Daydreamer

Lucy Mayweather, a shy, 27-year-old woman from the small English village of Little Buckingham, has never lived away from home and has spent most of her life constructing elaborate fantasy worlds. Under the pen name LP Mayweather, she is a New York Times bestselling epic fantasy author, though almost no one outside her family and her literary agent, Madeline, knows this. When her mother, Hetty Mayweather, arranges for Lucy to work as an executive assistant at Moretti Harding, a multinational property development company in London, Lucy agrees partly to build confidence and partly because the CEO is Felix Moretti, the boy she has been in love with since childhood.

Felix, a 33-year-old billionaire, grew up in Little Buckingham under vastly different circumstances. His wealthy but emotionally abusive father, Luca Moretti, left Felix's upbringing largely to Hetty, who served as his nanny. Felix spent much of his childhood at the Mayweather cottage, captivated by young Lucy's dark, inventive stories. He nicknamed her "Shakespeare." Now, however, he has hardened into a workaholic who refuses to return to Little Buckingham, haunted by a painful history with Luca he will not discuss.

From her first day, Lucy is a disaster as an assistant. She daydreams through meetings and dresses in tattered jumpers and Ugg boots among polished professionals. Felix reprimands her but cannot fire her out of loyalty to Hetty. He arranges for his assistant, Tabitha, to take Lucy shopping for professional clothing, unaware that Lucy's chronic cold intolerance, compounded by Raynaud's disease, a condition that causes her fingers to turn white and lose sensation in cold temperatures, makes the thin office attire genuinely painful to wear.

What Felix hides is that he finds adult Lucy beautiful and that her obvious crush tests his self-control daily. He suppresses his feelings, telling himself that pursuing Hetty's daughter would betray the family that raised him.

Meanwhile, Lucy's direct supervisor, Will Brent, subjects her to escalating harassment: mocking her intelligence in front of clients, making crude sexual comments, and initiating unwanted physical contact. Lucy, overwhelmed by shyness and unfamiliarity with corporate life, does not report him. Victoria Harding, the company's blunt CFO, and Victoria's warm assistant, Lottie, witness Will grab Lucy's arm at a party and confront him, but Lucy declines to escalate.

Felix and Lucy's chemistry builds through a series of charged encounters. At the party, Lucy hides in Felix's office for hours outlining a novel. Later, Felix makes her Marmite toast, a favorite from her childhood, and takes her freezing hand to warm it, their faces drawing close before he pulls away. Over the following weeks he rescues Lucy from a rainstorm after Will sends her on a humiliating errand, catches her by the waist when she trips, and tilts her jaw to make her look at him, but he always retreats. Victoria and Lottie solve Lucy's wardrobe problem with warm cashmere and thermal layers, and Lucy begins forming real friendships with them.

The dynamic breaks at a pub outing when Felix, consumed by jealousy at seeing another man flirt with Lucy, pulls her into an alcove and kisses her. Their relationship moves rapidly: they sleep together, and Felix declares her his girlfriend. The next morning he asks Lucy to tell him a story, calling her "Shakespeare," and she recounts the plot of her first published novel without revealing it is a published book. Lucy is ecstatic but conflicted; Felix has never once asked what she does outside of work.

Cracks form beneath the surface. Felix keeps the relationship secret from Lucy's family and refuses to visit Little Buckingham. Lucy feels insecure and unequal but accepts whatever Felix offers.

Events come to a violent head when Will corners Lucy in the corridor, accuses her of sleeping with Felix to avoid being fired, and grabs her wrist hard enough to leave significant bruises. Lucy quits immediately. She meets with Madeline and Harry York, a powerful investor and LP Mayweather fan, at a café to discuss a book signing and potential film adaptation. The next morning, she formally reports Will's harassment to HR.

Returning to her desk to retrieve a notebook of irreplaceable story outlines, Lucy finds Will waiting. When she tells him she has reported him, he throws her against a wall, pins her, licks her neck, and whispers a threat. Lucy staggers to Felix's office for help, but Felix, having been shown a deceptively framed video by Will of Lucy meeting Harry, accuses her of selling company secrets. He refuses to let her explain and has security escort her from the building without her coat, phone, or wallet.

Stranded in freezing weather in a thin silk shirt, Lucy walks until her fingers turn dangerously blue. She reaches a café, borrows a phone, and calls her brother, Mike Mayweather, who drives from Little Buckingham to rescue her. The cold exposure causes frostnip on her fingers, a painful injury that prevents her from writing for weeks.

The truth emerges swiftly. Police arrest Will. Tabitha reveals she had secretly installed a camera at the desk she once occupied, later reassigned to Lucy, to document Will's harassment, and the footage captured the assault. Felix watches the video and is physically sick. Mike arrives, punches Felix, and reveals that Lucy is LP Mayweather, a bestselling author who never needed anyone's money. Felix examines Lucy's notebook and finds only story outlines, character sketches, and maps of fictional kingdoms.

Felix tracks Lucy down and begs forgiveness. Lucy tells him she loves him but cannot be with him: He is not healthy for her. She lost herself in their relationship, never felt secure, and refuses to become someone who tolerates cruelty the way his mother tolerated Luca. Felix is devastated.

Lucy retreats to Little Buckingham and sinks into an obsessive writing fugue, barely eating or sleeping. Felix follows and begins a patient campaign to earn her trust, renovating her writing shed with insulation and heating, buying her dozens of warm coats, and sitting with her quietly without demanding anything. He also overhauls Moretti Harding, dismantling the toxic culture that allowed Will to thrive by removing office walls, adding communal spaces, and addressing systemic problems.

Lucy gradually reemerges. She agrees to attend a major book signing with Felix as her assistant, and he kisses her backstage to snap her out of a panic. At a family dinner, Lucy witnesses Luca's cruelty firsthand and explodes, ordering him out and calling him a "sadistic, narcissistic, disgusting excuse for a human being." Felix's mother, Bianca Moretti, finally stands up to her husband as well, revealing she knows about his affairs.

Weeks later, Lucy surprises Felix at the transformed London office. He abandons a meeting the moment he sees her through the glass, strides to her, and kisses her in front of the entire staff. At home, he reveals he has converted his study into a library with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, framed editions of all her books, and a wall-sized map of her fictional world. He built the room, he tells her, hoping she would want to be there. Lucy moves in, and they build a life between London and Little Buckingham.

In the epilogue, set years later, Felix and Lucy are married with three children, including twins Henry and Bea and a younger son, Jacob, who is a daydreamer like his mother. When Jacob's teacher complains about his inattention, Lucy firmly tells her that society needs its daydreamers. Felix, who once lectured Lucy about the dangers of her dreamy nature, tells his son to "be you," having finally learned that nothing is more powerful than an open heart and a good story.