They did get back together soon, but only to break up again that December.
“She went north to Harvard and I went south to Princeton,” Mr. Wilkes said. After that, they usually only saw each other at a high school reunion every five years.
Mr. Wilkes graduated with a bachelor’s degree in architecture, and has a master’s degree in architecture from Yale. He is now an architect, and the founder and the managing partner of Princeton Design Guild, a construction and design firm, in Belle Mead, N.J.
Ms. Franklin graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in English and American literature and language. She now teaches English and history at the Buckley School, a private day school for boys in Manhattan.
Ms. Franklin’s previous marriage ended in divorce, as did Mr. Wilke’s. She has two sons.
In November 2021, over a year and a half into Covid, Ms. Franklin wondered what Mr. Wilkes was doing, and soon emailed him.
After emails flew back and forth, in February 2022 they went to Storico, a now-closed Italian restaurant at the New-York Historical Society, and then walked, arms linked, through Central Park.
“It was so clear we were in love again,” she said.
Later, at her apartment, she recalled how he very gently put his arm around her waist, and asked, “Do you want to try again?” She did, and they kissed. “It was just like kissing him at 15,” she said.
