In Lieu of Flowers 2013

Eric [Josh Pence] is lethargic and lost; he runs obsessively, in all weather. A voice mail from Melissa Rauch asks him to pick up his things from Gretchen’s apartment.

On a wind-swept beach we meet Rachel Spencer Grammer, an elementary school teacher. She takes a train into the city to go into a church, where the notice board announces a memorial service for Robert J. Austin.

Barreling around a corner, Eric pulls up short with a pain. As he stands with hands on knees outside the same church, he accepts a flyer: Lazarus Lives, a support group for the bereft.

Cut to Rachel on the train-ride home, enjoying a moment of banter with a fellow passenger that ends as he notices the wedding band she wears.

Eric is non-functional on guys’ night out, focused on a girl he sees at the bar, which triggers flash-backs to his time with Gretchen Bonnie Swencionis. He leaves after blowing up at his friend for being a jack-ass to the waitress, who is an old friend of Eric’s.

Meanwhile Rachel sits alone on the beach looking at photos of her and her husband. She throws them passionately into the surf, then runs to retrieve them.

Coming across the Lazarus Lives flyer, Eric attends a meeting, hearing Rachel tell her story. He listens only, giving his name, and acknowledging he’s been grieving the loss of his girlfriend for 2 months, only when pressed by the moderator. When asked how he lost her, he pauses before saying “suddenly”.

On leaving the group, he and Rachel pause to talk, then go their separate ways.

We see them in their routines: Rachel at school, dodging messages from a girlfriend, sitting on the beach. Eric lethargic, running, dodging more voice messages asking him to pick up his things, and visiting a dermatologist for some growths. He learns that they are the result of a sexually transmitted disease, and we see the realization that his girlfriend had to have gotten it from someone else and passed it to him. As he leaves the doctor’s office, Dr. Rice [Tom Bloom] provides a quiet backdrop to the moment, and we learn that Rachel is the doctor’s daughter.

Rachel and Eric run into each other at a coffee shop, and spend some time together. She tells him that on hearing her close girlfriend is engaged, Rachel offered to host an engagement party at her house in Sag Harbor, and she is now stressed about getting it all together. She declines his offer to help, but later calls and asks him to come out.

When Eric explains to his roommate Tony [Nate Corddry] how he met Rachel, Tony looks askance at him and says “You gotta tell her man. You have to explain about Gretchen.” Eric is evasive, and takes off on the train.