Summer in the City

Elle shows up to the address given to her by Parker, dressed in casual attire fit for playing basketball. When Parker’s friends seem amused and the girlfriends seem confused, she realizes that the girlfriends aren’t meant to participate but rather watch as the men play. Parker asks if Elle wants to play, but his friend, Charles, insists she can’t because she’ll make the teams uneven. When another girlfriend, Taryn, says she’ll play to even out the teams, Parker ensures it happens. Despite the fact that Elle doesn’t exercise, she played basketball in school and outshines everyone during the game. Her team wins, and Parker is proud of Elle. They put on a convincing performance of dating, which is emotionally confusing for Elle. Elle suspects Charles is the friend selling stories about Parker, which he agrees with. Parker admits it is hard for him to make friends because there’s always the suspicion that they only want to be affiliated with his success. They make plans to visit the third location on Elle’s list tomorrow morning at nine o’clock.

Elle and Parker visit Summit One Vanderbilt, where there is a floor of glass and mirrors that reflect the city below. Parker, who is afraid of heights, is terrified but manages to endure the experience with Elle’s support. Something changes between them after this experience—their relationship gains vulnerability and trust. They visit a diner for milkshakes, and Parker receives a business call. He says that he is needed back in San Francisco but return soon. Elle realizes she will miss him.

After picking paint colors with Luke, the contractor, Elle plots her script on the living room floor. Penelope interrupts with a call, informing Elle that Parker is on the news. Elle watches news break that the Atomic Acquisition is in trouble, and Virion stock has dropped. While Elle worries the sale isn’t happening, Penelope believes it’s just a leak from competitors, but neither company has confirmed the news to be true. Elle is surprised at how defensive she feels about Parker.

A week later, Elle is angrily typing on her laptop in her favorite coffee shop when Parker returns from San Francisco. When she asks about the news, Parker reveals that Virion wants to sell Atomic’s data, but Parker refused because he prioritizes his customers’ privacy. Parker notices Elle is upset and asks what’s wrong. She states the coffee shop has stopped making her favorite blueberry scone. Elle receives a text from Emily, Taryn, and Gwen—the girlfriends of Parker’s friends. They invite Elle to dinner, but her immediate impulse is to use an excuse to decline, as she always does with social outings. Parker convinces her to accept the invitation.

Elle meets the girls at the Golden Unicorn in Chinatown. Emily reveals she broke up with Charles a few days ago, and the girls support this decision; she reveals that Charles was selling stories about Parker to the press. When they broke up, Emily threatened to tell the media negative things about Charles if he leaked anything about Elle and Parker’s relationship. Elle appreciates this act of friendship from Emily, even if the whole point of her fake relationship with Parker is to have it leaked to the press to distract from his acquisition. After dinner, the girls go to a karaoke bar in K-Town. Elle has the most fun she’s had in a long time and returns home at two o’clock in the morning. The apartment’s door lock is digital and requires her phone, which died sometime throughout the night. Rather than knock on Parker’s door and ask to stay there, she collapses on an uncomfortable bench in the hall outside their apartments and falls asleep.

Elle is woken by Parker at three o’clock. He has just returned from a middle-of-the-night workout because he couldn’t sleep. Though she insists on staying in the hallway until Luke arrives to let her in the apartment, Parker convinces her to stay at his place. He gives her clothes to change into, and she raids his kitchen for snacks. She accidentally knocks over a vase, which shatters on the floor. Parker lifts her away from the wreckage until he can clean it all up. Elle watches him as he does. Her drunkenness prompts her to admit aloud that she missed him while he was gone. They become close, and though she wants to kiss him, he doesn’t want to take advantage of the situation and instead sends her to bed.

The next morning, Elle wakes to Parker making breakfast. She is surprised to find an identical vase on the countertop. Parker says his mom gifted him a set; Elle is intrigued because the vases are hideous. Elle asks about his cooking ability, and Parker tells her that his mom taught him when he was a teenager. Elle tells him about Emily and Charles’s breakup and confirms Charles was the friend selling stories about Parker. Upon hearing that Emily threatened Charles not to sell their relationship to the press, Parker and Elle decide to make a public appearance. Parker invites Elle to an upcoming art auction.

The art auction is heavily publicized because the largest diamond ever discovered is being auctioned off, and all the heads of jewelry companies are prepared to fight over it. Before the auction, they attend a final viewing of all the jewelry pieces. Elle stops to regard a pair of ruby earrings displayed behind a strange mushroom-resembling bracelet. She smiles while remembering how her mom used to clip fake ruby earrings to their ears and tiptoe around the house pretending they were fancy. At the auction, when the mushroom bracelet fills the screen, Parker bids on it, eventually securing it for $300,000.

During a brief intermission, Parker reveals he got the bracelet because he saw Elle smile at it. She admits that she was smiling at the ruby earrings behind it. Elle sits out the second half of the auction, leaving Parker to attend alone. Elle wanders the gallery looking at art pieces until the auction is over. When Parker returns, he reveals he bought the necklace with the biggest diamond in existence for 50 million dollars. He places it around Elle’s neck before they exit the venue, ensuring that all the cameras will be on them. Though Elle is anxious from the flashes of the photographers and the magnitude of the crowd outside, she clings to Parker for reassurance.

In privacy, Elle panics and asks him to remove the necklace, which is covering her mother’s necklace that she wears every day. Elle wonders what her mother would think if she saw her with Parker, wearing this extravagant necklace; she lashes out. She admits that she can’t be with someone like Parker: Even though she doesn’t write scripts for the money, all her accomplishments feel like nothing in comparison to his success. Parker takes her rudeness in stride and simply leaves her with another gift—the ruby earrings she was admiring at the gallery.

During the car ride back to their apartments, Elle is overcome by memories of her mother, whom she feels she’d have disappointed with her behavior. At a stoplight, Elle exits the car, forcing Parker to run after her. He stays even when it begins to rain on them. Elle states how she hates New York City, and it’s filled with bad memories, to which Parker suggests that she paint over them with new, positive ones. Elle lashes out at Parker when he attempts to comfort her, claiming all he cares about is his money and his company. Parker is angered by her false assumptions. Elle finally admits that they’ve met before and that he made false assumptions about her that night at the club, assuming she was a gold-digger after his money. Parker says he remembers her and apologizes for ever judging her, admitting he was wrong. They share a passionate kiss before Parker leaves.

Articles release about Parker’s mystery woman, but the press can’t find anything substantial about her identity, to Elle’s relief. She calls Penelope to tell her friend that Parker remembers who she is. Elle avoids Parker for the next three days but manages to make significant progress in her script.

By the fourth day of writing, Elle has reached a stopping point. She must visit the fourth location before she can keep going. She reluctantly invites Parker to the Cloisters. While there, Elle shares with Parker that the studio wanted a New York-inspired movie, but the final location is Paris. He insists they should go to fulfill their deal, but Elle rejects the idea. Parker also has a lofty goal of walking the length of Manhattan to commemorate their progress with the near-daily runs they’ve been doing all summer, which Elle thinks is ridiculous, if not impossible.

When they visit her favorite coffee shop after their Cloisters visit, Elle is shocked to realize they’re selling the blueberry scones again, and in great quantity. She learns that Parker has bought the entire chain, insisted they keep her favorite latte and scone in stock always, and her favorite table free. Though he did it out of kindness because he loves seeing Elle happy, she reacts defensively. She tells him that he can’t buy her happiness, and if he thinks he can, he never knew her at all.