Stuck with You Summary: Ali Hazelwood’s Irresistible Elevator Romance Novella
Imagine being trapped in a 15-square-foot metal box with the one person you’ve been actively dodging for three weeks.
That is exactly where environmental engineer Sadie Grantham lands in Stuck with You by Ali Hazelwood.
Stuck with You summary unpacks the dual-timeline novella that starts with a lucky croissant, unfolds during a citywide blackout, and hinges on a misunderstanding that nearly destroys a promising connection.
TL;DR: One Elevator, Two Engineers, Three Weeks of Misunderstanding
Sadie Grantham and Erik Nowak share an unforgettable night together, only for Sadie to discover the next morning that Erik is a partner at a rival firm—and that her biggest client just jumped ship to his company using a pitch suspiciously similar to hers.
Convinced he stole her ideas, she ghosts him. Three weeks later, a power outage traps them both in an elevator, forcing the confrontation neither wanted but both needed.
- The setup: A meet-cute over a shared croissant leads to a deep, instant connection between two STEM professionals.
- The conflict: A perceived professional betrayal shatters trust before it can fully form.
- The resolution: Forced proximity strips away assumptions, revealing the truth behind the misunderstanding.
Stuck with You Summary: From One Magical Night to One Stalled Elevator
⚠ SPOILERS AHEAD
The story opens in the dark.
Sadie Grantham, an environmental engineer at the small firm GreenFrame, is trapped in an elevator between the seventh and eighth floors. She is not alone.
Beside her stands Erik Nowak—tall, broad, and unmistakably the man she spent a magical night with three weeks ago. The same man she has been actively ignoring ever since.
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The narrative slips back in time.
Three weeks earlier, Sadie visits Faye’s coffee shop desperate for a “lucky croissant” before a critical client pitch.
When Faye sells out, a handsome stranger offers her his last one. His name is Erik. He is an engineer. He loves soccer as much as she does.
Their chemistry is immediate and undeniable.
They spend the evening debating soccer statistics at a French bistro, then head to his Brooklyn Heights apartment. The night is emotionally and physically intimate.
Sadie feels she has found someone genuinely special.
The next morning shatters that feeling. Her boss, Gianna, reveals Erik’s true identity: he is a founding partner at ProBld, the massive firm Sadie views as everything wrong with the industry.
Worse, GreenFrame just lost its major Milton client to ProBld, who submitted a pitch mirroring Sadie’s own sustainable framework.
Heartbroken and humiliated, Sadie concludes Erik used their night together to steal her intellectual property. She blocks his number and refuses all contact.
Back in the elevator, the forced proximity dissolves her silence. Sadie confronts Erik with cold fury. He, however, seems genuinely confused by her anger.
As the hours pass, Erik explains his side. After their date, he was so impressed by Sadie’s brilliance that he looked up her doctoral thesis and peer-reviewed articles.
He shared her work with his ProBld team as a model of sustainability best practices, never imagining they would repurpose it to undercut GreenFrame on the Milton pitch.
He also admits why he hid his partnership status: he wanted Sadie to see him as a person, not a corporate title. He spent the following three weeks replaying their night, terrified he had somehow hurt her.
When the power returns, Sadie bolts.
But the truth has already taken root. She finds Erik waiting at her Astoria apartment door.
In a gesture of total transparency, they both offer their unlocked phones to each other.
They reconcile fully.
The epilogue, set one month later, shows them happily together. Sadie still attempts—and fails—to bake her own lucky croissants.
Erik remains devoted, teasing, and unmistakably hers.
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Characters in Stuck with You
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Sadie Grantham | Environmental engineer at GreenFrame who relies on superstitions and lucky rituals to navigate her high-pressure career. |
| Erik Nowak | Danish engineer and founding partner at ProBld who appears stoic to others but is gentle and attentive with Sadie. |
| Gianna | Sadie’s boss and founder of GreenFrame, a mother of triplets managing a small firm against industry giants. |
| Mara | Sadie’s best friend who works at the EPA and provides legal and emotional guidance during the fallout. |
| Hannah | Sadie’s other close friend, a NASA engineer who pushes her toward better communication. |
| Faye | Owner of the coffee shop where Sadie’s daily “lucky croissant” ritual begins. |
| Ozzy | Sadie’s guinea pig, for whom she feels deep maternal responsibility. |
FAQ
What is Stuck with You by Ali Hazelwood about?
Stuck with You follows environmental engineer Sadie Grantham, who gets trapped in an elevator with Erik Nowak—the man she shared an intimate night with three weeks ago before discovering he might have professionally betrayed her.
Is Stuck with You part of a series?
Yes, Stuck with You is the second novella in Ali Hazelwood’s STEMinist series, following Under One Roof and preceding Below Zero, though each story stands alone with different couples.
Does Stuck with You have a happy ending?
The ending of Stuck with You resolves the central misunderstanding, and Sadie and Erik reconcile fully, committing to a real relationship in the epilogue set one month later.
How long is the Stuck with You novella?
The Stuck with You novella is 127 pages in print, making it a quick read that can be finished in a single sitting.
What is the central misunderstanding in Stuck with You?
Sadie believes Erik stole her sustainable framework ideas during their night together and used them to poach her firm’s client, when in reality he shared her published academic work with colleagues as an example of best practices.
Is Stuck with You a spicy romance?
Stuck with You contains explicit intimate scenes, consistent with Ali Hazelwood’s signature blend of witty banter, emotional depth, and open-door romance.
Where does Stuck with You fit in Ali Hazelwood’s STEMinist series?
Stuck with You is the second of three connected novellas featuring women in STEM, with overlapping friend-group characters but independent romantic storylines.
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Ali Hazelwood: The STEM Romance Powerhouse
Ali Hazelwood is a neuroscience professor and New York Times bestselling author who has built a devoted following by writing smart, emotionally charged romances set in the world of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Hazelwood’s own background as a woman in STEM informs her characters’ struggles with workplace sexism, professional isolation, and the pressure to prove themselves in male-dominated fields.
Her body of work includes multiple full-length novels and the three STEMinist novellas.
Explore more Ali Hazelwood book summaries to dive deeper into her catalog.
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