Atlas spends the day helping in the kitchen at Bib’s to make time pass before his first official date with Lily, but ends up smelling like garlic. Darin notices Atlas dressed up and wearing cologne, and Atlas admits he is going out with Lily. Atlas also plans to return later and stay overnight at the restaurant because the vandal has struck again, this time scattering trash, and Atlas hopes to confront the culprit before involving police.

Atlas picks Lily up at her flower shop rather than her apartment because they are taking things slowly. Lily looks dressed for a special dinner but admits she barely slept because Emerson had a fever. Lily gives Atlas one of her old journals as a present, and although Atlas offers to reschedule so Lily can rest, Lily insists there is nothing she would rather do.

During the drive to a new restaurant, Lily asks Atlas about his work, his reviews, the vandalism, and his past serious relationship. Atlas explains that he reads reviews to learn from criticism and that he had one serious relationship while in the military, which ended after living together revealed incompatibilities. A call from Corrigan’s interrupts them, and Atlas handles a freezer problem through several phone calls.

When Atlas turns back to Lily, Lily has fallen asleep. Atlas lets Lily sleep in the parked car outside the restaurant, cancels their reservation so the table can go to someone else, and begins reading the journal Lily gave him. The entries pull Atlas back into their teenage relationship, especially Lily’s account of their first kiss, which reveals how intensely Lily experienced the moment and how much Lily wanted Atlas to be her first kiss.

Reading Lily’s journal makes Atlas realize again how deeply Lily mattered to him and how little Lily understands about the role she played in helping him survive when others abandoned him. While Lily continues sleeping, Atlas writes a long note on his phone about his life before Lily, though Atlas hesitates to share it because its emotional intensity may conflict with Lily’s wish to move slowly.

Lily wakes mortified that she slept through the date, but Atlas reassures Lily that he enjoyed the time and suggests grabbing burgers instead. Atlas teases Lily about the journal and asks whether Lily deliberately washed the blankets years earlier so Atlas would have to sleep in her bed. Lily admits she wanted Atlas to become her first kiss, and Atlas privately feels that even with Lily asleep for most of it, this has become the best date Atlas has ever had.