PS: I Hate You

Two months after the twins’ graduation, Dom arrives in Seattle to stay with Maddie in her condo before their Idaho trip. When he arrives, they immediately have sex after the long period apart.

Not long after Dom arrives, Jeremy knocks on Maddie’s front door, prompting a confrontation between the two men. Dom is hurt to learn that Maddie’s friends don’t know about him and that she introduces him as her brother’s best friend. Meanwhile, Jeremy is hurt to learn that Dom has been accompanying Maddie on all her trips while she led Jeremy and Tula to believe she was traveling alone. The men are awkward but cordial, despite Maddie’s screw-up. After Jeremy leaves, Dom mentions he has a gift for Maddie: He gives her the letterman jacket for his rec-baseball team that she has desperately wanted.

Maddie and Dom travel to Alpine Lake, Idaho, and make the hike on Maddie’s birthday. At the end of the trail, they open Josh’s letter. He asks them to tell each other what their futures look like and what they dream for themselves. He shares that he lost his will to hope after his diagnosis. He eventually found it again and realized that he can still have dreams and hopes for his future, even if it’s limited. He writes that his dreams are coming true because he’s learned to ask for what he wants, sooner rather than later. He requests that they take a picture and leave his ashes among the trees.

Dom goes first, admitting that his perfect future has Maddie in it. He wishes her a happy birthday, and she reflects that though her last birthday was tainted by Cecilia, spending this birthday with Dom has made it special again. Maddie kisses Dom and tells him that her perfect future includes more birthdays like this.

Maddie goes to the office for an important presentation and learns the elevator is broken. She must climb 12 flights of stairs in 30 minutes to make it on time, and she becomes worried about her asthma. She calls Pamela and asks to present virtually, but Pamela, who isn’t aware that Maddie has asthma, insists that Maddie be there in person.

Maddie calls Dom and asks him to distract her while she climbs. She mutes herself as Dom sings. With a few breaks, Maddie finally makes it to the 12th floor with three minutes to spare. When she unmutes to say goodbye, Dom becomes concerned about her breathlessness and demands to know what she just did. Maddie says she needed to climb some steps at work due to an elevator being broken. She hangs up after accidentally saying she loves him.

After the presentation and morning meetings, she retreats to a private cubicle. She checks her phone and finds texts from Dominic asking her to call him. He looked up her company’s website and learned she climbed 12 flights of stairs and is worried about her. Maddie also has a text from Adam, asking what happened between her and Dom on their last trip because Dom is in a sour mood.

Maddie calls Dom and assures him that she’s alright. She then asks what she should tell Adam about them. Dom claims he wants to be Maddie’s monogamous partner, and she accepts. As she hangs up from the call, she slips up again, saying she loves him.

One week before her next trip with Dom, Maddie is getting things in order at work so their trip to North Dakota can be uninterrupted. She receives a call from the reception desk about a visitor asking for her. Maddie believes it is Dom coming to surprise her but instead discovers Cecilia waiting for her.

They grab lunch, and Cecilia says she looks forward to reading the letters Josh left for Maddie. Maddie refuses to share the letters with Cecilia, which makes her mother angry. Her mother berates Maddie, claiming she is to blame for driving her father away. Further, she says that while Josh, Dom, and Rosaline all had promise when they were younger, all Maddie did was annoy them or sit with her books “reading about make-believe worlds instead of living in the real one” (321).

Maddie tells Cecilia never to contact her again, or she will reveal Cecilia’s true nature to all her online followers. When Maddie leaves the restaurant, she attempts to call Dom, who doesn’t answer. Instead, she calls Jeremy and attempts to be more open with him. She tells him she is dealing with mom drama but would rather not talk about it. Jeremy understands and offers his support whenever she needs it.

Maddie arrives at the bed and breakfast she booked in North Dakota and waits for Dom to arrive. She turns off airplane mode on her phone, which she forgot to turn back on after landing, and gets missed calls and texts from Dom. She calls him back without reading his texts and learns that he has missed his flight. He reveals that a pipe burst in his and Rosaline’s house. Though he goes on to explain how he got delayed trying to save Rosaline’s belongings, Maddie disappears into her own thoughts. Her insecurities about being abandoned again, especially by Dom for Rosaline, come to the forefront of her mind.

Dom says that storms are grounding the planes, and he can’t catch a flight out until the next day. Maddie feels abandoned and lashes out at him before hanging up. She decides he shouldn’t bother coming at all and plans to spread the ashes herself.

Maddie drives to Josh’s coordinates and calls Dom back. She forces him to read the letter to her, threatening to spread the ashes without reading it if he doesn’t. Dom begins reading the letter over the phone, but when he arrives at the task Josh wants them to complete together, he stops and refuses to read further, claiming they should be face-to-face.

Maddie refuses to take this as an answer; she ends the call and angrily unseals the container holding the portion of Josh’s ashes. She accidentally drops it, dumping Josh’s ashes on the ground. Maddie collapses to her knees, sobbing, and loses her breath. She uses her inhaler, but the recovery from the attack takes much longer alone, without anyone to comfort or distract her.

Maddie travels back to Seattle, where she works from home and barely leaves her bed or couch. After a week, someone knocks on her front door. She expects Jeremy but is surprised to find Adam and Carter there. They invite her to get food with them, and on the drive to Taco Bell, an old tradition, they confront her for not answering their texts. They ask if something happened between her and Dom.

Adam reveals that when she disappeared the first time years ago, Dom told him that Dom was the reason—he hurt Maddie and caused her to leave. Maddie admits that Dom didn’t do anything wrong this time; she just realized a relationship between them wouldn’t work. Though Maddie had planned to send them home after grabbing food, she realizes that she feels a little better with them around. They feel like brothers.

They return to Maddie’s apartment, where they are joined by Tula, Jeremy, and Jeremy’s boyfriend Carlisle. Someone knocks on Maddie’s door, and it is Dom. Maddie’s friends vacate the condo to give them space to talk. Dom insists on reading Maddie the North Dakota letter. In it, Josh tasks Maddie with listening and Dom with speaking. He instructs Dom to tell Maddie everything and not hold back.

Dom reveals to Maddie that before his death, Josh pressured him and Rosaline to rebuild their marriage after his death in order to support each other. However, Dom refused, eventually admitting to Josh that he and Rosaline should have never gotten married; he’s been in love with Maddie the entire time. Dom tells Maddie that he and Rosaline got married because she was pregnant. When she lost the baby a month into their marriage, they decided to try to make it work. It wasn’t until Josh was dying that they reflected and decided to end things.

Maddie begins to understand why Josh sent them on this journey together—he knew about Dom’s feelings for Maddie and sought to play matchmaker from the grave. Dom admits that leaving Maddie back then was a mistake that he will never make again, but Maddie is not ready to trust him. Dom insists that he will wait patiently nearby until she is ready to try. He reveals that he has quit his job and gotten a new job at her current workplace. He also bought a townhouse in Seattle, within walking distance of her condo.