a house called La Mariposa, The Butterfly. Imagine the logo! Plus, we’ve nailed down the flowers and the wine and the guest housing. The rehearsal dinner at a fancy surf club. I mean, who even knew those existed? It’s all set. You can’t call this off,” Abigail told her son, as if securing a once-in-a-lifetime wedding venue trumped all, even his personal happiness.

“I can’t go into this right now. I promise you, the wedding will go on. Penny’s just having a freak-out, that’s all,” Chase answered before assuring a colleague that he’d be off in a second.

Abigail bristled. Penny was an accomplished young woman raised by a mother who was cool under pressure. She didn’t seem like the type to “freak out,” a turn of phrase that even high school kids knew not to use anymore. Maybe Penny had cause for concern. Abigail flashed back to her son’s declaration during the conversation in the car en route to the airport about their partnership and all that blah, blah, blah about handling their relationship as fully equal adults. Chase had certainly made a short trip from that approach to his fiancée “freaking out.”

She had to call him on it. “Please give Penny more credit than that. Perhaps she has reasons to be concerned and cautious. You didn’t contribute to her doubts with this campaign? Or this move to Queens? No woman wants her concerns to be dismissed as ‘freaking out,’” the mother of the groom said on behalf of all women. Suddenly, surprisingly, she was Team Penny.