The Seven Year Slip

When Iwan returns that night, Clementine feels brave and flirts with him, inadvertently causing him to burn his finger on the stove. At one point, she thinks he might be leaning in to kiss her, but he pulls away. Clementine sees several lemons on the counter, and he explains that tonight he will be making dessert rather than dinner.

After dinner, Iwan tells Clementine about the fancy restaurant in SoHo he had interviewed at earlier that day and how the restaurant was one his grandfather—who had taught him his love of cooking—had loved and brought him to when he was young. Clementine reveals how she was painting in the tub and explains why and the connection to her aunt. Iwan doesn’t push her to show him her paintings, understanding that it is something that is just for her. Iwan asks Clementine to help him make the whipped cream for a lemon pie he is making for dessert. When she tries it, she waits to tell him what she thinks, mocking his impatience, but eventually admits that she loves it. Iwan shares how the pie was his grandfather’s recipe but that it was different every time, something Analea had always said about Vera’s fettuccini. During an intimate moment, Iwan asks if he can kiss Clementine and she agrees. However, she is reminded again of Analea’s rule about falling in love in the apartment. She pulls away, and Clementine wishes she could tell him the story of the apartment, but she knows he would never believe it.

Iwan is gone by the time Clementine wakes up, and she casually says goodbye to the apartment as she leaves to go to work in the present. At work, Fiona tells Clementine she is worried because Clementine didn’t respond to any of her texts over the weekend. She thinks about Googling Iwan and zones out at a meeting. She can’t help but wonder where he is now.

On the subway ride home, Fiona forces Clementine to admit what actually happened that weekend. Clementine tells Fiona that she met someone at the Monroe who is staying there for the summer. She tells Fiona Iwan’s name, realizing she doesn’t know his last name, and Fiona demands to know everything the next day. When Clementine gets to her apartment, she feels an unnerving silence and recognizes that it is not in the past but the present, and Iwan is nowhere to be found. She tries to leave and enter her apartment multiple times before giving up and understanding that she may never see Iwan again. She searches for Iwan on Google another time and still cannot find anything. She thinks of her aunt’s rule but still tries one more time to enter the apartment, with no luck.

After a month of searching, Clementine stops looking for Iwan so intently. She agrees to a date with Drew and Fiona’s neighbor after Clementine tells Fiona that the timing wasn’t right for her and Iwan. After the date, Clementine tries to convince her friends that she is okay being alone because, like her, her aunt was alone. She also knows she can bury herself in her work if she isn’t in a relationship.

Drew reveals that she has received a proposal for a book from James Ashton, who they had written off weeks earlier, and Clementine reveals she still hasn’t read his article. She mentions that he is coming in to meet with the team the following day but also that he is also considering publishing with different imprints. Rhonda wants Clementine to take the lead on this project with Drew, revealing that they need a big book as their high-selling cookbook author has switched publishers.

Drew tries to persuade Clementine to read James’s article, knowing that she wants him to write a memoir rather than his proposed cookbook. She reads the article on the subway home, recognizing why Drew loves the writer’s voice but also feeling a sense of recognition. A photo of the author finally loads, and Clementine sees that James Ashton is, in fact, Iwan. Exiting the subway, she begins to see his face in advertisements and magazines everywhere and recognizes how much her focus on the future obscures her view of the present.