- Reed Shepherd: Remember, Harper, I am still a free agent. You offer me this input without a contract? Any publishing house in the city would be more than happy to publish me, and they wouldn't dare ask me to do a romantic rewrite.
- Harper Hugues: Well, that would be their loss. And yours.
- Ivy Roberts: Can I help you with something?
- Reed Shepherd: Yeah, you can. What does a romance editor know about mystery writing?
- Ivy Roberts: What does a mystery writer know about romance?
- Reed Shepherd: I asked you first.
- Ivy Roberts: Out of curiosity, what was our first date?
- Reed Shepherd: We went to O'Reilly's.
- Ivy Roberts: Oh, I've always wanted to go there.
- Reed Shepherd: Then, we went to Jean Carlos. You had the shrimp scampi.
- Ivy Roberts: I'm sure I loved it.
- Reed Shepherd: It's to die for.
- Ivy Roberts: Well, it sounds like a really good first date.
- Sarah: I don't think they're that serious about each other. Not like you and Reed.
- Ivy Roberts: We're not serious.
- Sarah: Save your denials. The chemistry between you two is palpable.
- [first lines]
- Ivy Roberts: You gave Reed Shepherd my notes. I thought you were going to summarize them or something. I mean, I was brutal.
- Harper Hugues: No, you were honest. You were spot-on with all of your notes. There was nothing I would've changed, and there was nothing I could've added.
- Ivy Roberts: I thought you were trying to woo him from the bigger houses.
- Harper Hugues: I am. You're my secret weapon.
- Clarissa: All right, shoot me straight. What's really going on with you and Reed?
- Ivy Roberts: I may have developed a bit of an interest.
- Clarissa: Oh. Ivy...
- Ivy Roberts: No, don't "oh, Ivy" me, OK? He doesn't feel the same way, and... He doesn't, OK? And he's not into romance. And we're friends, maybe, at best.
- Clarissa: Because I have a solution: a fake date.
- Ivy Roberts: OK, that is one of my favorite romantic tropes.
- Clarissa: I know.
- Ivy Roberts: Wait, are you being serious right now?
- Clarissa: 100 percent serious.
- Ivy Roberts: No, no, no. Fake dates only happen in fiction.