Hallie Hart, an interior-design intern, moves into a spare room in Wren’s house, a more affordable option that helps her strained finances. Hallie and Wren became friends while Hallie was managing the home’s renovation. Hallie tells Wren that her neighbor Rio has contacted her firm for a project at Wren’s recommendation.

Later, Hallie goes on a date with Brian, a client of her boss, Tyler Braden. He surprises her by driving to the United Center for a Chicago Raptors hockey game. Hallie, who has actively avoided Rio for the six months she has lived in Chicago, is horrified. Her dread increases when she sees that their seats are in the row closest to the ice.

During the game, Hallie discovers that Brian is married when she sees texts from his wife. As she prepares to leave, a player is slammed against the glass directly in front of her. The player who delivered the hit is Rio. When he looks into the crowd, he and Hallie make eye contact, both frozen in shock.

In a flashback to Boston, a 12-year-old Rio feels lonely as an only child and wishes for a new friend in his neighborhood. His wish is granted when the Hart family moves in next door. Rio meets 12-year-old Luke Hart and his sister, Hallie, who’s celebrating her 11th birthday that day. Hallie explains her tradition of choosing a song to commemorate important moments and picks one to remember moving to Boston from Minnesota and meeting Rio. The two form an instant connection and agree to be friends.

The narrative returns to the present. After the hockey game, Rio returns home, wondering if he hallucinated seeing Hallie in the crowd. His question is answered when he sees Hallie herself pull into Wren’s driveway. He confronts her, and they both realize with dread that they’re now next-door neighbors and that Hallie is the designer Rio hired. Hallie explains that she has lived in Chicago for six months and deliberately avoided him during that time. Hurt that she never reached out, Rio becomes angry. They agree that working together is impossible. As Rio walks away, he remembers seeing her with a man at the game and turns back to tell her, “Lose him.”

At a staff meeting, Hallie is praised for landing the project to renovate Rio’s house. She’s forced to tell her boss that the job fell through due to a “conflict of interest” (43), a move that jeopardizes her chances of being hired full-time after her internship. Her supervisor, Tina, privately urges her to salvage the project. Financially desperate and secretly working a second job as a bartender to make ends meet, Hallie goes to the Raptors’ practice rink to find Rio. She begs him to reconsider, explaining how much she needs the job. Overwhelmed, Rio leaves for a week-long road trip without giving her a final answer.

After a phone call with his mother, Mia DeLuca, who wants him to move back to Boston, Rio joins his friends for their weekly Sunday dinner. The group of married couples, including teammate Zanders and his wife, Stevie, as well as Indy and Ryan, tease Rio for being single. When his friends try to set him up, Rio says he’s taking a break from dating. Zanders then mentions seeing Rio with a mysterious woman at practice and describes him as looking “love-sick.” Overwhelmed, Rio retreats to the kitchen, where the women follow. He admits that Hallie was his childhood neighbor in Boston and that they have a difficult history. Indy gently persuades him to help her if she needs the job. Her words resonate, and Rio texts Hallie, “You start tomorrow” (64).

In a flashback to Hallie’s 13th birthday, her family celebrates with the DeLucas. Hallie has a crush on Rio, who is now 14 and best friends with her brother. Rio gives her thoughtful gifts, including a special notebook for her design sketches and a cassette tape. When Luke wants to play video games with him, Rio chooses to stay with Hallie instead. Later that night, Hallie sees Rio sitting on the roof connecting their houses and joins him. He shares his hoodie to keep her warm and confides his insecurities about his hockey skills. Hallie encourages him not to quit. He asks to listen to the annual birthday mixtape she made, and they go to her room. As they listen, Rio hints that he has a crush on her.

Rio and Hallie’s first design meeting is tense and awkward. The meeting is interrupted by a distressing call from her brother, which Hallie tries to conceal. Believing that she has a date afterward, Rio intentionally stalls their meeting. The interaction swings between nostalgic connection and deliberate coldness. When Rio instinctively traces her signature “H heart” drawing, a private gesture from their childhood, the intimacy rattles them both. To re-establish distance, he makes a cruel remark about their past. Hurt by the emotional whiplash, Hallie quits the project, declaring that she would rather remember the boy he was than work with the man he has become.

Hallie arrives home at two o’clock in the morning after a difficult bartending shift, drained from her disastrous meeting with Rio. She finds him sitting on his front steps, waiting for her. He approaches and apologizes for his behavior during their meeting, admitting that he no longer knows how to act around her. He explains that he’s still angry but doesn’t want to be cruel. Hallie confesses that she’s also struggling to navigate their new dynamic. Rio clarifies that he wants to start over, not replace her on the project. Playfully echoing their first meeting, Hallie formally re-introduces herself, and they agree to try to be friends. They schedule a walk-through of his house for the end of the week. After Hallie goes inside, she watches through the peephole as Rio lingers for a moment before returning home.