Cooper Grant is done being someone's backup plan.
After a breakup that left him feeling less like a boyfriend and more like an optional calendar invite, Cooper decides he is ready to date again. Carefully. Intentionally. With breath mints, stain wipes, emotional damage, and one extremely prepared crossbody bag.
Unfortunately, his return to romance does not begin with dinner.
It begins with a memorial service he did not know he was attending.
Then comes the man who weaponizes therapy language over dessert, the man who turns an escape room into a personality test, and the wedding date who forgot to mention his ex would be the best man. By the time Cooper has survived four catastrophically revealing dates, he is starting to suspect the problem is not that he wants to be chosen.
It is that he keeps mistaking being useful, admired, claimed, or needed for being loved.
Then Leo Martin walks in.
Calm, funny, maddeningly competent, and far too good at asking the questions Cooper usually avoids, Leo does not sweep Cooper off his feet. He does something worse.
He gives him room to choose.
Five Dates from Hell: Third Time's the Charm is a funny, tender contemporary gay romantic comedy about disastrous dates, found family, emotional honesty, and learning that the right person does not make you prove you are worth staying for.
