What he saw in her
was what she finally saw in him
Mickey Jacoby is a 25-year-old dock supervisor at the local transportation company called METS—short for Metropolitan Express and Transportation Systems. He found work at the company nine months ago when he and his family moved from New York to live with
Mickey’s uncle in one of the lower class suburbs of St Paul after the death of his father. Although rough around the edges, he has a strong sense of duty and a big heart and is one of the best managers the company has ever seen. The oldest of five siblings, Mickey lives in his own apartment with a sarcastic, fun-loving roommate by the name of Luther, but spends most of his time with his mother and younger siblings, often taking on the role of a father figure.
The story begins a week before Christmas at METS where Mickey meets Michelle; a young, newly hired office manager that has come from a French based transportation company called Martinique Logistics. The company has been under an ongoing investigation for trafficking cocaine and recently declared bankruptcy, affecting all of their worldwide offices including the one in Minneapolis where Michelle had worked. Michelle had an affair with one of the owner’s sons by the name of Jacques while in France months earlier. Once Jacques learned she was pregnant, he dumped her as quickly as he had taken her under his charismatic spell—and then paid for her abortion. Now living in her own apartment in St Paul, she is being pursued by Jack—an older man in his thirties and one of her former managers at Martinique Logistics who is encouraging her to come with him to greener pastures in Seattle.
Through a series of events—starting with the company Christmas party that ends in a comical disaster in which Mickey’s blind date for the night gets drunk and makes a scene—Mickey and Michelle begin to see more of each other through work related circumstances. When Mickey finally musters up enough courage to ask her out, she refuses; and when Jack finds out about Mickey’s intentions, he mocks the dock supervisor’s lowly position. But like a boxer in a ring, Mickey keeps coming and Michelle eventually sees a certain strength in him she has never seen before. Having grown up in private boarding schools funded her internationally renowned parents; she begins to long for what has—a real family. In the end, she must choose between two different worlds and two different men.