Summer in the City

Two years later, Elle reads an article about Parker Warren negotiating a deal to sell his company for 10 billion dollars. She complains to Penelope, who has listened to Elle’s hatred of Parker ever since their disastrous club encounter. Penelope tells Elle about the attractive surgeon she’s seeing while Elle waits for her boarding group to be called for the next plane to New York City. It will be Elle’s first time returning since moving to LA, and she does not look forward to spending all summer in a city that only holds bad memories while she oversees her sister, Cali’s, home renovations.

Elle arrives at the lavish apartment. Inside, she opens her laptop and stares at the blank first page of her script. Though she’s struggled with writer’s block, she hopes that coming to the city where the film is set will inspire her. She has a list of locations the film crew has already received permits for, which she plans to visit. Elle spends her first day in the city searching for a coffee shop near the apartment that she can frequent throughout the summer. She finally settles on a shop that’s quaint and cozy. Elle monopolizes a table where she goes through her emails and to-dos but doesn’t write her script. When she returns to the apartment, she encounters her neighbor for the first time—Parker Warren himself. Though Elle has spent every day of the past two years hating him from afar for the false assumptions he made of her that night in the club, she doesn’t let on that she remembers who he is.

Elle calls Penelope, and Penelope shares her dating process with the attractive surgeon in LA. Penelope assures Elle that Parker likely doesn’t remember her, which makes Elle feel worse. She thinks of her mother, who raised her to be independent and to never rely on a man or let anyone control her; her mother’s teachings are why Parker’s false assumptions angered Elle so much. Elle’s thoughts of her mother, who passed away from sickness, cause her grief. After the phone call, Elle takes a shower and orders comfort food. She thinks of how she and Penelope would be going out dancing if Penelope had come with her. Elle opts for a boring night in, as always.

Elle wakes in the middle of the night from the fire alarm. She grabs her laptop, and, upon exiting her unit and heading toward the stairs, she crosses paths with Parker. They are dozens of floors up, so Elle becomes winded while carrying her laptop down the flights of stairs. Parker offers to carry the laptop, which she begrudgingly allows. As they travel down, they banter, and Elle accidentally lets his name slip. She admits his face is on every magazine. He asks for her name in return, which she reluctantly gives. Before they can make it to the ground floor, the alarms cease. They exit the stairwell and take the elevator back up together.

The next morning, Elle regrets speaking to Parker. She throws herself into her hatred for him, which inspires her to work on her script. She writes 10 pages. For the next few days, Elle works from the nearby coffee shop. However, she soon experiences writer’s block. Elle thinks of the day her agent, Sarah, first contacted her about writing the script for this big-budget film. The fee they’d pay her is exorbitant enough that Elle would be able to “have the freedom [her] mom always wanted for [her]” (34). Elle wishes she’d had this kind of money when her mother was receiving treatment without good medical insurance. Elle thinks of her mother’s last year, which was well funded “only because [Elle] was desperate enough to make the biggest mistake of [her] life to get it” (34). But now, Elle can make sure she’s never helpless again.

Elle writes down the six film locations, then stares at the list waiting for inspiration to strike. Her pondering is interrupted by the arrival of Parker, who asks about the list. Parker asks who she is, what she does, and why she’s here, but Elle evades his questions. She reveals only that she is house-sitting for the summer and, because she has ensured she has no internet presence, Elle challenges Parker to internet sleuth if he wishes to learn about her. She writes screenplays under an alias and has no social media, so despite Parker being a tech-genius, he will be unable to learn much.

Six days later, Elle has not made any progress on her script. She is interrupted from an uneventful writing session by a knock on the front door. She is greeted by Parker Warren, who admits he’s had little luck finding her online. He asks her to be his date to a high-class society event. He claims he needs someone he can trust not to sell a story about him to the press and because she doesn’t care enough about him to try. Despite rejecting him, Elle later finds a dress and heels in the hallway outside her apartment. She calls Penelope, who tells her it will be good for Elle to get out of her apartment because she has “become an island” with no social connections (39). Elle admits that she’s finally written, inspired by Parker. Penelope encourages Elle to go on the fake date with Parker, whom she believes is Elle’s muse.

Elle prepares for the date with Parker, and they take his private car to the venue—the home of an heiress named Edith Adelaide who helped Parker receive funding for the prototype he built in college. Parker admits Edith insisted he bring a date, which is why he invited Elle. When Gramercy Park is mentioned, Parker admits he has a key to the exclusive area. Elle is extremely interested, as the townhouse of her dreams is located inside; it was the former home of a kid she tutored while attending Columbia University. At the event, an unpleasant woman named Carissa seems interested in Parker and jealous of Elle’s association with him. Carissa is unimpressed with Elle’s lack of fame or social media presence, believing herself far superior. Another guest, Walter Dresden, asks Elle what she does, and when she replies that she is a writer, he pities her for a career he states has “no money in” it (49). Elle argues there are plenty of successful writers, but Dresden insists there are not but that doesn’t matter if she has a wealthy man like Parker to rely on. This comment rankles Elle, who dislikes that her accomplishments could be overshadowed by the wealth of a significant other. When Elle steps out for air, Parker follows her onto the terrace and quotes one of her movies. She is surprised that he’s learned she is one of the world’s most successful screenwriters, writing under an anonymous identity. He informs her that some of their mail got mixed up; they both received invitations to the 30 Under 30 party. He promises not to tell anyone of her identity.

On the ride home, Elle is riddled with anxiety about who else can uncover her identity. She assures herself no one will care enough to make the connection. Despite wanting to keep the secret alive, she also acknowledges that the secret is a “security blanket” shielding her from meeting studio executives, having social media, receiving hate mail, or experiencing cyberbullying. She admits the lifestyle has kept her from growing up, as nothing has had to change since graduating college.

At their apartment building, Parker asks Elle to be his date for the entire summer. When Elle is appalled by the question, Parker asks why she hates him. Elle unleashes all her assumptions about Parker: that he thinks he’s entitled to everything because of his money, he grew up rich, he started a company because his wish was to be a tech bro, and he sleeps with models every weekend. Parker is bitter and claims she’s wrong about everything. When Elle asks him to unleash his assumptions on her, he claims to believe she went to arts school, her parents sent her to creative writing camps telling her to follow her dreams, and she doesn’t date anyone because she thinks she’s too good for everyone. Elle tells him he’s wrong about everything, too.

Parker asserts that he just wants to date Elle to spend time with her. When he sells his company to Virion in a few months, he will take over as its CEO; he thinks the acquisition will be rocky, and a new relationship would drown out any negative press that could sabotage the deal. In return, he’s noticed Elle has writer’s block and offers to visit all the locations on her list and help her talk through ideas to find inspiration. Elle agrees to dating for the summer. They agree on a September deadline, as they will both be moving back to their respective home cities—Elle to Los Angeles and Parker to San Francisco. When Elle tells Parker the first location on her list is Central Park, Parker suggests they do a run at 7:00 tomorrow morning. Though Elle doesn’t exercise, he doesn’t take no for an answer.

The next morning, Elle and Parker go on a run. At Central Park, she observes the place, searching for inspiration. When Parker notes she’s letting the setting dictate her plot, Elle makes a point of observing the people. She notices a bride and groom getting their pictures taken and the bride looking miserable. While she wonders if the bride doesn’t like the groom, Parker wonders if it’s just the public photography she doesn’t enjoy. Parker asks if Elle wants to get married someday, and she admits that the idea is nice, but her mother raised her to be independent. Marriage seems like the opposite of that. Elle remembers her mother treating her own marriage as a personal failing; she raised Elle and her sister, Cali, to live their lives how they want to and not to let anyone take that freedom away. When she asks Parker the same question, he states that “marriage has to be the least beneficial contract imaginable” (68). They get back to brainstorming the plot of Elle’s script, which she tells Parker is a love story. Elle likes the idea of her love interests bonding over seeing a wedding. She imagines a female love interest hating weddings because she doesn’t believe in love, then wonders what in that character’s past caused this belief. An idea takes shape: Her female lead will be a head costume designer for a movie, and her male lead is the star of it.

The next day, the contractor—Luke—appears to take photos of the apartment’s interior so they can begin renovations soon. Their first interaction is awkward because Elle makes a strange first impression. Parker arrives for their next morning run and acts gruff when he sees Luke. On the run, which only lasts a few minutes due to Elle being out of shape, Parker asks her if she ever sees her own movies. She admits she never goes to the premieres because she is anonymous, but she also prefers to watch them alone. They’re personal because writing is how she makes sense of the world and herself; her characters are how she expresses her emotions. She sees herself through others. When Parker suggests they watch a movie sometime, Elle shuts down the idea; she claims she always gets ahold of the script and takes notes on it throughout the movie, pausing and rewinding constantly. They make it to The High Line, the second location on her list, and Elle takes notes.

Over the next few days, Elle and Parker fall into the routine of morning runs. Parker begins bringing her a latte from her favorite coffee shop. After they part ways, Elle finds herself inspired and writes more of her script. She begins plotting it on notecards, which she haphazardly arranges on her living room floor. She is working with the notecards when she receives a call from her sister, asking about her apartment.