Behind the Net: Chapter 8

JAMIE LEAVES and I stare at the door, stunned.

He’s such a dick. He’s the one who was home early. I was just following the schedule he gave me.

I head up to the room where I stay when he’s away so I can get changed and get out of here. I don’t even bother blow-drying my hair. I just throw my clothes on, head downstairs to give Daisy a kiss on the head goodbye, and lock up.

Hazel’s teaching an online yoga class from home until this evening, and I’m trying to give her space, so I head to the coffee shop downstairs to write my daily update. Jamie never asked for them, but I’m trying to do a good job.

I have a text from Hazel from earlier in the afternoon. I missed it while I was in the shower.

What the fuck is this? she asks, and I open the link she sent.

My stomach drops through the floor when the video starts. I scramble to connect my headphones as Zach plays a recent show, smiling at the woman beside him on stage. She looks about the same age as me and Zach, with long, wavy platinum hair. Her clothes are stylish and bohemian, and she’s smiling and singing alongside Zach while he smiles back at her.

She looks like she belongs on stage. She’s so comfortable up there, so flawless and charismatic.

My headphones connect, and my jaw drops. They’re singing a song that Zach and I wrote together. I mean, I didn’t get writing credits because we just played around with the tune on one of our off days, but still.

I didn’t just get dumped—I got replaced. By a newer, shinier model. My eyes sting and I blink the tears away.

You don’t have it, Zach said to me once when I floated the idea of trying to write my own album. I’ve always wanted to. Being in the spotlight is really hard, he told me, like he was protecting me from it.

He wasn’t always like that. Or maybe he was, and it just surfaced more in the past couple months. When things were good, when Zach turned his charisma on and shone his light on me? It made me feel so special and warm. When it was just us, we’d laugh so hard. He knew me better than anyone. His smile made me feel like a million bucks.

In the video, he smiles at her the way he used to smile at me, and my chest aches. My eyes well up again, a tear falls, and I wipe it away fast.

He never asked me to come out on stage with him. Not once.

This sucks.

I’m sitting in a coffee shop with a hundred and twenty-three dollars in my bank account, living on Hazel’s couch when Jamie’s in town, and my ex is moving on.

Through the glass, my gaze locks with Jamie’s. Seriously? It’s like the universe keeps finding the worst time possible for me to run into him.

I put my head down, hoping the glare on the glass hides me. If I just pretend I didn’t see him, maybe he’ll go away—

Nope. I peek over at him. He’s at the coffee shop door. He’s opening it. Shit. Maybe he’s just getting a coffee.

Nope. He’s heading toward me.