Love at first sight! Cold abstinence bar owner incarnate licking dog to care for you

Noah Hayes owns a bar, where he finds a drunk customer, Alex Reed, who leaves without paying. Noah covers his tab. The next day, Noah rushes to the hospital for his ill father and meets Alex again, now his father's new doctor. Alex denies having been at the bar.

Noah keeps bringing Alex breakfast, but Alex stays cold and distant. When Noah finds Alex badly beaten in a rundown apartment, he carries him home and tends his wounds. Alex calls him a nuisance and leaves. Later, Noah sees Alex with another man and, irritated, drinks alone until Caleb Hayes approaches him.

When Alex's father worsens, Alex comes to Noah's home. Noah later rescues Alex from a loan shark in an alley and pays off the debt. Back at his place, Noah's anger erupts into a forceful kiss.