My December Darling

Catalina Martinez, a traveling nurse who works in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), returns to her small hometown of Lake Wisteria, Michigan, for December to help with her younger sister Gabriela's wedding. The situation is complicated: Gabriela's fiancé, Aiden, is Catalina's ex-boyfriend. Though they were never serious, having gone on only a few dates, the situation has strained the sisters' relationship. Catalina partly blames herself, recognizing she dated Aiden to please their mother, a former pageant queen who has always been more affectionate with the agreeable Gabriela than with her quieter older daughter.

At a restaurant lunch, Catalina is caught off guard when Aiden arrives with his best friend and best man, Luke Darling, an ER doctor at the nearby Lake Aurora hospital. Catalina has spoken with Luke only a handful of times and finds him frustratingly cheerful, suspiciously kind, and uncomfortably attractive. She masks her wariness with sharp remarks, dubbing him "Captain America" for his seeming perfection. Luke is drawn to Catalina despite their prickly exchanges. When he accidentally orders a painfully spicy sushi roll, Catalina eats a piece without flinching and swaps their plates. Luke ruins the warm moment with an offhand joke about Catalina not being "the nice sister," and she retreats behind her walls.

During Gabriela's wedding dress fitting, Catalina reflects on the guilt she carries. Gabriela had a crush on Aiden before Catalina ever dated him but never said so, and Catalina still punishes herself for not noticing. Gabriela hopes Catalina might stay in Lake Wisteria longer, but Catalina deflects. She chose traveling nursing partly to avoid emotional entanglements, and her agency is already lining up her next assignment in Los Angeles.

Their dynamic shifts when Luke and Catalina run into each other during a late-night hospital shift. Near a broken coffee machine on the fourth floor, they share their most relaxed conversation yet. Luke buys her coffee, apologizes for his earlier comment, and makes her laugh twice. That night he texts her, and they begin a flirtatious exchange in which he asks her favorite coffee flavor. She tells him hazelnut but resolves to keep him at a distance, wary of complicating her already tense family situation.

Their connection deepens at the town's holiday block party, where Aiden splits a gingerbread house competition into teams: himself and Gabriela versus Luke and Catalina. They discover a shared love of LEGO sets, and Luke catches himself becoming obsessively competitive, a behavior he traces back to his parents' relentless pressure to excel. Over pancakes the next day, Aiden gives his full blessing for Luke to pursue Catalina, revealing he always thought they were better suited for each other.

Gabriela, however, confronts Catalina separately, fearing that if a romance with Luke goes badly, Catalina will retreat from the family again. Catalina promises nothing will happen. Meanwhile, Luke spends seven hundred dollars on a Galactic Command Base LEGO set he knows Catalina wants. After Gabriela eventually reverses her warning and tells Catalina she deserves happiness, Catalina's resistance begins to crack.

A devastating NICU shift, where a premature baby named Sarah Lynn will not survive, leaves Catalina in tears. Luke finds her in the elevator and takes her to a quiet rooftop patio without pressing for details. He shares that he dislikes silence because it reminds him of his lonely childhood with emotionally absent parents. When he cups her cheek, the intensity startles Catalina, and she pulls away, still unwilling to risk her fragile reconciliation with Gabriela.

A breakthrough with her mother eases some of Catalina's burden. While helping bottle coquito, a traditional Puerto Rican coconut drink her late grandmother sold each holiday season, Catalina tells her mother she has always felt like the less-favored daughter. Her mother confesses that her own mother was emotionally distant, and she overcorrected into being overbearing. She tearfully promises to try harder.

Luke orchestrates a dinner at his and Aiden's apartment, where Catalina hears the story of Luke being scammed by a thirteen-year-old who sold him a fake LEGO set labeled "LECO." Catalina agrees to help build the Galactic Command Base on one condition: Luke cannot work on it without her.

Luke offers to help Catalina write her long-procrastinated maid of honor speech, and they begin meeting at Nightcap, a speakeasy-style bar. During their regular hospital coffee meetups, Luke installs a new espresso machine stocked with hazelnut pods. Over drinks at Nightcap, Catalina reveals her insecurities, telling Luke that people in town consider her cold and stuck-up. He firmly disagrees, telling her that being slow to warm up does not make her unlikable. On her parents' porch afterward, Luke kisses her for the first time. Catalina acknowledges the connection terrifies her.

When Luke fails to show up for a planned meetup after losing a patient, Catalina's insecurities flare. He apologizes the next morning, and Catalina forgives him, admitting his absence scared her because she realized she cared. They resume spending time together, though Catalina asks for more time before taking things further.

At a parranda, a Puerto Rican caroling tradition organized by Catalina's mother, Luke surprises Catalina with tembleque, a coconut pudding that was her grandmother and father's favorite. He spent hours perfecting the recipe from scratch. Catalina tastes it, declares it just like her grandmother's, and pulls Luke onto the empty bus to kiss him, the first move she has initiated.

On Christmas Eve, Catalina insists Luke join her family rather than spend the holiday alone. She gives him a LEGO doctor keychain, telling him to remember he is not an imposter. Luke opens up about his parents, and Catalina passionately defends him. They kiss and are caught by Gabriela, making their relationship an open secret.

On the wedding day, Catalina delivers her maid of honor speech, blending humor about sharing boyfriends with her sister and emotion about childhood pretend weddings. She concludes by saying the couple makes her believe "that there is always room for love in our lives, so long as we are open to accepting the kind we think we deserve" (191). Luke notices the unplanned addition and asks if she meant it. She says she thinks so, and he tells her they will figure out what kind of love she deserves together. That night, they consummate their relationship at his apartment.

At the New Year's Eve party, Luke suggests they try long-distance once Catalina leaves for Los Angeles. She worries about what comes after, but he tells her not to. At midnight, he kisses her as fireworks explode, silently vowing to fight for what they have.

Catalina moves to California but misses Lake Wisteria for the first time. When Luke surprises her with an unannounced visit, she tells him she has decided to move back. He is stunned, having prepared an elaborate plan to convince her, and reveals he has been monitoring NICU job openings at the hospital.

In an epilogue set two years later, Catalina and Luke live together near the hospital. Luke surprises Catalina with a rare, limited-edition LEGO set he waited ten hours in line to purchase. Their playful banter turns serious when he retrieves a ring box he built from LEGO bricks and proposes. Catalina says yes without hesitation.