The Seven Year Slip

Over the next week, Clementine wonders if Iwan knows about his mother’s relationship with her aunt and if the apartment somehow knows. She goes with Drew, Fiona, and Juliette to the soft opening of James’s new restaurant, Hyacinth, which ends up being nothing like the dream restaurant Iwan had described seven years earlier. Clementine feels out of place until she sees Vera, who says hello to her, and her daughter Lily. From Vera, she learns that Iwan had stayed in Analea’s apartment for free that summer and that he never would have gotten where he is without Analea’s help. Clementine notices how all the dishes on their tasting menu have taken on the persona of attempted perfection, and she tears up as she eats Iwan’s new version of lemon pie, thinking about how different he is from the happy man she saw in Vera’s picture.

She is torn between being proud of Iwan and sad for him, and Iwan can see it on her face when she runs into him. When Clementine asks him if he is happy, Iwan says, “Why wouldn’t I be?” (239). When she asks him to close his eyes and listen to what he hears, she notes that neither of them hears laughter. They fight over how much he has changed and how he hasn’t, and Iwan tries to convince her that change isn’t always bad, as he knows she would not have noticed him if he had still been a dishwasher rather than a decorated chef. Suddenly, they hear shouts from her table and realize that Fiona’s water has broken. The Strauss & Adder team rushes her into an Uber, and Clementine reflects on the two different versions of herself she is unable to reconcile with one another.

In the waiting room of the hospital, Clementine tells Juliette she can go, but she wants to be there for Fiona and Drew. They talk about Juliette’s ex-boyfriend, Romeo-Rob, and Clementine tells her she deserves so much better than him. In talking to Juliette about how she only has so much time on earth, Clementine thinks of her aunt and how she is spending her own time, leading her to realize that she is unhappy, too. Fiona delivers a baby they name Penelope.

The next Monday morning, Clementine tells Rhonda she is not happy anymore and gives Rhonda her two weeks’ notice. To Clementine’s surprise, Rhonda is happy to see that she is searching for herself, and Clementine quickly packs up her office. They don’t hear any serious news about the book deal with James, and Clementine is sure she has ruined their chances and that Iwan will never want to see her again.

Clementine tells her parents she is quitting her job when they come into the city for her birthday, and they are, like Rhonda, surprisingly happy that she is trying to find herself. They remind her that she is brave and of how she decided to become a publicist after a conversation with a stranger in a cab. Clementine vaguely remembers this conversation from the day after she had returned from Norway with Analea, and how she was so tired that she got into a cab a man was already in. In the present, Clementine continues to do the same things in the city that they do every year around Clementine’s birthday, and she thinks about how even the things that are the same can be different.

After saying goodbye to her parents, Clementine walks back to her apartment, trying to reassure herself that change is okay the entire way up to B4. She thinks about the conversation she had with the stranger in the cab seven years ago. She can’t remember what the stranger looked like, but she remembered how he convinced her that she could work with books if she wanted to. When she arrives at her apartment, she immediately knows she is in the past, and recognizes that the day is the exact day she and Analea would have returned from Norway. When she sees Iwan, she remembers he was the stranger in the cab that she would meet later that same day, seven years earlier.

Clementine and Iwan talk about the last time they saw each other, and how she disappeared before his eyes. She tells him the story of the magic of the apartment but leaves out the sad parts, as Analea had originally done. When Iwan says he will look for her in his present time, Clementine assures him that she won’t be the same person, but that they will meet again in seven years. She finally begins to recognize that both of them will change, and still, that change will not completely stop them from being who they are.

Clementine lets Iwan go and apologizes to him for how she acts in the future as he is leaving. She thinks about telling him she loves him, but she knows she has to tell the present version of Iwan instead. When Iwan leaves, Clementine is left alone in the past version of the apartment and savors being in a time when her aunt is still alive. As she is looking through the apartment one last time, Clementine hears the door open and thinks it is Iwan. Instead, she sees Analea, who is confused at first to see her but then throws out her arms to embrace Clementine.

After a reunion with Analea, Clementine leaves the apartment and reenters the present. Clementine goes to the Met for her birthday and sits in front of the usual van Gogh painting, and Fiona, Drew, Juliette, and Penelope surprise her there. Drew and Fiona leave to take care of their newborn, and Clementine convinces Juliette to explore the museum, leaving her on her own. Drew returns without Fiona and surprises Clementine with the package from her aunt she had thrown away weeks ago. As she goes to leave again, Clementine asks her if she ever heard back about Iwan’s book, and Drew reveals that she heard that he had chosen Strauss & Adder just before they came to the museum, leaving Clementine relieved that she didn’t ruin everything.

When Clementine is alone again, she opens the package from Analea and finds a travel guide to Iceland, the next trip they had planned. She begins sketching in the book, and she doesn’t notice when a man comes to sit beside her. Present-day Iwan wishes her happy birthday and gives her a bouquet of sunflowers, having remembered they were her favorite. She apologizes for how she acted at Hyacinth, and he tells her of all the times he debated finding her on her birthday. Iwan invites her out to dinner at a restaurant he says has changed a little recently, and Clementine goes with him.

As they get out of the Uber at his restaurant, Iwan tells Clementine to close her eyes as he leads her inside. When she opens her eyes, she sees all the changes he has made to the restaurant that are not quite like his former self but also more like him than the restaurant she had seen a few weeks ago. She also sees that he has added his signature lemon pie to the menu and has a space on the wall to put her paintings. They kiss and finally admit that they love one another. Iwan asks Clementine what she is going to do with her life now, and she repeats the vague aphorisms her aunt had always told her, rather than focusing on anything concrete. They go back to the Monroe after dinner, and they both feel they have finally got the timing of their relationship right.

Clementine and Iwan pack up Apartment B4 and say goodbye to it. Clementine reflects on how her thought that nothing stays forever is wrong, as she thinks the love she had in that apartment will always stay with her.