The Seven Year Slip

Clementine obsessively Googles James Ashton and the man Iwan has become, feeling proud of what he has accomplished but grief at missing his last seven years. She tries to distract herself from the thought that he doesn’t remember her, as she thinks that, if he did, he would have tried to find her over the years. Clementine runs late to the meeting the next day and is left speechless when she sees Iwan, noticing how much he has stayed the same but also how much he has changed.

For the entire meeting, Clementine wonders if Iwan—going by his grandfather’s name to everyone but his friends—remembers her from their one weekend together. After Drew’s presentation, Iwan tells them his vision for the cookbook and about how he thinks anyone can create the perfect meal with the right ingredients and presentation. As he speaks, Clementine feels a disconnection between the man she met weeks ago, in the past, and the one sitting before her. His entire view on food seems to have changed, and Clementine wonders what happened to his ideas about a perfect meal being connected to memories and experiences. Drew seems to see this too, hinting at the older ideas he expressed in his famous article.

Iwan’s agent, Lauren Pearson, explains how they are fielding multiple offers and how they want the process of choosing a publisher to be different. Drew and Clementine are surprised to hear that there will be multiple rounds of bidding for Iwan’s book, the second of which will be a cooking class in which they will assess how well the publishing teams work together. Lauren refuses to explain further about why they are going through this trouble, leaving the Strauss & Adder team questioning what she is keeping from them. Clementine and Iwan are the last ones left in the room after the meeting, and as he leaves, he tells her, “It was good to see you again, Lemon” (136).

Clementine, Drew, Fiona, and their co-worker Juliette go to their regular Wednesday hangout the day after the meeting for their weekly “Wine and Whine” (137). The others catch Clementine looking at Iwan’s Instagram profile and assume she has a crush on him, though she was mainly searching for a reason that may explain why he would change his views so drastically. She zones out and thinks of Iwan as her friends continue to discuss the publishing world and Juliette’s on-again-off-again relationship with a man they call Romeo-Rob.

The next afternoon, Drew tells Clementine that Iwan and his agent rejected their offer, and they will not be moving on to bid on his book. Clementine knows how much this must crush Drew and thinks that Iwan rejected their offer because of Clementine. She feels dejected as she walks back to her apartment but is surprised to hear a voice when she opens the door.

Iwan is in her apartment cooking dinner, seven years in the past, and she is happy to see him but feels like she does not know him after meeting him in the present. She thinks about how Analea and Vera were always brought to each other when they were at a crossroads, wondering why she was brought back to Iwan now. Clementine shows Iwan some of the paintings she has done since seeing him, and he promises that he will put her artwork in his restaurant and save a permanent table for her when he makes it as a chef. Iwan leaves the room to take a call from his mother, and he tells her he is looking for a new place to live. He tells Clementine he has gotten the job as a dishwasher at the Olive Branch, and she convinces him to try for a line cook position that is about to open up. He also tells her about the restaurant he wants to open up, thinking of it as a place that will feel like home. Clementine continues to observe the differences between Iwan now and Iwan in the present. Clementine tells him about the hypothetical of getting rejected by an author, wondering if he can tell her what the present Iwan wants. She realizes that she needs to go to Iwan in the present at the Olive Branch and attempt to appeal to him about the book. Before leaving, Iwan kisses Clementine and makes her promise she will return.

Clementine gets into the Olive Branch by pretending to be a journalist and sneaking past the hostess into the kitchen. The sous chef immediately gets a server to escort her out, and they bump into Iwan just outside the kitchen. She instantly knows that Iwan rejected their offer because of her and berates him for it, knowing how unfair it is. She tries to convince him that he and Drew would work well together, even if he thinks he wouldn’t work well with Clementine. She convinces him to reconsider, and, to Clementine’s surprise, Iwan admits that he thought she wouldn’t want to see him.

Drew is ecstatic after hearing Strauss & Adder are still in the running for Iwan’s book, and she and Clementine do their research for the upcoming cooking class. At work, Clementine receives a package from her aunt and freezes when she realizes it must have been lost in the mail for months. She thinks of her last conversation with Analea, when her aunt had spontaneously and suddenly asked Clementine if she wanted to go on another trip. Clementine also remembers the call from her mother the next morning on New Year’s Day, telling her Analea had died by suicide. Clementine contemplates the complications of talking about suicide, and how she has complex emotions about her aunt’s death. Clementine puts the package in the trash, but when she goes to retrieve it two hours later, it’s gone.

Clementine and Drew go to the cooking class at the Olive Branch and see several other people they know in publishing, like their repulsive competitor Parker. While cooking, Parker sets his station on fire, and Clementine is relieved that she is not the worst cook in the competition. She watches Iwan and notices how he seems to be masking his emotions, leading Clementine to wonder why he has gone from such an open person to being so closed off. She continues to look for cracks in his facade throughout the night, but Iwan remains professional. She is the last person waiting outside the Olive Branch after the cooking class, where Iwan finds her and asks her out to dinner.