The Cheat Sheet is a 2021 romantic comedy/sports romance novel by romance author Sarah Adams. Adams is the author of 10 romance books, including eight romantic comedy novels and two regency romance novels. She published her first novel, a regency romance titled To Con a Gentleman, in 2019. After writing a 2020 sequel to her first regency romance, she dove fully into the contemporary romantic comedy genre. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with her two daughters and husband. The Cheat Sheet is followed by the 2024 sequel The Rule Book, which focuses on a romance between Derek, one of Nathan’s friends, and his college ex-girlfriend turned sports agent. 

This guide refers to the 2021 Random House Kindle edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain references to panic attacks.

Plot Summary

Bree Camden has been in love with her best friend, Nathan Donelson, since high school. For the past four years, Bree has been the owner of a ballet studio for low-income students, where she also works as an instructor. Nathan is the quarterback for the NFL team the Los Angeles Sharks. Bree and Nathan became best friends in high school after meeting while running at the track, but Bree cut off contact with Nathan during college after a car accident injured her knee and ruined her chances of becoming a professional ballerina. After college, Bree moved to LA, and Nathan was drafted by the Sharks. After they ran into each other in a coffee shop, they rekindled their friendship and picked up again as best friends. However, each of them has been in love with the other since high school, though neither thinks that the other reciprocates their feelings. 

When Bree arrives at Nathan’s apartment for their usual Tuesday morning run, his girlfriend, Kelsey, is rude and cold toward her, branding her as a stalker in love with Nathan. Bree, used to mistreatment from Nathan’s jealous girlfriends, ignores it. When Nathan comes out of the shower, Kelsey tries to make him choose between her and Bree. Nathan chooses Bree, and Kelsey breaks up with him and posts an Instagram story suggesting that Nathan has erectile dysfunction. Nathan shrugs it off, but Bree is angry at Kelsey. Nathan tells Bree that he never even slept with Kelsey, as he maintains celibacy during the football season. Nathan cares deeply for Bree, even helping pay her studio rent for years without her knowledge, as Bree refuses to accept money from him. Bree finds out when Nathan comes over to her apartment and listens to a voicemail from her landlord on speakerphone. Bree is angry at Nathan, but he refuses to apologize, saying that he’s happy to have helped Bree do what she loves. Nathan and Bree attend a party thrown by Nathan’s teammate Jamal Mericks, and Bree gets extremely intoxicated. In the bathroom, she tells a woman that Nathan does not have erectile dysfunction and may have romantic feelings for someone, perhaps her. She uses a Tide pen to get a beer stain off her t-shirt, and she tells the woman that she wishes she could use the same pen to erase all the other women from Nathan’s life. The woman turns out to be a TMZ reporter, and she surreptitiously films Bree before Nathan comes into the bathroom to help Bree get home. On her way out of the party, she invites the rest of Nathan’s teammates over to his apartment. Once they arrive, she paints their toenails in LA Sharks colors before Nathan puts her to bed. Nathan’s teammates tell him that they think Bree has feelings for him, but he disagrees.

The next day, the video of Bree goes viral. Bree wakes up to a phone call from her older sister, Lily, who tells her to look at TMZ. When Bree sees it, she panics. Lily tries to calm her down, arguing that Nathan clearly has feelings for Bree. When she calls Nathan later, he hopes that she will tell him that she meant what she said. However, she instead tells him that her words were fueled by alcohol and that she didn’t mean it. Nathan’s heart sinks, but he accepts her explanation. Bree offers to make Nathan dinner as an apology. When he comes over for her veggie lasagna, they are interrupted by his agent, Nicole. She tells them that the viral video has generated huge public interest in their relationship and that if they appear to be dating, Tide will pay them a large amount of money to film a Super Bowl commercial together. Bree accepts because she wants to pay Nathan back for the years of rent assistance, but Nathan just wants to help her earn more money for herself. 

Nathan has his teammates Jamal, Derek, Price, and Lawrence over to discuss the fake-dating scenario. He wants their advice on how to exit the friendzone and finally form a romantic connection with Bree. The guys help him create a romance “cheat sheet,” like the cheat sheets quarterbacks use to help remember plays. The guys pitch different ideas for how Nathan can flirt with Bree to make her fall for him, though most of them think that Bree already has feelings for him. Bree comes over and almost sees the cheat sheet on Nathan’s whiteboard before Derek erases it. At the Tide commercial shoot, Nathan sets Bree up with her favorite meal and a hair and makeup artist named Dylan to get her ready. During the shoot, Bree is astounded by how natural it feels to act flirtatious and romantic with Nathan. When she gets home, she calls Lily to discuss. Lily pushes her to tell Nathan how it feels and says that she’s worried Bree forgot how to dream after her accident. 

Nathan visits Bree at work to ask her to be his date to the Pro Sports Magazine party. Bree’s teenage students are enchanted by Nathan. Nathan almost kisses Bree, but her students interrupt them. Bree agrees to go to the party with Nathan, and he offers to bring her a formal outfit. The next day, Dylan arrives at Bree’s apartment to help her get ready. Bree feels uncomfortable about all the dresses Nathan bought her to choose from, but Dylan promises to return the ones she doesn’t wear. Once she’s ready, Nathan picks her up. As they ride to the party, Nathan has to be on the phone with his manager, Tim, about who to talk to and who to avoid at the gala. Tim tells Nathan that Nicole wants him and Bree to kiss on the red carpet. When he gets off the phone, he gives a nervous Bree advice on how to pose for the paparazzi and then tells her about the kiss request. When they get to the party, Nathan freezes on the red carpet, and Bree initiates the kiss. She tries to help Nathan calm down when he seems overwhelmed, but then she trips into a large poster of a naked Nathan, which rips. Nathan makes a joke out of it and recovers for an embarrassed Bree. When they get home, after flirting, Nathan confesses about the time he saw Bree naked by accident. Bree demands to see him naked in return, so Nathan gives her a strip tease. Before he can take off his underwear, Bree stops him, claiming that it was a joke. As she tries to leave, Nathan stops her and puts her shoes on for her. 

Bree goes to see Lily and tells her about the strip tease and decides that she will no longer hold herself back from her fear of ruining her friendship with Nathan. She decides that she will start to flirt with Nathan to test the waters of his feelings for her. When Nathan brings up the strip tease to his teammates, they prod him to up the ante with his cheat sheet to become more physically affectionate with Bree. Derek offers to throw a party so that Nathan will have an excuse to kiss Bree again. When Nathan picks up Bree for the party, he’s nervous about kissing her. At the party, Nathan is concerned about his teammates drinking and partying during the playoffs, but Bree assuages his concern, acting flirtier toward him. He leads her to a dark hallway and warns her that he plans to kiss her. She consents, and they make out. Bree never wants to go back to being just friends with Nathan. 

The next day, Nathan wakes up early to find Bree in his bedroom, attempting to start their weekly run early. She runs nervously fast, and Nathan takes them to the beach. They swim and almost kiss in the water, but Nathan stops when he sees the paparazzi. As they run home, Bree trips and scrapes her knee. Nathan bandages her when they get home, upset at the sight of her hurt since it reminds him of how hurt she looked after her accident. Bree tells Nathan that she likes his soul, and he reciprocates her sentiment before kissing her again. They agree to discuss their relationship later.

After a few days, Bree plans to go to her nephew’s birthday party. When she tells Nathan, he insists on going with her. At the party, Bree’s nephews are thrilled to see her. When Nathan gets there after a long practice and getting stuck in traffic, he is mobbed by the kids and adults, which causes him to have a panic attack. Bree comforts him as Nathan explains that he feels unworthy of anxiety or burnout: He comes from a wealthy family and knows that his life has been easier than those of many other people. Bree tells him that he’s not valuable for what he can do but for who he is and that she loves him. He tells her that he loves her, too. They go home to their apartment, and Nathan asks Bree to stay with him, though he wants to wait until they are married to become intimate. Nathan shows Bree his box of mementos from their friendship, proving his love for her. He also tells her that he will propose to her soon because they’ve basically been dating for the last six years of their friendship.

The Sharks make it through the playoffs to the Super Bowl. Nathan flies Bree and Lily out in first class to the game in Las Vegas. Nathan’s hypercritical mother, Vivian, is rude to Bree in the box at the game, but Bree defends herself. After a conversation with Lily, Vivian is friendlier. Nathan and Bree text throughout the game, joking about elopement. After the game, the Sharks lose, and Nathan proposes to Bree, asking her to elope with him that night. Bree agrees, and Lily helps her get ready for the wedding. When they arrive at the chapel, there are a number of beautiful wedding gowns from Dylan gathered for Bree at Nathan’s request. When she decides on a dress, she goes into the chapel to see Nathan and all their loved ones, illustrating that he planned this wedding ages ago. When she reaches Nathan at the end of the aisle, he admits that he planned the wedding as soon as he told her he planned to propose. They get married and then consummate their relationship in a beautiful hotel suite. The next morning, Nathan reveals the cheat sheet to Bree, expecting Bree to be angry with him. Instead, she admits that she finds it endearing and encourages him to keep putting this much effort into their marriage.