Nobody wants to be envied. Although some products are advertised with the rhetoric, «You’ll be the envy of all your friends if you buy this,» nobody actually wants that. Envy is much worse than jealousy because it actively pins for the demise of the envied in favor of the envier’s promotion. You don’t have to take action to gain what someone else has to ensure they don’t have it to be on the wrong side of the envy debate. Simply putting out an envious energy can harm the envied and make the good things in their life feel like a burden. 

The women in this story have a classic envier/envied dynamic. They’re all employees at the same office, and a small group constantly whispers and stares at their coworker whose boyfriend has coffee delivered to her a couple of times a week. God forbid she has a boyfriend who treats her well.