Summary

The narrator meets with her friends Paula and Margaret for lunch. The narrator's friends give her advice about how to fix her bad back: yoga and sex. The narrator is about to be laid off from her job. She is glad because she hates the job, but upset because she does not want to look for another. Paula is a therapist and likes to talk. Margaret and the narrator sometimes wonder about all of their friends have become so "tolerant" of each other (150). They have another friend, Jackie, who like Paula, also makes them angry. Jackie is the focus of their lunch.

Margaret describes how Jackie is paying for an arbitrator. The narrator muses about how she likes full behinds, her favorite body part. Paula always called her predictable for her interest and when the women all lived together...