Briana Ortiz is the female protagonist of the novel. Briana is an emergency room doctor who is good at her job and calm under pressure. However, in her private life, Briana is struggling with stressors and past traumas that continue to influence how she sees the world around her. Her brother, Benny, is in renal failure after a battle with an autoimmune disease, and Briana is powerless to help him, even though she’s a doctor. She is also mourning the end of her marriage, a traumatic loss compounded by her father’s abandonment when she was a child. These two traumatic abandonments have made it difficult for Briana to trust men, and at the beginning of the novel, she swears off dating and romance for good.

For these reasons, Briana is predisposed to dislike Jacob when she first meets him. She only allows herself to become close to him because their relationship is a show for his family and friends. Even though she begins to have real feelings for him, she is able to keep him at arm’s length because she believes him to be in love with someone else. She doesn’t feel threatened by the uncertainty of love because she believes he will never return the feeling.