“Sure I do,” Hannah said, sitting on the bathroom floor, her back against the wall. “You did this for me.”

“I did?” Bee asked, confused.

“Twice. You did this for me sophomore year at Matt Dorfman’s apartment, when I puked on my own lap—and I think my vomit was grosser than this, if that’s possible—and you did it again a few years ago after Tom and I broke up.”

“I don’t remember you puking after Tom left.” Bee hiccuped.

“I was puking emotionally,” Hannah said softly, remembering that night. “I called you after Tom and his sister left with all his stuff, and you drove all the way from your parents’ house in Maryland. You cleaned my apartment while I cried and watched an entire season of Lost, and you stayed with me for a week until I was ready to sleep alone.”

Bee smirked, rubbing her arms with the warm water.

“Of course I did,” she said proudly, swallowing a belch. “Can I have toothpaste?”

“Sure,” Hannah said, reaching across the sink for Bee’s cosmetics case and grabbing the small tube of Colgate.

“Hannah?” Bee asked, as she squeezed a dollop of green onto her finger and then stuck it in her mouth. “Do you think Matt is a good guy? I mean, do you think we’ll be happy?”

Hannah tilted her head and smiled reassuringly. “Bee, he’s not your dad. You’re not your mom. This is a totally different marriage. It’s yours, not theirs.”

By the time the process was over and Bee was in fresh pajamas, it was 2:00 a.m. and the other bridesmaids were asleep, breathing heavily. Jackie and Dawn had fanned out like angels over the two full beds, while Lisa slept awkwardly on the floor in front of the television. Hannah saw that the room’s one roll-out cot had been opened and was left vacant; Lisa had most likely reserved it for the vomiting bride-to-be. I will be nicer to Katie Holmes, Hannah thought as she watched Lisa try to fall asleep without blankets on the hotel carpet.

Hannah helped Bee lie down on top of the small cot and then lowered herself to the floor next to Lisa, who briefly opened her eyes long enough for Hannah to say, “I’m sorry I yelled at you, Lisa. I was just up to my ass in puke.” Both bridesmaids smiled.

After a few minutes of shivering without bedding, they inched toward each other and spooned. Hannah thought about Tom for a moment, as she often did before she fell asleep. She allowed herself to imagine that it was him next to her instead of a bridesmaid she barely knew. Hannah tried to block out the silhouette of Lisa’s feminine frame and pictured Tom’s broad shoulders as she sighed in the dark and closed her eyes.

It was the next morning that Hannah decided to follow the meek-but-wise Lisa’s lead. Dawn might be a selfish beauty pageant coach, but in the context of Bee’s wedding, it was better to obey her than to defy her. Jackie might be a more understandable alpha—someone she might befriend in real life—but she offered no reward, no compensation for loyalty. Jackie just wanted to be left alone, which did Hannah no good.