While this is going on, we also get to know Jenna's two friends and fellow waitresses, Dawn ad Becky. Becky has a much older, senile husband we never see on screen, and we find out she is having an affair with the manager of the restaurant. At first, Jenna is angry with Dawn when she finds out, but then she seems to realize that she is really projecting her own guilty feelings over her own adultery, and apologizes. Dawn explains to her, "I love having someone to look pretty for. I love waking up and having something to look forward to. Something fun and sneaky and sexy...He kind of likes me. He kind of hates me. It's fun...He makes me forget about my invalid husband, my loneliness, the dreadful misplacement of my bosoms." For some reason, Becky thinks she has crooked boobs, and nothing will convince her otherwise:
Dawn: I feel sorry for you, Jenna. I mean, I'd do anything to meet a man, and Becky's husband is a senile fruitcake.
Becky: Dawn!
Dawn: Well, I'm sorry, it's true. But now here you are, married to this handsome guy.
Dawn: Who's got very good hair.
Becky: Who's got very good hair. And pregnant with a little girl.
Dawn: How do you know it's a girl?
Jenna: We don't know it's a girl.
Dawn: But neither of us would trade places with you for one second. Now would we, Becky?
Becky: No, we wouldn't, Dawn. No, we wouldn't. Except, just once in my life, I'd like to be able to make a pie half as good as Jenna can make a pie.
Dawn: Yeah, me, too.
Jenna: Oh, come on. So what if I can make a decent pie? Who cares?
Dawn: Look at this, Jenna. As you can plainly see, my right boob is much higher than my left boob and Dawn here has pasty, pasty skin. I'm stuck in a marriage to Droolin' Phil the Invalid, and Dawn eats TV dinners alone, but still, we wouldn't rather be you.
Becky: I do have pasty, pasty skin.
Early on, Becky goes on a blind date, and the man sends another guy, Ogie, instead. Becky is repulsed by Ogie initially. He shows up at the restaurant to see her, and she tells Jenna how terribly the date went:
Jenna: How could a five-minute date be that bad?
Dawn: He took me through the entire medical and psychiatric history of his family.
Jenna: Oh, no.
Dawn: And he told me he wants to marry me.
Jenna: Oh, no!
Dawn: Marry me! And he's not giving up, not ever giving up, that's what he said. First guy that pays any attention to me in years, and he turns out to be the mad stalking elf.
But Ogie wears Dawn down: "Well, you know, he was true to his word. He didn't never give up. His cousin Pete gave him my number. He called me, like, 30 times in one day. I thought I might kill him. But he got to me."
Near the end of Jenna's pregnancy, Becky and Ogie get married in a small ceremony at the restaurant. During the reception, Jenna dances with old Joe, and he encourages her to make a change in her life:
Joe: If I'd ever met a girl like you, Jenna, my whole life could have been different. You don't even know what you are deep inside. You're not just some little waitress. You understand what I'm saying?
Jenna: Not at all, no.
Joe: I'm saying, my whole life I spent lost. If a sign said "go this way," I'd go the other way. Time after time after time. I turned the wrong corner, made the wrong choice, went the wrong way, like a chicken without a head. You understand?Jenna: You was a chicken without a head?
Joe: Pie lady, listen to me. This life will kill you. I'm saying, make the right choice. Start fresh. It's never too late. Start fresh.
Jenna: I ain't got no money, Joe.
Joe: Who the hell does anymore?
Jenna: And I'm about to have me a baby.
Joe: I know you are, Jenna. I know you are. I was just dreaming a little for you, 'cause all my dreams is gone.
Earl busts into the reception, having found the money Jenna has been hiding around the house. He knocks over a chair and makes a scene, demanding Jenna get in the car, shouting, "Jenna...I'm very upset with you. I'll be waiting in the car. You have 30 seconds to get your ass in gear and join me." Joe observes, "You wasn't exaggerating. Your husband is terrible," and Jenna says a hasty goodbye and leaves. Earl is both furious and crazily upset, sobbing because she was hiding something from him. Jenna finally soothes him by telling him the money was to buy stuff for the baby, and he clings to her in tears, calming down. Jenna writes, in her letter to the baby, "Dear damn baby, If you ever want to know the story of how we bought your damn crib, I will tell you. Your crib was bought with the money that was supposed to buy me a new life. Every time I lay you down in that damn crib, I'm gonna think, 'Damn baby. Damn Crib. Me stuck like a pin in this damn life.'"
The loss of her money is the last straw for Jenna, and when she goes to her next appointment with Dr. Pommater, you can see the despair on her face. Keri Russell does an excellent job of capturing the defeat, the misery that Jenna is feeling, when she finally breaks down crying:Jenna: I wish I could stop everything and run away with you.
Dr. Pomatter: Me, too. Where could we go? I would go in a second. I would drop everything.
Jenna: Make it go away.
Dr. Pomatter: What?
Jenna: Everything else in my life.
Dr. Pomatter: That's a normal reading. Jenna, get dressed. Meet me outside. I'll be there in 10 minutes. We're going someplace. We might even run away. We'll figure it out. I mean it.
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