Carrie and Berger read in bed. Wow, they're already at the reading-in-bed phase? Jesus, their relationship is deteriorating faster than Brady is growing. He looks like a two-year-old, and their relationship looks like a five-year-old sexless one. Carrie asks into the empty air, "Something wrong?" Berger says no. Carrie says she knows. She ran into Courtney while she was out with Miranda. Berger yells that he didn't want Mir to know! Then Carrie apologizes for the shirt and the check-waving and stuff. Berger says that he's happy for her current success. "Good for you!" Then he goes back to his book. Carrie isn't buying it. "Hey Berger, want to talk to my editor?" No. He turns off the light and rolls over. Carrie says he's great and he'll be fine, and he goes, "Ungh."

Carrie and Sam go out for cocktails. They are both covered in glittery rhinestones and sequins. So sparkly. Sam tries to buck Carrie up by saying that "flailing" men need a strong woman to come in and lift them up -- like she did for "Smith Jerrod"! Yup, she changed Jerry's name to something that sounds like an investment firm. And she got him a mention in Liz Smith's column. Hee -- she called him an "it" boy. Sam got tickets for all of them to come out and see him in the play. Carrie asks if Jerry wasn't threatened by Sam's power and ability to make things happen. "Oh no! Younger men aren't threatened by stronger women!" Carrie is intrigued. "Is that a whole generation, or just him?"

And now we get to the question of this episode. Carrie types in her apartment, eating a tiny cup of ice cream. "Are the men of today less threatened by a woman's power, or are they just acting?"

Steve unwraps a stick of butter, then doesn't quite know how to answer the knock at the door. It's Miranda! And she's charmed that he's making cupcakes. She's happy to help him with the mixing, and says he's "really going to score points on the playground this week." Except that the cupcakes aren't for the playground; they're for Debbie. Mir flinches, then says, "Fun!" Yeah, Debbie said she didn't want a cake, but she didn't say anything about cupcakes! Ha ha!

Then, it's six-thirty, and Steve has to go. Mir offers to finish off the lettering (H-A-P-P-Y B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y D-E-B-B-I-E), but as soon as Steve is out the door, she gets weepy and calls Carrie. Oh, it's so sad. Carrie beseeches her to "put down the icing" and come out to the play with the rest of the girls, but Mir has other concerns. "Dammit! I fucked up Debbie's 'B'! I have to finish!" Carrie warns, "Debbie can't have your tears. Move away from the icing." Mir puts it down and stops crying so hard. She says that if she stops, Steve will know something's up. Carrie tells her to blame it on the baby, "that's what they're there for." Then Berger rings her doorbell and Carrie is off to change.