To Love Jason Thorn

Six-year-old Olive Taylor first meets Jason when her mother, Emily, invites him to spend the night at their San Francisco home after his own mother falls asleep and locks him out. Jason is a new neighbor and friend of Olive's older brother, Dylan. When Olive encounters Jason on the staircase, she is captivated by his dimple and feels butterflies for the first time. She boldly asks him to marry her. He gently declines, calling her "little one," and tugs a strand of her hair, a gesture that becomes his signature greeting.

Seven years later, thirteen-year-old Olive borrows a friend's phone and anonymously texts Jason, pretending to be an admirer named Michelle to learn whether he has feelings for her. Instead, Jason describes Dylan's sister as "just a little kid" and "a clingy one." Olive is devastated and deletes the messages. Not long after, Emily wakes Jason with news that his mother, Lorelai, has died of a sleeping pill overdose. Jason's largely absent father forces him to relocate to Los Angeles. On the Taylor family's front lawn, Jason says goodbye to each of them, catches a tear from Olive's cheek, and disappears from their lives.

Eight years later, Jason is a twenty-six-year-old movie star with two Oscar nominations whose reckless behavior threatens his career. His publicist, Megan McDowell, and his agent, Tom Symond, warn him that studios are dropping him because of constant scandal. Meanwhile, Olive is a college student at USC and the indie author of a bestselling debut novel, Soul Ache. She attends a meeting at Dream Catch Studios about optioning her book for a film, and Jason walks in with Tom. He recognizes Olive, pulls her out of the meeting to catch up, and drives her home to meet her roommates: her best friend Lucy; Charlotte, a shy English major; and Marcus, Olive's ex-boyfriend, whom Jason immediately dislikes.

Jason and Olive reconnect over the following days. He arranges for Tom to review her contract and takes her to his Bel Air mansion, where they share Chinese takeout by the pool. The terms give Olive no control over script changes, but the purchase price will be three percent of the film's funding. Jason's crisis deepens when he is blackmailed over a video of an encounter with a costar. He refuses to pay. Tom argues that the Soul Ache adaptation can rehabilitate Jason's image and suggests Olive based Isaac, the novel's male lead, on Jason himself. Megan proposes that Jason enter a fake marriage to transform his public persona, and when paparazzi photographs of Jason and Olive in an intimate-looking exchange go viral, Megan and Tom present the photos as proof that Olive is the ideal candidate.

One evening, Jason drives to a karaoke bar where Olive is celebrating her movie deal. Watching her sing, he begins to recognize his attraction. He takes Olive to dinner at Soho House and, back at his house, explains the arrangement: a fake marriage with Olive living across the hall from his room, their backstory as childhood friends making the union believable. They nearly kiss by the pool before Jason's phone interrupts. That night, Olive confides in Lucy, who tells her to accept, insisting this is her chance to make Jason fall in love with her. When paparazzi corner Olive at a café the next morning, Jason races to rescue her. Inside the bathroom, Olive tells him yes. They leave hand in hand, photographed by the waiting press.

Jason and Olive follow Megan's instructions for a convincing public courtship, appearing together at coffee shops, dinners, and farmers' markets. They travel to London for the premiere of Jason's latest film, The Witness. In their hotel suite, a stalker attacks Olive with a taser before security intervenes. Shaken, Jason insists Olive sleep in his bed, and their physical tension escalates. At the premiere, when photographers demand a kiss, Jason gives Olive only a brief peck. Her visible disappointment goes viral, with headlines mocking him as a "bad kisser."

Back in Los Angeles, they quietly marry at Jason's home with only Lucy, Tom, and Megan present. Jason leaves for the film set immediately afterward, and Olive spends her wedding day alone, getting drunk on champagne. Jason comes home late, finds her gone, and tracks her to her old apartment, where he confronts Marcus and carries Olive home. In bed, drunk Olive begs to consummate the marriage. Jason gently refuses but is deeply moved when she whispers that she "just wants Jason." He holds her through the night, realizing he cannot let her go when the arrangement ends.

A magazine photo shoot announces their marriage publicly. Their chemistry is palpable, and when they reveal during the interview that they are already married, the team is stunned. At a cast and crew party, Olive sings Ed Sheeran's "Kiss Me" on stage. Jason crosses the room, asks, "Do you see me, Olive?" and she answers, "I've always seen just you, Jason." He kisses her deeply in front of everyone. Back at his house, they are physically intimate for the first time. Jason tells her, "In all the ways that matter, I'm your first."

They settle into a passionate routine as filming begins. Olive writes her second novel in Jason's trailer between takes, though watching Jason kiss his costar Lindsay Dunlop on camera unsettles her. At the opening of a friend's nightclub, Charlotte confesses she slept with Marcus while he and Olive were still dating. Before Olive can process this, Lucy learns that Jameson, her on-again-off-again lover, has been in a motorcycle accident. Olive and Lucy rush to the hospital, leaving the club without telling Jason.

Photos surface showing Jason with Charlotte's friend Lily on his lap at the club. Olive sees the article at the hospital and is crushed. Jason wakes disoriented with no memory of the night; his assistant Alvin and friend Devlin Parker explain that someone spiked his drink. Jason confronts Lily, who admits that she and Charlotte orchestrated the drugging and staged the photos. Megan suppresses an anonymous tip claiming the marriage is fake, but Olive has already flown to San Francisco.

Olive's parents embrace her without judgment. Jason follows that same night. Dylan meets him at the door and refuses to let him inside, but Jason declares he is in love with Olive. Her father, Logan, a fireman Jason deeply respects, intervenes and invites Jason to talk. After hearing the full truth, Logan accepts Jason's sincerity. On the porch, Dylan confesses that the hurtful texts Olive received years ago were not written by Jason. Dylan had taken Jason's phone and sent them himself to protect his little sister.

Jason sneaks into Olive's childhood bedroom and explains everything. Olive calls Lucy, who confirms his account. Jason tells Olive he fell in love with her the night he watched her sing at the karaoke bar. She confesses, "I love you, Jason Thorn." He reveals that the hurtful texts were Dylan's doing, and they resolve to return home together.

In the epilogue, Jason arranges a secret final scene on the Soul Ache set, convincing the director to let Olive, wearing a wig, stand in for the closing shot: a kiss in fake rain. As cameras roll, Jason whispers that this was always their story and that Olive wrote them into their own happy ending. They kiss under the artificial rain, a private moment hidden inside the film. Olive tells Jason he has been "the best kind of heartache," and the director calls, "That's a wrap."