Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of bullying.

Lottie is one of the protagonists and narrators as well as the love interest of Huxley Cane. She has a degree in business that she uses to work as a marketer and web developer, and she lives in a lower socioeconomic neighborhood of Beverly Hills. She accumulated student loan debt while attending college, which she hoped to mitigate by accepting a job with the company run by her childhood friend, Angela. However, Angela comes from a privileged financial background and doesn’t appreciate Lottie’s circumstances. Just as Lottie is due to receive a raise and gather the funds to move out of her mother’s house, Angela fires her (Lottie’s ex-boyfriend Ken also left her for Angela, adding insult to injury). Without her job, Lottie has no way to pay her debt and faces living at her run-down childhood home for longer than expected, putting stress on her mother. All of this leaves Lottie with a deep sense of insecurity related to her finances, her class, and her desirability as a partner.

When Lottie enters an arrangement to be the fake fiancée of the wealthy Huxley, she receives solutions to all her problems.