Rule #2: No flirting, no starting anything. She says she can't believe that she is really doing this with him, and that they need to have some ground rules. 1992: Dexter and Emma are in a car headed to France on vacation. Dexter says that if he could give her one thing it would be confidence, and that what she really needs is a vacation.

He tells her that she is smart and beautiful and capable of anything. Dexter says no one knows everything about their life when they are 25 she says that he does. He tells her to walk out the door and never come back. Dexter is there with another girl but came to see Emma, who tells him that she was just offered the manager position because they wanted someone who won't go anywhere.

1991: Emma is still working at the Mexican restaurant. He asks what it is about, but she won't say. She tells him that she wants to talk to him alone at lunch the next day. She asks about the girl who sends him all the long letters he tells her that Emma is just a friend. She chides him for being late, and they talk about when he will 'really' start doing something. Dexter goes to meet his mother for lunch (Patricia Clarkson). Dexter agrees, and we see that there is a young girl jumping around on his bed, naked. They talk about Dexter teaching, and she cautions him not to sleep with his students. She asks who said that and he reminds her that she told him that once. He tells her that she needs to keep writing, and that nothing truly good is easy. She talks to Dexter on the phone, and says she's not writing because being a waitress is what she does now. She starts showing the new guy, Ian (Rafe Spall), the ropes and calls the restaurant 'the graveyard of ambition'. 1990: Emma is working at a Mexican restaurant.

They talk about her desire to become a writer. 1989: Dexter helps Emma move into a dumpy apartment in London. She asks if he wants to do something with her that day (it is already the early hours of the morning). She gets nervous, and he says that they can just be friends, so they curl up in her bed and go to sleep. He offers to walk her home, and they start making out at her door. Dexter introduces himself to Emma, and she says they've already met, a couple of times, but he was drunk. Then the numbers flip back to July 15th, 1988: Emma and Dexter (Jim Sturgess) are celebrating their college graduation with friends, still wearing their caps and gowns. The story opens briefly on July 15th, 2006, with Emma Morley (Anne Hathaway) swimming and then cycling. The movie plays out over the years, all featuring one day, July 15th.

One day by david nicholls