Tis the Season for Revenge (seasons of Revenge, #1)

Abbie Keller, a 28-year-old makeup artist at a department store on Long Island, spends weeks crafting a bunny costume for her boyfriend Richard Benson's company Halloween party. After four years of dating Richard, a lawyer at the prestigious firm Schmidt and Martinez, Abbie has never been invited to any of his work events. She believes this party is a turning point, having discovered his grandmother's ring hidden in his sock drawer and begun fantasizing about a proposal at the firm's Christmas party. Over those years, Abbie has reshaped herself to fit Richard's idea of a serious partner: dyeing her blonde hair brunette, adopting a conservative wardrobe, giving up hobbies he deemed childish, and managing his entire personal schedule without pay or acknowledgment.

When Abbie gets into Richard's car, he recoils at her costume and abruptly breaks up with her. He tells her she was never going to be "it" for him, dismisses her career in makeup, and reveals he never intended to commit. A police officer interrupts because the car is parked in a fire lane, and Richard tells the officer Abbie "was just getting out." She exits and watches him drive away.

That same evening, at the party Abbie never reached, Damien Martinez, the 42-year-old founding partner of Schmidt and Martinez, stands in a corner swiping through a dating app. Despite a life of meticulously achieved goals, Damien feels bored and unfulfilled. When Richard approaches, Damien notes his contempt for a man he considers a weasel who coasts on nepotism. Richard dismisses his recently dumped girlfriend as "filler" and "a reliable piece of ass," confirming every negative impression Damien holds.

Back at Abbie's apartment, her best friends Cami and Kat arrive with tequila and comfort food. As they dissect the breakup, Abbie begins to see the full scope of Richard's manipulation. While swiping through a dating app Kat set up for her, Abbie spots Damien's profile, recognizes him as Richard's boss, and matches with him. She announces her plan: date Damien, secure an invitation to the firm's Christmas party, and walk in on his arm to show Richard what he lost.

The friends create a two-pronged revenge strategy they call "Project: Payback Dickhead." Using her lingering access to Richard's accounts, Abbie switches his diet coffee order to full-fat and cancels his hair-loss products. Cami separately posts Richard's office number on an online forum, flooding his work line with calls. Later pranks include putting glitter in his car vents and taping his cell number to hundreds of keys scattered across the city. The second prong is dating Damien. Kat extracts a promise: if Damien turns out to be looking for something serious, Abbie will end the scheme. Cami, whose own experience of being deceived by a married man has left her deeply cynical, creates a "burn jar" documenting Richard's worst behaviors to keep Abbie motivated.

On their first date, Abbie attempts to order whiskey to match Damien's tastes but coughs violently after a sip. He laughs kindly and switches her to champagne. Damien listens with genuine interest, never checks his phone, and validates her career rather than dismissing it. He tells her honestly that he is not looking for anything serious but insists on exclusivity. After dinner, they walk through Midtown, and Damien mentions that his firm's Christmas party is held in the Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center, offering to bring her if things go well. He asks permission to kiss her, and they share their first kiss as a snowflake drifts onto his sleeve.

Their relationship develops rapidly. Damien is attentive and generous in ways that shock Abbie, conditioned as she is by Richard's neglect. He insists she stay the night after they first sleep together, tells her that her job is just as important as his, and drives her home to Long Island during rush hour. When he takes on a pro bono domestic violence case for a woman named Sharon, he asks Abbie to do Sharon's makeup before a court appearance. Sharon's account of abuse forces Abbie to confront parallels to her own experience with Richard. Damien kisses Abbie casually in public, something Richard refused to do.

Each milestone pushes the relationship further past casual. Damien abandons a fancy dinner to take Abbie to a concert she skipped because Richard once called it childish, reuniting her with Cami and Kat at Madison Square Garden. He tells her to wear pink whenever she is with him after learning Richard forbade it. When Abbie invites him to Thanksgiving at her sister Hannah's home, he reciprocates by inviting her to meet his family after Christmas. That night, Abbie confesses her deepest fear: that she is like her mother, who lost herself in a man, which is why she does not want children. Damien shares that he does not want children either and tells her she alone makes him happy.

As the Christmas party approaches, Abbie's guilt intensifies. Kat explains that naranja, the Spanish pet name Damien has used since their first morning together, derives from media naranja, meaning "my other half." Abbie tells Cami she plans to confess everything, but Cami fights the decision, projecting her own unhealed trauma. Then Richard texts demanding Abbie delete all photos of him from social media, and the reminder of his cruelty temporarily reignites her resolve.

On the night of the party, Abbie tries multiple times to tell Damien the truth, but he keeps interrupting: once to swap her conservative black dress for the pink one she truly loves, once when they become physically intimate, and again in the elevator, where he tells her their relationship is real. He introduces her to the entire firm as his "beautiful girlfriend," and for a dizzying hour Abbie experiences the party she once dreamed of attending.

The fantasy shatters when Richard, drunk and furious over not receiving his expected promotion, publicly reveals that Abbie is his ex and accuses her of dating Damien for revenge. Damien asks if this is true, and Abbie confirms it. She unleashes years of suppressed anger at Richard, confessing every manipulation she endured and every prank she orchestrated. Damien punches Richard in the jaw and walks out. When Richard grabs Abbie's wrist, Simon Schmidt, the firm's co-founder and Richard's grandfather, intervenes. When Richard insults Damien as "a piece of trash from the Bronx," Abbie punches Richard in the face. Simon tells her to go after Damien, and she sprints down 60 flights of stairs and through Rockefeller Plaza.

She finds Damien across the street and delivers a full confession: the dating app match on Halloween night, the drunken scheme, and the three lies of concealing her identity as Richard's ex, faking a love of whiskey, and pretending to like country music. Damien reveals he had only stepped outside for air. He tells her he does not blame her for wanting revenge and that he is falling in love with her. They kiss in the falling snow, agreeing to spend four years building their relationship before taking any next steps.

On Christmas Day, Damien gives Abbie gifts reflecting intimate knowledge of her, including a heated blanket for her cold bedroom, pink sweats to keep at his place, and plane tickets to Bora Bora coordinated secretly with Kat. He explains that naranja comes from his father's term for his mother and that he knew Abbie was his other half from their first morning together. He tells her he loves her, and she says it back.

In the epilogue, set three years later at the same Christmas party, Damien proposes in front of the entire firm, with Hannah, her husband Hunter, Cami, and Kat secretly in attendance. Richard was fired shortly after that first party and has not been seen since. With one year remaining in their agreed-upon four-year timeline, the early proposal catches Abbie off guard. She says yes, wearing a pink diamond necklace and an engagement ring with a matching pink diamond.