Two weeks later, Allie leaves the gym to find unanswered texts from Sean. She reflects that her feelings for him had dissolved well before their breakup, and that trying to remain friends afterward only prolonged the pain. Arriving at her dorm, she finds Sean waiting outside her door. She refuses to let him in but agrees to meet at a nearby coffee shop.

Sean admits he had selfishly pressured her to move to Vermont out of fear about his own future, then produces two plane tickets to Los Angeles departing the day after graduation, promising to move there with her so she can pursue her acting career. Shocked, Allie starts to say no just as she gets a text from Dean asking for a hookup. When she texts back that she’s with Sean, he responds with alarm. Allie tells Sean their breakup is permanent, returns the tickets, and leaves.

The following day, Dean ignores all Allie’s messages. She walks to the arena but cannot see him on the ice or the team’s bench. A fan’s live tweets provide the answer: Dean has been thrown out of the game.

Dean sits alone in the locker room after being ejected for punching a St. Anthony’s player on the ice. Allie bluffs past security by claiming to be his girlfriend, finds him in the locker room. She assures him she did not reunite with Sean, and he’s visibly relieved. He suggests they drive to New York together for Thanksgiving—he will stay at his family’s Manhattan apartment while she visits her father, and they can meet up privately.

On the drive to New York, Dean and Allie bicker over music and take turns with choosing songs. Allie mentions that she may see her high school ex, Kyle Fletcher, and Dean notes that she’s spent nearly seven consecutive years of her life in serious relationships. He reveals his own longest relationship was with his coach’s daughter, Miranda, which lasted just over a year in high school. He and Miranda had agreed to separate before college, but Miranda grew more and more attached to him. One night he got drunk at a party and she pushed him to have sex. Afterward, she admitted that she’d lied to him when she said she wasn’t a virgin. When he ended the relationship, Miranda experienced a mental health crisis—she stopped taking her depression medication and repeatedly threatened self-harm. Worried, Dean notified her father, who pulled her out of school, blamed Dean for her condition and later punched him when he tried to check on her because Miranda had let O’Shea believe Dean had taken advantage of her while intoxicated.

Listening to Dean’s story, Allie recognizes it as the origin of Dean’s blunt honesty with partners. Near the end of the drive, Dean almost tells Allie he genuinely likes her but stops himself. They arrive at her Brooklyn Heights brownstone, and Allie impulsively invites him to Thanksgiving dinner. He accepts nervously.

Allie’s father, Joe, a retired hockey scout managing multiple sclerosis, takes an immediate dislike to Dean, labeling him “pretty boy,” and interrogating him about his hockey stats. Dinner is punishing. Joe responds to most of what Dean says with withering sarcasm and only animates when speaking directly to Allie. He admits that he never liked Sean, saying it is unhealthy for one person to become another’s entire world.

When Joe’s trembling hands cause the turkey platter to shatter, Allie takes charge and sends Dean to sit with her father. Alone with Dean, Joe states his case plainly: Dean is an entitled rich kid who knows nothing about real hardship and would throw money at problems rather than face them. He closes by declaring he does not trust Dean to take care of his daughter.

The following day, Allie cabs to the Heyward Plaza Hotel, where Dean’s family occupies a three-floor penthouse. Her wide-eyed reaction to each room makes Dean unexpectedly self-conscious, with Joe’s criticisms still echoing in his mind. In Dean’s bedroom, Allie discovers his substantial book collection and teases him for concealing his intelligence. They have sex, and Dean is briefly unsettled by the thought that being with Allie feels like home. They spend the rest of the day in what Dean describes as “the most intense sex marathon [he’s] had in a long time. Or ever” (240).

That evening, Beau text Dean inviting him to a SoHo club with his sister Joanna, a Broadway actress. Since Allie has nothing appropriate to wear, she borrows a dress and heels from Dean’s sister Summer’s designer wardrobe and invites her friend Dillon and Dillon’s boyfriend, Roy, to join them. When Allie finally emerges, Dean feels a flutter he cannot explain.

At the club, Dean uses the Heyward family name to access the VIP section. When Beau and Joanna tease Dean about his classmate Sabrina, he explains that in his sophomore year a TA he was sleeping with had been inflating his grades without his knowledge. When Sabrina complained and the inflation was exposed, the professor—a friend of Dean’s father’s—refused to fail him, awarding a B-plus instead, which disgusted Dean. Sabrina accused him of gaming the system through his connections, and Allie can tell the accusation genuinely bothers him.

Allie’s friend Dillon arrives with her boyfriend Roy, who bears such a strong resemblance to Samuel L. Jackson that he won a recent celebrity look-alike contest. Dillon assumes Dean is Allie’s boyfriend, but Allie insists it is casual. Dean stays physically close throughout the evening, prompting Beau to remark he has never seen Dean behave this way with anyone.

When Beau gets heavily drunk, Dean brings him to the penthouse to sleep it off. He surprises Allie with season two of Solange, which he called ahead and had the concierge procure for them. They watch it together on the couch, and Dean and Allie fool around until Beau reveals he’s still awake, and they laugh.

On Saturday, Dean and Allie return to campus. In the empty parking lot, Allie gives him a passionate kiss before his team bus departs, just as Sean’s fraternity brother walks up and sees them together. She explains they carpooled from New York, but he is visibly skeptical, and she is certain he will tell Sean.

At one in the morning, Allie’s woken by a violent pounding on her dorm door. Sean is in the hallway, drunk and demanding that she let her in. Garrett and Hannah emerge from Hannah’s room, and Garrett yells at Sean to go home or he’ll call the police. Sean insists he won’t leave util Allie talks to him, and Allie agrees to prevent a scene. Inside, Sean confronts her about Dean, and she confirms they have been sleeping together. Sean responds with a tirade, hurling increasing cruel insults at Allie. When he calls her a “disease-ridden whore” (266), Garrett snaps and hauls Sean of the dorm, waiting outside to make sure he leaves in a cab. Allie breaks down sobbing, and Hannah holds her. When Allie discovers her phone dead, she asks Hannah to call Dean, insisting she needs him.

Dean arrives quickly, gets a quick debrief from Hannah and Garrett, and charges into Allie’s bedroom. He holds her while she recounts Sean’s cruel words. Furious but controlled, he insists he is clean and offers to get tested again if she’s worried about it. Allie says she trusts him completely, but it’s too confusing for her to keep sleeping with him when they’re not really together. Dean tells her he wants to be with her. He says they are together. Allie admits she had Hannah call him because he was the only person she wanted after the Sean debacle. She wants to be with him because it feels right. They fall asleep together.

The next morning, Hannah and Garrett interrogate Dean in the kitchen. He tells them to mind their own business. Allie walks out and calmly announces they are a couple. Dean kisses her pointedly in front of them and is promptly expelled from the apartment.

“Allie”

Alone with Allie, Hannah demands all the details of the situation. Allie admits it may have started as a rebound and that Dean is not her usual type, but she’s attracted to his genuine qualities—he’s a great listener, fun to be around, and he’s good to her. Convinced by Allie’s explanation and the fact that Dean was the first person Allie reached for in crisis, Hannah says the person she may need to worry about is Dean, since he seems to have fallen pretty hard.

Over the following week, Allie and Dean are openly a couple. He’s physically affectionate without being controlling. Garrett remains worried Dean will eventually cause damage to their friend group, but Hannah is content as long as Allie appears happy.

One evening, Allie arrives at the small arena where Dean volunteers with his youth hockey team and finds him patiently guiding a young girl through skating basics. The gentleness of the scene produces an unexpected warmth in her. Coach Ellis tells her Dean has a natural gift with children and that they seem to adore one another. He says Dean should consider coaching or teaching as a career.

Walking to Dean’s car afterward, Allie relays Coach Ellis’s compliments. Dean deflects, asking about Allie’s audition for the Fox pilot. She admits she the part doesn’t feel right, and she’s been considering stage work in New York rather than moving Los Angeles so she can stay close to her Dad. Allie admits her fears about the progression of Joe’s MS, and Dean is struck by the weight she has been quietly carrying.

That evening at the house, Dean’s younger sister Summer makes an unannounced visit and throws her arms around him. Allie, seeing an unfamiliar young woman embrace her boyfriend, immediately introduces herself as Dean’s girlfriend. Dean steps in and clarifies that Summer is his sister.