The Rom-Commers

As she falls, she feels terrible for what she did to Charlie but is completely surprised when he jumps off the high dive and into the pool to save her. Charlie gets her inside and helps her to change, as Emma is too cold to do it herself. They end up kissing again, and Emma knows they shouldn’t, but she doesn’t care. Charlie stops them as Emma tries to get into his bed, in part because she drank an entire bottle of champagne. Emma is unable to sway him and asks why Charlie doesn’t like her. Charlie tries to tell her that he doesn’t not like her, but he thinks they cannot have a relationship because of him and his problems. Emma doesn’t believe this but takes his “no” as a final answer.

Emma wakes up the next morning to a call from Sylvie, telling her that their dad fell down their concrete stairs, is in the ICU, and she needs to come home immediately. Emma leaves for the airport immediately, not even leaving a note for Charlie, as Sylvie changes her flight. En route to the airport, the sisters talk by phone, and Sylvie tells her that their father took a hard fall after thinking he could take one flight of stairs by himself when the elevator wasn’t working. He is experiencing a brain bleed and is currently in emergency surgery.

Sylvie admits that their neighbor’s grandson had to call 911, as Sylvie and Salvador were on a date that their dad insisted they take. Salvador and their dad had concocted a scheme together for Salvador to propose to Sylvie. Emma wants to empathize with her, but she feels incredibly angry and hates Sylvie for not doing the one thing she was supposed to do. Emma tells Sylvie that if Sylvie’s trip to the beach killed their father, she wouldn’t talk to her again, and Sylvie says that that would make them even, as her camping trip killed their mother. There is traffic getting to the airport and long lines at security, and Emma feels nothing but anger, hurt, and shame as she thinks of everything that happened in the last few hours. However, she is surprised to learn that they are holding the plane for her, as Salvador’s mother works for the airline, but she will need to sprint to the gate.

Emma’s father doesn’t die, the surgery is successful, and he makes a full recovery. He apologizes for scaring Emma, who can’t bring herself to talk to Sylvie. She learns that her father wasn’t alone when he fell and was with their neighbor, Mrs. Otsuka, whom he had been seeing after her husband died. Emma is so happy for him, and he thinks that her mom would be happy too. Emma tries to ignore Sylvie and converses with her through Salvador. When Emma finally gets home the next day, she sees Charlie at her doorstep. Emma doesn’t want to speak with him but still asks him why he came. Charlie admits that he wants to be there for her so she doesn’t have to go through this alone, but Emma tells him that people who are only work colleagues don’t do that. She tells him that seeing him makes her feel worse, and she tells him to leave.

Emma tries to return to her normal life, wanting to forget everything that happened in LA. During the 10 days, her father stays in the hospital, they have a surprisingly good time as he is upgraded to a VIP room and taken great care of by the nurses. One day, when they are alone, her dad explicitly tells Emma that his fall wasn’t Sylvie’s fault, not any more than her mother’s death was Emma’s fault. Emma tells him about her guilt over her mother’s death and asks for his forgiveness, but he says there is nothing to forgive. Her father says she can’t live by trying to predict the unpredictable, knowing that that is what she has always done.

Once their father is stable, Sylvie and Salvador announce that they are getting married in the hospital room. Sylvie asks Emma to be her maid of honor, begging her to forgive her for what she said, which she regretted as she was saying it. Emma thinks the wedding is simple but perfect, and she cries uncontrollably.

Over the next two weeks, Emma reflects on her feelings for Charlie and recognizes she shouldn’t be moping but instead should be happy that her adventure in LA happened in the first place. She receives a call from Logan, telling her that Donna Cole wants to produce her screenplay, The Rom-Commers. Emma is shocked not only that Donna Cole wants her screenplay but also because she has not written one called The Rom-Commers. Logan explains that Charlie changed the name of their screenplay and changed the plot to be about two screenwriters falling in love. Charlie had written it in the two weeks since she kicked him out, having been cured of “the yips” by Emma. When Logan sends her the draft, she sees that she has a writing credit and top billing. Donna wants to meet with both writers in a few days, as she had known she wanted the screenplay within an hour of reading it.

Emma is terrified and exhilarated as she meets with Donna, but Charlie is unable to show up and Emma is glad of that. Donna offhandedly reveals that Charlie had recently managed to get the nurses at an ICU to take extra good care of a sick old man, and Logan seems to know something about it. Emma asks Logan about it, and he says that Charlie is in love with her, but Emma still doesn’t believe it. Charlie is attending an award show at a nearby hotel, at which Logan books a room for Emma. He asks her to come with him to see Charlie, but Emma declines.

Logan wants to show Emma a video that Charlie made for her, despite Charlie only wanting Logan to share it with her after he dies. Shocked and frightened, Emma goes to her hotel room to watch the video, and she can tell it is from the day he got into the bar fight. In the video, Charlie tells Emma that he had just learned that his cancer had returned and metastasized to his lungs. He tells her that he doesn’t want her to be around him, knowing it would only end in heartbreak for her. He also admits that he does not want to die because he wants to spend more time with her and actually does like her. In the video, he also says that he will never tell her any of this in person, knowing that she will want to take care of him, and it will stop her life just as it did when she began taking care of her father.

Emma runs down to the ballroom where the awards show is taking place, crying the whole time. She comes in just as Charlie takes the stage, and she forces herself not to run to him. Charlie jokes about taking a phone call on stage, something he had done at a previous awards show, but says he is waiting for a call. Charlie gives an impromptu speech about how he discovered love in the last few weeks after being cynical about it for a long time. As Emma recognizes that this entire speech is about her being right, Charlie’s phone rings, and he answers the call in front of everyone, then begins to cry. Charlie reveals that a few weeks ago, he had bronchitis, and his cancer was a misdiagnosis. Charlie finally spots Emma in the crowd and jumps off the stage to go to her. Though Emma is mad that he lied to her about being sick and having feelings for her, they both can’t believe that none of it matters anymore. They admit that they love each other and kiss as the audience cheers.

Emma’s dad and Mrs. Otsuka get married, and he moves in next door so Sylvie and Salvador can have his apartment. Emma moves to LA to keep writing and begins by living alone in an apartment near Charlie’s house. Charlie asks Emma to marry him every day, but Emma resists saying yes. They spend summers in Texas as their jobs are portable, and they keep going to line-dancing lessons. Emma and Charlie keep writing together, and The Rom-Commers is a box office hit. When they are interviewed together, Charlie always refers to Emma, and they eventually move in together. A week after Emma’s dad and Mrs. Otsuka are married, Emma and Charlie get married in the same spot. Emma ends the novel by talking about a handful of tragedies that have befallen her and her family but tells the audience that tragedy is a given and that how you choose to tell the story of it is what really matters.