Behind the Net

Pippa remembers Jamie from high school. He was two years ahead of her, one of the popular, gorgeous jocks. She found him unnerving but fascinating. Eight years later, Pippa reminds herself she’s a grown woman—she no longer has a teenage crush, and she needs this job as his assistant. She’s living with her sister Hazel, who works as a physiologist for the Storm. Pippa, a musician, has decided she is done with the music industry and has decided to pursue marketing, making use of her college degree. There is a marketing position for the Storm opening soon, and getting this job as Jamie’s assistant would make her a viable candidate.

Pippa is speechless when Jamie opens the door; he’s more good-looking than ever, but he seems very surly. He doesn’t introduce himself, nor does he act like he remembers her. Pippa reflects, “If I learned one thing from my ex, Zach, and his crew, it’s that gorgeous, famous people are allowed to be complete assholes. The world lets them get away with it” (12). Jamie’s apartment is spacious and attractive, overlooking the water and the North Shore Mountains. He hasn’t given the dog a name and is terse when he outlines responsibilities, but Pippa remains upbeat. She reminds herself she’s not going to fall again for a famous guy with a big ego, but she will make Jamie like her so she can keep this job.

Jamie is rattled when he opens the door. Pippa is more gorgeous than ever, and he remembers how he was fascinated with her in high school after he overheard her singing one day. Jamie always disliked her former boyfriend Zach, who also went to high school with them.

When Jamie returns from practice one day, he finds Pippa in his apartment, singing. She unpacked his boxes and set up his apartment, and she named his dog Daisy. Jamie wants to confide in Pippa but feels this is a weakness. He decides he can’t have her around as a distraction, telling himself, “If there are too many balls in the air, I’m going to drop one. I always do” (19). He tells Ward he needs a different assistant.

Pippa panics when she hears she’s been fired. She needs money, and she doesn’t want to disappoint her parents, who hope to see her in a stable job. She talks with her sister about the situation and relives her breakup with Zach—he fired her from his tour a month earlier without even talking to her first, having the manager send her to the airport. Zach began his music career during their last year of university, and Pippa helped behind the scenes. Now she thinks, “I put my whole life on hold to follow him around while he lived out his dreams” (23). Angry, Pippa decides to confront Jamie and bakes a batch of cupcakes to help convince him to give her the job back.

Jamie can’t stop thinking about Pippa. She comes to his door, wet from the rain. She gives him the cupcakes and tells him he’s treated her badly. He hates feeling that he let her down. He also feels at a disadvantage because he was obsessed with her in high school. He tells Pippa she can have the job but is determined to keep her at a distance. Pippa tells him to take the cupcakes, and Jamie thinks they’re the best thing he’s ever tasted.

Pippa and Hazel walk Daisy at a leash-off park in North Vancouver. They discuss how their parents want them to have steady jobs. They’d say Hazel’s wish to open a yoga studio is risky, and they think Pippa’s music is just a hobby. Their parents talked Pippa out of majoring in music, and she thinks they might be right. Zach laughed at her when she played a song for him and his manager, and Pippa was humiliated. Since then, she hasn’t been able to play her guitar.

Hazel tells Pippa to move on with another guy. Pippa reflects that she was never able to achieve orgasms with Zach, so she faked it. She’d dated him since the 10th grade and never slept with anyone else. Pippa showers at Jamie’s, singing, and he’s in the apartment when she comes out wrapped in a towel.

Jamie is aroused by the sight of Pippa in a towel and rushes out of the apartment so she doesn’t see this. He tells himself he can’t become distracted. His mother calls.

Hurt by Jamie’s behavior, Pippa goes to a coffee shop. She sees a video clip of Zach singing onstage with another woman with long, wavy platinum hair. They’re singing a song Pippa and Zach wrote together, and Pippa thinks, “I didn’t just get dumped—I got replaced” (41). She wipes away a tear and spots Jamie staring at her through the window.

Feeling protective, Jamie enters the shop and demands to know why Pippa is crying. She shows him the video and explains that she and Zach broke up, and she’s living with her sister. Jamie has an image of Pippa in his apartment, hanging out with Daisy, and playing her guitar. He tells her to move in with him. She agrees, and Jamie thinks, “I just threw a wrench into the well-oiled machine that is my life” (46).

Jamie brings Daisy to his mother’s house. He doesn’t remember his father, who died when he was a baby, but he feels very protective toward his mother. He sees her as fragile and needing his help to keep things together. He blames his father for his mother’s depression and anxiety. Lately, she’s been having panic attacks, sometimes triggered by the smell of alcohol.

Jamie tells his mother he hired a personal assistant. He reflects on how, after he broke up with Erin, she suddenly quit her career as a supermodel. Erin thought she was pregnant, and Jamie was terrified at the thought of being a father at 19. He believes Erin was so traumatized by his reaction that she left her career. He tells himself he can’t crush Pippa like Zach did, or like Jamie crushed Erin.

As she sets up her room in Jamie’s house, Pippa takes out her guitar. She remembers again how Zach and his manager laughed at her song. She loves writing music, but after Zach told her she doesn’t have what it takes, Pippa has decided to settle and take a marketing job: “[It’s] is going to be so much easier in the end. No one gets their heart broken over a desk job” (55). She’s startled when Jamie appears at her door and asks her to go for a walk with him and Daisy.

Pippa and Jamie talk, getting to know one another. When he describes playing hockey, it sounds like how she feels writing music. Pippa wonders if he is flirting with her and reflects on the way that Zach’s betrayal messed with her head. Jamie tells her she has a great voice. They walk past a store holding the guitar of Pippa’s dreams.

Coach Ward takes Jamie to a small dive bar called the Filthy Flamingo. The bartender, Jordan, hates hockey. Ward thinks Jamie should spend more time socializing with his teammates. Jamie recalls his former best friend, Rory Miller, the son of NHL Hall of Famer Rick Miller. After his falling out with Rory, Jamie hasn’t had a best friend.

Pippa brings Jamie’s keys to him at practice and another player, Hayden Owens, introduces himself. Pippa thinks she is slowly becoming less starstruck around Jamie, but she remembers her resolve not to fall for another guy who makes everything about him. Jamie asks if Pippa would mind bringing his mom to a game.

Pippa enjoys watching the game with Jamie’s mother Donna and likes watching Jamie in action. Donna confides that Jamie is hard on himself and has taken on so much responsibility, even as a child. Pippa speaks of the marketing job, which isn’t her dream. Seeing Jamie doing what he loves, she thinks, “Some people are meant to pursue their dreams, but I’m not one of them” (76). In the box after the game, a server spills alcohol on Donna, and she rushes to the bathroom. Pippa follows to find Donna having a panic attack.

Pippa talks Donna through her panic attack, helping her breathe. Jamie is anxious about his mother, but Donna insists she is fine and arranges a ride home. Pippa sees Jamie’s concern for Donna and wonders who takes care of him. They go back to his apartment, and Pippa admits to herself that she wants to have sex with Jamie.

Jamie feels like his relationship with Pippa is deepening, but he’s convinced she deserves more than he can give her. He masturbates to thoughts of her, then finds Pippa in the kitchen making him coffee. She’s going to a yoga class at Hazel’s studio, and Jamie decides to go with her.

Pippa keeps getting distracted by Jamie in class. She reminds herself that Jamie is out of her league. He takes pictures with some of the staff and students, then takes Pippa and Hazel out for lunch. He is friendly with Hazel and Pippa wonders why he acts so differently, not surly, with her sister. Hazel’s classes are suddenly booked solid after the picture with Jamie is posted on social media. Pippa teases Jamie that he’s nice. She says she owes him a favor, and he says she can play a song for him.