TWO AND A HALF YEARS LATER…
Ru Rockwell is living in Chicago with her fiancé, Teddy Whistler. She has recently turned in a memoir called The Language of Elephants and Love to her agent, Maska Gravatz—who loves it—and her editor, Hanby Popper, who’s too nervous to discuss it just yet. Ru is expecting a baby in three months; no wedding date is in the offing. In fact, marriage itself doesn’t seem all that important. Teddy Whistler and Ru Rockwell sometimes give each other a preemptive win-back, which feels more authentic to them than vows.
Liv Rockwell has opened up a mind–body–spirit dating service called Love Loves You in New Jersey, using a mix of quasi-Buddhism, yoga, and acupuncture—by master acupuncturist Sue Kwok—to prepare her clients for love. And because she tends to overspend, she brought on a more conservative business partner, Esme Rockwell.
Esme lives in Ocean City once again. An empty-nester, she finds having her own place is liberating. After dating Rob Parks (aka Darwin Webber) for a few months, she reconnected with her old friend Todd Wentworth, aka Little-Head Todd, history teacher and antique gun collector. They’ve been dating, long-distance, for about six months. Esme and her father frequent a dog park together with Ingmar and Toby in tow. Sometimes they talk about important things.
Atty Rockwell wrote a brilliant college essay and now attends a major public university on the East Coast where she studies social media and, as a freshman, has founded three on-campus movements, one of which—Take Time to Tune Out—is extremely successful with three budding chapters on other campuses.
Doug Toomey, Atty Rockwell’s estranged father, was insinuated into a threesome by the French dentist who’d fallen in love with Arnaud, a Parisian photographer of some renown. Doug couldn’t sustain the intimacy of the threesome and begged out of the relationship. He now works in a private Episcopal school in Indiana. He is trying to regain the trust of his daughter.
Virgil Pedestro has moved out of his childhood bedroom, having converted the third floor of his mother’s home into his bachelor’s pad.
Mrs. Pedestro remains virtually unchanged.
Clifford Wells and his producing partner have recently had a film project—about a televangelist who turns to drug smuggling—greenlit, but not with Sony.
Bill Huckley took over the care of his father, Herc Huckley—feeding him, bathing him, singing to him—and he was present when, in the middle of the night one month ago, Herc peacefully passed away in his sleep.
Jessamine is in semi-retirement and only comes to work at the Rockwells’ house three days a week. Augusta Rockwell, whom she refers to now by her first name, is her closest friend.
Nick Flemming and Augusta Rockwell live together in the house on Asbury Avenue. They are still not married.