Despite not wanting to “be weird” about turning 30, Alderton is a “nervous wreck” as her 30th birthday approaches. A few weeks before Alderton’s birthday, Belle turns 31; she says all the things that seemed so enormous at 30 now feel normal at 31. A week after Alderton’s birthday, she hosts Farly’s 31st birthday at her flat, and she reminisces about Farly’s 30th birthday, which feels simultaneously far in the past and so close to the present. Alderton’s friends rent a house by the sea for her 30th birthday celebration. She realizes all she ever wanted was “Good humor and good friends. Wisdom and humility. Confidence. Bravery. An unlabored sense of self,” and now those wishes are her reality (348).

This cake serves 8 to 10 people and is a simple vanilla cake with buttercream frosting and pink decorative icing to create a dripping effect down the sides. Alderton notes that this cake “Works well with a side of histrionics” (352).

Alderton’s final examination of her beliefs about love is a collection of her memoir’s most significant lessons. As one ages, the amount of baggage one brings into a relationship increases, but so does an individual’s capacity for vulnerability and honesty.