P.S. I Still Love You

Lara Jean visits with Stormy, a patient at the nursing home. Stormy is feisty and flamboyant and has been married four times. As the two of them work on Stormy’s scrapbook, Lara Jean confides in Stormy about the hot tub video. Stormy tells her that only boring girls have no scandals, and Lara Jean should enjoy life and have several boyfriends at once while she is young. She also offers to set Lara Jean up with her grandson.

Lara Jean works on scrapbooks with Stormy and two other patients: a Japanese woman named Alicia and a man named Mr. Morales, whom Lara Jean suspects of having crushes on both women. Alicia and Stormy have very different styles; Alicia is reserved and spare, while Stormy is flashy and outspoken.

At one point, while Alicia is out of the room, Stormy accuses Lara Jean of preferring Alicia to her because Alicia is Asian. Lara Jean reflects on how she is used to these mild displays of prejudice from people who don’t know better and thinks about the different hierarchies of preference in her own family.

While they are doing homework together at Starbucks, Lara Jean tells Pete that she wishes young people could date the way they used to in the 1950s: either dating casually or going steady. She is clearly under the influence of her conversations with Stormy. Peter in turn tells Lara Jean that he appreciates her because she’s not like Genevieve, who got him “all worked up and crazy” (103). Lara Jean takes slight offense at this, thinking that the compliment makes her sound boring.

On a chilly morning before school, Lara Jean sees Josh outside scraping frost off his car windows. She offers him a ride in her own car so that he won’t be late to school. He thanks her and gets in her car.

Once in her car, the two of them discuss the recent past. Josh asks Lara Jean why she has been ignoring him, and she reminds him of how he recently broke up with Margot. He tells her that relationships are complicated, and she tells him that he is “the biggest know-it-all next to my sister” (106). He asks her which sister she means, and the two of them laugh and gradually make amends.

While waiting for Peter outside of school, Lara Jean sees Genevieve come outside, talking on her phone. She hears Genevieve tell someone on her phone, “If you don’t tell her, I will” ( 108). Genevieve hangs up and her new friends join her; she is brusque and bossy with them. Once Genevieve sees Lara Jean, however, her demeanor sweetens. She instructs Lara Jean to tell Peter that she’ll call him later.

When Peter joins Lara Jean a moment later, and she asks him about Genevieve. He brushes off her concerns and tells her that he’ll buy her a hot chocolate; he also calls her later that night. Lara Jean’s suspicion thaws.

Alone in their house, Lara Jean and Kitty suspect their father of going on a date. Lara Jean asks Kitty if she’d mind it if their father got remarried. Kitty replies that she wouldn’t mind.

When their father returns home later that night, Lara Jean confronts him about where he was. When he tells Lara Jean that he was out at a symphony with a colleague—standing in as her date because her husband had to cancel—Lara Jean is both relieved and disappointed. She decides to make a profile of her father on a dating site for single parents.

It is Kitty’s 10th birthday. Lara Jean makes her sister a special breakfast and hangs a banner that she and Margot made for her when she was born over her bedroom door. Peter later picks Kitty up to drive her to school and gives her a bouquet of pink carnations. Lara Jean reflects that she has “never liked him more” than at this moment (116).

That night, they have a family celebration. To everyone’s surprise but Kitty’s, Ms. Rothschild from across the street also comes over. Kitty privately admits to Lara Jean that she is trying to set Ms. Rothschild up with their father. While both girls are impressed with Ms. Rothschild’s competent demeanor over dinner, they are not sure if there is any chemistry between her and their father.

Over Skype, Lara Jean tells Margot about hers and Kitty’s plans for their father’s dating life. Margot disapproves of Ms. Rothschild as a prospective romantic partner, telling Lara Jean that she is too youthful and vulgar for their father.

Margot tells Lara Jean that she will look over the dating profile that Lara Jean has made and will help her to weed out prospective dates. She also tells Lara Jean that she is about to go out on a date with a British boy named Samuel. Lara Jean is happy about this, reflecting that her sister must be getting over Josh.

While they are watching television together, Kitty confesses to Lara Jean that she is considering sending a valentine to Ms. Rothschild and signing it as their father. Lara Jean tells Kitty not to meddle in people’s romantic affairs and that if their father and Ms. Rothschild are meant to be together, they will be.

Kitty then points out to Lara Jean that if she had not meddled in Lara Jean’s own romantic affairs a long time ago, Lara Jean and Peter would probably not be together. Lara Jean and Kitty get into a half-serious tickling fight, Lara Jean wondering to herself if Kitty is right.

At the Belleview retirement home, Lara Jean helps Stormy with her scrapbook. Stormy asks her again about Peter, and Lara Jean shows her a picture of him on her phone. Stormy agrees with Lara Jean that Peter is handsome, but claims that her grandson is more handsome, resembling Robert Redford.

Stormy also gives Lara Jean more dating advice, telling her to be adventurous but cautious as well, especially around sex. While indignantly denying that she is a feminist, she tells Lara Jean that women are superior to men and that they also need to be more careful than men. Lara Jean reflects that she has no idea how to date in her own era.

Lara Jean and Peter study together at Starbucks. Peter, distracted and bored, starts nuzzling and kissing Lara Jean, trying to distract her too. Lara Jean asks him to stop, telling him that she dislikes public displays of affection. She promises Peter that she will kiss him once they are alone in his car. Peter is placated; however, when his phone buzzes and Lara sees him writing a text, she wonders if he is writing to Genevieve.

Lara Jean runs into Josh at the grocery store. Josh tells Lara Jean that he got into the University of Virginia; she is thrilled and gives him a hug. Josh asks her to please tell Margot his news, and she in turn asks him to please come over for dinner with her family some time. She reflects that soon Josh will no longer be her next door neighbor.

Kitty and Lara Jean prepare for Valentine’s Day; Lara Jean makes an elaborate valentine for Peter. They discuss the possibility of a special breakfast for their father, perhaps a heart-shaped waffle; in place of a heart-shaped waffle iron, Kitty suggests using a cookie cutter. Lara Jean reflects that Kitty is a hybrid of her and Margot, but is also very much her own person.

Lara Jean goes to school early, to put her valentine in Peter’s locker. She then sees Peter and Genevieve together in the school cafeteria; Peter has his hands on Genevieve’s shoulders and seems to be reassuring her. Genevieve spies Lara Jean watching them and rushes out of the room.

Peter greets Lara Jean with enthusiasm, giving her a poem that he wrote for her and a necklace from his mother’s antique store, which Lara Jean has long coveted from afar. Lara Jean again forgets her doubts about Genevieve, regretting only that she did not make more of an effort with her own valentine.

Once at home, Lara Jean lets Kitty try on her new necklace, which has a heart-shaped locket. Kitty asks Lara Jean slyly if she and Peter are having sex yet, and Lara Jean shoos her sister out of her room.

Lara Jean and Peter find out that the hot tub meme has reappeared in their school. Lara Jean sees two girls watching the meme on their computers in the library and goes over to confront them, telling the girls that she and Peter are under-aged and that they could get in trouble for watching the video. She also must soothe Peter’s feelings about the reappearance of the meme; he is more upset and frustrated about it than she has seen him be before.

Once she is home, Lara Jean is confronted by her father, who tells her that he has heard about the video, although he has no desire to see it. He was told about the video’s existence by a school official. He tells Lara Jean that he has instructed Principal Lachlan to take the video down, and lectures her gently about being more careful. He asks her if she and Peter are serious about one another; their conversation then turns to Lara Jean’s mother, and how she and her father met in college.

Peter calls later that night, asking Lara Jean if he should apologize to her father. She tells him that he shouldn’t; reassuring him again, she reflects on the fragility of boys’ egos.