Why Gargoyle Boyfriends Should Be Left In 2025

Girls nights are sacred, whether they’re a montage of blurry dance floors, olive-brined martinis, and post-date dissections or a quieter night in, complete with DIY face masks, candlelight, and Sex and the City rewatches. Really, there’s only one thing that can interrupt these utopian get-togethers: someone asking if their boyfriend can come.

It was a Saturday morning when Margo arrived at her brunch reservation, only to experience a three-word horror story: “Tom* is here.” Tom, Shannon’s boyfriend of three years, was not part of the day’s plan. Weeks ago, she’d snagged the table, sent details via group text, and made sure everyone knew that it was a girls outing. The plan was mimosas, then thrifting — naturally, a complete oral history of hookups and heartbreaks unfolding in between.

But now Tom had crashed, and their table for five just became a table for six. Once everyone arrived — and communicated a silent “Who invited Tom?” — the group of longtime girlfriends exchanged their niceties, which included reassuring Shannon tha...