“We don’t like each other. There’s not much more than that.”

I get that guys don’t like to get as personal as women, but I feel like there’s a whole other side of Darren that I don’t know much about. I tell myself that we haven’t been together long, a lot of our time is filled with sex, and he’s one of those private types. But I’d like to try to peel away some of those layers.

“Just stay away from him,” Darren adds.

After lunch is our couples’ massage and spa treatment. Even though I’ve never had so much as a facial, I can’t imagine any massage or spa treatment more special than being outside overlooking the sea. First comes a milk bath, then a jasmine rice body scrub, a facial involving jade stones and sacred lotus, and finally an aroma-infused massage with Siamese healing herbs. Any massage would have been a luxury, but each of us has two masseuses working on us. By the time they’re done, I feel like relaxed Jell-O.

Back in the women’s locker room, wrapped in a plush spa robe, I retrieve my t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops from a locker. I hear voices, coming from the other side of a set of lockers, that I recognize: Andrea, another bridesmaid named Moon, and Yu-Jin, the girl who kept hitting on Darren in front of me last night.

“Can you believe the girls Darren and JD brought with them?” Moon asks.

“JD has a different girl like every month,” Andrea replies.

“But they must be serious if they brought them here to your wedding.”

“Not really. Remember the girl JD brought to my father’s 50th in Sydney? He dumped her a week later.”

“I mean, that girl Amy is cute, though her clothes could use an upgrade.”

“Her clothes are like haute couture compared to what her friend was wearing!” Yu-Jin pipes in. “I saw her wearing a t-shirt and flip-flops that look like they came from Kmart or something.”

“What’s Kmart?”

“So Darren can’t be, like, serious about this girl, right?”

“You keep working it, girl. You could have him dumping her in days, I bet.”

“I just hope he’s not in some kind of banana phase.”

“Darren’s not like that,” Andrea says. “I think most of the time he’s with an Asian woman. And Bridget’s not even white, I think. At least not full white.”

Returning from the bathroom, Amy walks up to me at that point. “Hey, what’s the matter?”

The other side of the lockers grows quiet.

“I was just thinking about what a beautiful place this is,” I answer, “and how lucky JD is to have you because you’re not one of those shallow bougie girls with tits for brains. And if JD can’t see that, he’s not worth it.”

Amy smiles. “Ahh, thanks, Bridge. Are you guys going to the rehearsal dinner tonight?”

“I don’t think so. I told Linda I’d work on a grant application.”

“You’re so dedicated. They should give you a pay raise.”