They were such a cool couple, Ginette thought. They had been together forever—but they weren’t married. And Ginette had always wondered why. And not long ago she asked her mom if she ever thought they were going to get married. And her mom said it was none of her business. And that it didn’t matter if they were going to or not. What mattered was that they were happy.

And they sure seemed happy.

But Gayle wasn’t happy on the night when all the extraordinary things did or didn’t happen. She was sitting in her old red Jeep in Lendall’s driveway. And feeling pretty sad.

Because she was about to break up with her boyfriend of eleven years.

Because she had just figured out that he didn’t love her anymore.

She had had a hunch for a while that this was the case. And, a little over an hour ago, her hunch had been confirmed—at Sandrine St. Pierre’s bachelorette party—which Gayle had shown up late to, because she needed to get the Country Swing event at the Rec Center set up and running. Unfortunately, there had been a hiccup in the early part of the evening: a young woman had suffered a bad fall while she and her dance partner were taking a lesson. Lalaine Deshain had encouraged them to try an over-the-shoulder throw that was way beyond their abilities. And the next thing everyone knew, the young woman was on the ground holding her face, keening, and bleeding profusely.

But the young woman’s date had taken her to the hospital, and Lendall cleaned up the blood, and everything settled down. And Gayle’s assistant, Dana Doughty, said she had everything under control, so Lendall went home, and Gayle headed over to the Moose Paddy to make an appearance at Sandrine’s bachelorette party.

When she arrived, Sandrine was holding court with her unbetrothed attendees, offering unsolicited advice on how they could get their men to put rings on their fingers. And Sandrine asked Gayle how much longer she was going to have to wait before Lendall put a ring on her finger. And Gayle said that she and Lendall had a good thing going and that she didn’t think having a ring on her finger would make it better, and Sandrine said, “Okaaay,” in a way that made everyone know that she did not think it was okay.

And then Narda Smith announced that she needed some relationship advice—which Sandrine loved to offer—and said that she had recently had her boyfriend, Chuck, over for a pot roast. And while they ate it, she asked him what he thought about getting married. And he didn’t answer. He just got quiet. And then asked what was for dessert.

The girls groaned and exchanged concerned looks.

“What?!?” cried Narda, fearing the worst.

And Sandrine said, “It means he wants out.”

“What? No!” protested Narda, laughing but feeling like she was going to cry.

“Yeah,” grumbled the girls in unison.

“It means he doesn’t love you,” said Sandrine.