Breakfast for Dinner

Best friends Amos and Dave go to a rooftop bar with several of Dave’s coworkers, his new friend Ruth, and Dave’s date, Elle. The night passes in a series of blurry, half-drunk interactions typical to this group of modern vagabonds. Dave’s ex-girlfriend shows up and convinces Elle that he’s not worth her time; Ruth finds herself the target of a married woman’s inebriated advances. Amos meets the confident and attractive Sloan. She asks him what he’s doing for the next 24 hours and buys him a drink. There is an instant connection. They share a brief kiss, and Amos excuses himself to the bathroom, promising to return; however, he accidentally breaks the toilet and locks himself into the bathroom, where he is forced to spend the night. Amos returns the next morning to Dave’s apartment, feeling aimless; he’s recently quit his job, and doesn’t currently have a place of his own. He heads out for a bite to eat and runs into Ruth, who works at the deli. Amos invites Ruth to hang out with him for the day, and over the next couple of weeks, the two form a close friendship as they show each other their favorite spots in the city. One night, Amos decides to grab himself a beer at a nearby bar. Sloan turns out to be the owner of this bar. They drink together and the chemistry they have only grows; Sloan admits that she’s not normally into men, but invites Amos to her apartment to stay for the night. Sloan asks again what Amos is doing for the next 24 hours, and suggests that he spend it with her. He agrees, and in the morning, they set a timer for 24 hours. The next day, they set another timer. Over the next few days and weeks, they continue to set timers and grow closer and closer; they quickly find themselves spending almost all their free time together. Amos decides to surprise Sloan with flowers at her bar to show her how much she means to him. When he arrives, he sees another woman speaking to Sloan. He gives Sloan the flowers, who then passes them to the other woman, Maxine, and then kisses her. He realizes Maxine is Sloan’s girlfriend, and that he is participating in a secret affair. Sloan is equally shocked to see him, and Amos all but flees the scene, feeling hurt and betrayed. The next day, Dave, Ruth, and Amos drink beers on the beach and commiserate. Dave feels underappreciated at work and Ruth is being pressured into working extra shifts; they feel trapped in the cycle of working without fulfillment. Dave spontaneously quits his job. Amos tells them about Sloan, mourning the loss of their relationship, and Ruth and Dave comfort him in their own ways. He decides to meet up with Sloan and talk it out. However, their meeting quickly turns into a continuation of their affair, which Sloan shows no sign of ending. Amos and Maxine meet up for lunch. Amos is surprised by her kindness and the ease with which they begin to feel like friends; this causes him to feel even more guilty about the affair. Maxine invites him to dinner at her and Sloan’s apartment, thinking that he is just one of Sloan’s friends, and against his better judgment, Amos agrees. Sloan is incensed by this and tells him to stay away from her and Maxine’s apartment, but a spiteful Amos tells her to tell Maxine that he’ll be bringing his (nonexistent) girlfriend with him. When he tells his friends about the dinner, he enlists an overly enthusiastic Ruth to be his “girlfriend.” Meanwhile, Dave, dealing with the ghost of his own failed relationships, gets lured into a trap by his ex-girlfriend and barely escapes her very big, new boyfriend. Amos and Ruth arrive at Sloan and Maxine’s apartment for dinner, dressed in matching suits. Maxine plays host with her usual generosity and patience while Sloan subtly tries to bribe Amos into leaving with the promise of sex, which only makes him angrier at her shamelessness. Ruth notices that Sloan’s wearing an engagement ring; Maxine tells the gobsmacked Amos and Ruth that they are getting married. Ruth poorly conceals her dislike for Sloan and can’t help but make biting comments throughout the meal. Things quickly go downhill as Sloan forces Ruth to reveal that she’s actually only 19, surprising everybody, and Ruth blurts out the truth about the affair. Ruth and Amos make a hasty exit and Maxine leaves with them in tears, unwilling to spend another moment with Sloan. Maxine finds a hotel to spend the night; Amos walks Ruth home and meets her parents for the first time. They welcome Amos warmly, having heard Ruth’s stories about her best friends, and invite him and Dave to their house upstate for a short holiday away from the city. Later, Maxine asks Amos to meet her; he tells her everything about the affair and holds her as she cries. The two find an odd kind of friendship and connection through the entire ordeal. Afterwards, Amos breaks down on the street and goes on a messy journey through the city back home, during which he pisses himself and gets blasted in the face with dirty toilet water. Over the next few weeks everyone tries to grapple with the fallout. The trip upstate is a reprieve from the chaos and broken hearts that threaten to overwhelm the group of friends. Ruth’s father, Solomon, lets Amos know that it is okay to feel angry and confused, and to make mistakes, but that he has to get his life together if he expects himself to improve. He also tells him that love shouldn’t be difficult; that if it hurts as much as it does, then it’s not a relationship worth maintaining. Back in the city, Maxine moves out of her apartment and refuses to listen to Sloan’s apologies, telling her to deal with the consequences of her actions. Sloan plunges into a downward spiral of self-destruction and trashes the apartment. Dave, Ruth, and Amos go to a party, where they run into Sloan. She tries to apologise to Amos and explain herself, but he, like Maxine, refuses to listen and tells her that he no longer wants to expend energy on her, and that she isn’t worth his time. Sloan leaves in disgrace, but Amos has second thoughts and runs after her. He gives her the same advice he received from Solomon, encouraging her to work on herself and actually put effort into self-improvement and creating a life worth living. He admits that he’s still in love with her, but Sloan, taking his words to heart, stops him before they can go down that path again, before turning and walking out of his life for good.