The Rom-Commers

The Rom-Commers is a 2024 novel by best-selling American novelist Katherine Center. As a bittersweet romantic comedy about loving and letting go, The Rom-Commers centers on the story of Emma Wheeler, a talented yet unsuccessful screenwriter, as she takes a job rewriting a romantic comedy with her favorite screenwriter, Charlie Yates. By employing many of the classic tropes of contemporary romance, Center explores the effects of grief and guilt while delving into deeper questions about the meanings of love and romance.

This study guide refers to the St. Martin’s Press e-book edition of the text.

Plot Summary

Emma Wheeler loves few things more than romantic comedies (rom-coms) and fantasizes about being a Hollywood screenwriter like her favorite writer and inspiration, the highly acclaimed Charlie Yates (on whom she has a crush). Though she has entered a few screenwriting competitions, Emma’s career is largely stalled by the fact that she has taken care of her father for the last 10 years after he was injured in a catastrophic camping accident that also killed Emma’s mother. Though it was the plan to let her younger sister Sylvie take care of their father for a while after college, Emma feels wholly responsible for her father and doesn’t want to jeopardize Sylvie’s future, though she has no qualms about putting her dreams on hold.

Emma receives a call from her ex-boyfriend Logan, a Hollywood talent manager. Logan often gives her information about job opportunities, although this time he has managed something Emma never dreamed would be possible. Charlie Yates is a client of Logan’s, and he has written a screenplay for a rom-com. However, unlike Emma, Charlie doesn’t care for the genre whatsoever and has only agreed to write the movie to get another one of his scripts produced. Emma is shocked when Logan tells her that the screenplay is terrible and that Charlie needs her help to rewrite it.

Although Emma doesn’t want to leave her father or make her sister take care of him, when she reads the first draft of the screenplay, she decides that she needs to take the job and go to Los Angeles to help Charlie. However, when she gets to LA, Emma discovers that Logan never discussed the arrangement with Charlie and that she is unwanted there. Feeling betrayed, cheated, and just wanting to go home, Emma storms away from Logan and Charlie, who later offers her his guest room for the night before she leaves in the morning.

Charlie tells Emma about how he never writes with anyone, let alone an unproduced and uncommitted writer like Emma, who is offended since he doesn’t know her full story. However, Charlie wants to hear what Emma has to say about his screenplay, and he hires her for a few hours of consulting. Emma doesn’t feel bad as she tears his screenplay apart and teaches him about the basics of rom-coms and why people love them so much. Charlie is surprisingly attentive and takes pages of notes on her comments. The next morning, after reading more of Emma’s work, Charlie asks her to stay and help him rewrite the script.

Emma tentatively agrees to help Charlie and wants to convince him that love does exist and is worth writing about, especially after she hears him continue to bash the romance genre. Emma learns that Charlie hasn’t been able to write anything since shortly after his cancer diagnosis four years ago, which is why Logan thinks that he needs her help. The two enter a contract that requires Emma to stay in LA and finish writing the screenplay.

The two settle into a comfortable rhythm of writing and living together, and they quickly grow closer. Despite her comfort with Charlie, Emma still constantly fears for her father and Sylvie’s ability to take care of him. She frequently wakes up in the middle of the night to the sensation that something has gone horribly wrong and begins to have anxiety attacks at random moments. Charlie experienced a lot of anxiety throughout his cancer diagnosis and treatments, so he helps Emma to get through her attacks. Charlie begins taking care of Emma in ways she hasn’t experienced in years because she is always the one taking care of others.

Emma wonders if Charlie has feelings for her, as the crush she had on Charlie before meeting him continues to grow stronger. Emma often has Charlie do research for the screenplay, trying to show him how the things he wrote are not actually romantic, but her plans fail as these moments always seem romantic to her after all. One night, they end up kissing, and Emma is left confused about whether it was just for research for their screenplay.

While overanalyzing the kiss, Charlie receives a call and then acts cold and distant toward Emma. That night, he drinks heavily and gets into a bar fight, later telling Emma that she is his favorite person as she helps him clean up. The next morning, when Emma confesses her feelings for Charlie, he tells her that he doesn’t have the same feelings and that they should not get romantically involved. Emma is humiliated by his rejection but is still committed to getting the screenplay written.

Emma receives a call from Sylvie telling her about a serious fall their father had and that she needs to return to their home in Texas immediately. During this call, the sisters both say things that they regret purely out of anger, and Emma rushes home to see her father. Her father escapes serious injury and begins to heal, and he and Emma discuss grief and forgiveness. One day, Charlie shows up at her apartment, wanting to be there for Emma, but she is still humiliated and tells him to leave.

A few weeks later, Logan calls Emma to tell her that her favorite director wants to produce the screenplay that she and Charlie wrote. Charlie has edited the screenplay significantly but has given her a writing credit. When she returns to LA to meet with the director, she learns that Charlie has secretly been helping to take care of her and her family in the hospital. Logan shows Emma a video that Charlie made for her on the night he received the mysterious phone call. In the video, Charlie tells Emma that his cancer has metastasized and that he drove her away so that she wouldn’t spend her life taking care of him rather than living out her dreams.

Emma rushes to an awards show where Charlie is giving a speech, telling the audience about all the things Emma has taught him about love. During the speech, Charlie takes a phone call on stage during which he learns that his cancer was misdiagnosed and that he is healthy. He tells Emma how much he loves her, and over the next few months, she moves to LA to continue writing screenplays with Charlie.