Katie reacts with disbelief that her irritating, unremarkable coworker Cole Hutcheson could be the brother of viral rescue hero “Puppy Love,” whose real name/nickname is Hutch. Cole vents his resentment, insisting Hutch is a perfect, joyless machine: morally upright, physically exceptional, serious, sober, celibate for a year, and relentlessly competent. Cole concludes that a man that attractive who stays single must “hate love,” prompting Katie to reflect on her own year of not dating.

This leads Katie into the backstory of her breakup with her ex-fiancé, Lucas Banks. On the night Lucas proposed, a TikTok song of his went viral, launching his career. As Lucas’s fame surged, Katie, tied to her full-time video job, could not join his touring life. Distance grew, and paparazzi photos eventually revealed Lucas’s affair with newly married pop star Lili Ventura. After confronting Lucas by text and getting a non-answer, Katie ended the relationship.

Katie recalls how online ridicule from an awards show—where commenters mocked her looks and dress—devastated her self-image. In response, she adopted an extreme starvation diet of 1,000 daily calories, wore only black jeans and T-shirts, and reduced her journals to calorie logs. She acknowledges the regime’s obsessive, harmful nature and the illusion of control it gave her.

Post-breakup, Katie describes rebound behaviors (eating a gallon of cookie-dough ice cream), unfollowing Lucas, and beginning a body-acceptance journey. She read body positivity books and created a “self-acceptance journal” by pasting images of unretouched, fuller-bodied women from old art books, aiming to broaden her definition of beauty and make peace with her body.

She notes that while she has grown kinder to herself, she remains tentative: still in black clothing, avoiding photos and mirrors. She recognizes she has not fully tested her new mindset in the real world.

Returning to the present in the after-hours office, immediately after committing to the Key West assignment that requires water work despite her hidden inability to swim, Katie listens as Cole reminds her to pack a bikini. The remark, colliding with her fragile body confidence and the coming ocean-centric job, overwhelms her, and she bursts into tears.