The Happy Ever After Playlist

Sloan and Jason drive to Duluth and Ely, passing his family’s outfitter business. Jason’s house is a traditional log cabin style tucked away in the woods. Jason steals a kiss before they go inside, knowing that his mom has them in separate rooms. Jason’s brother, David, interrupts them. He has arrived alone since his kids are sick. Inside, Sloan meets Jason’s mom, Patricia, and his father, Paul. While the men go off to attend to projects, Sloan helps Patricia finish the dinner, falling right into the kitchen rhythm. After dinner, the family gathers in the living room, and Sloan learns that Paul also plays the guitar and sings, and he taught Jason. Sloan shares her art and how she’s mostly doing pet portraits now. She shows them photos of her previous work, hyper-realistic paintings done by looking at pictures. Jason realizes the nude of Sloan over her bed is a self-portrait painting, not a photograph. He stares at her as if seeing her anew.

Sloan excuses herself to go to the restroom, and Jason follows her to grab a kiss in the hallway. He can tell his parents like Sloan a lot. Jason asks why she didn’t tell him the painting was her work, and she responds that it’s the same reason he hid from her that he is Jaxon. Internally, Jason worries about what happens when they return to LA. He hasn’t told Sloan about Lola joining the tour and what that could mean for their relationship.

The next day, Sloan busies herself, helping Patricia in the kitchen with meals while the men work on projects around the property. Sloan steals glances at Jason working shirtless on the roof, and she struggles to focus on her work. Over lunch on the dock where Jason works, she admits she’s been staring at him all day. He kisses her, and all his family cheers and whistles. 

Jason takes Sloan to an island to camp and watch the Northern Lights. Over the campfire, he tells her about the overseas tour but doesn’t say anything about Lola. Sloan thinks to herself that long distance usually causes “a slow death of a relationship” and worries about what the long periods of separation would mean for them (188). Her parents are divorced, which profoundly affects her view of relationships. She resolves to enjoy their time together and face whatever may come later. Jason wants to know about Brandon, and Sloan shares about his generous personality. The drunk driver responsible for his death gets out of prison soon.

It’s cold, and they go into the tent to warm up. Sloan removes her clothes to reveal the new lingerie she bought for Jason. Once they crawl into the tent, Sloan desperately wants Jason. They have sex and a satisfied Sloan regrets not sleeping with Jason every time they’ve been together. The following day, they return to Jason’s house and Sloan notices a motorcycle in the garage. She assumes it’s Paul’s, but it’s Jason’s, and her heart sinks.

Jason holds Sloan while she has a panic attack. He assures her that he will never ride the motorcycle again. Through her tears, she describes the pain of seeing Brandon’s battered body, and Jason wishes she didn’t have to feel this pain. Jason realizes he is in love with Sloan.

Jason and Sloan barely leave the house or the bed for three days after returning from Ely, and though it’s bliss, Sloan convinces herself that it will end soon when Jason leaves for the tour. He asks if he can borrow a drawer for his things, and Sloan immediately responds no. He’s not angry, but Sloan feels guilty. While he’s in the shower, she calls Kristen for advice. Kristen says Sloan is overthinking everything, and she shouldn’t jump to assume the relationship will end just because he’s traveling for a year. Sloan feels like an emotional wreck and still can’t believe Jason wants to be with her. Jason has a new personal assistant named Zane who is coming to pick him up for a day full of appointments and interviews. As he leaves, Sloan gives him a key to the house, basically inviting him to move in.

Sloan and Jason plan a date night. They go to a thrift store and find costumes for each other that they must wear for the rest of the night. Sloan gives Jason a cape and goofy sunglasses so no one will recognize him. Jason gives Sloan a unicorn onesie. Jason can’t bear the thought of spending months separated from her, but he can’t ask her to join him on tour until he knows Ernie can remove Lola from the lineup. Jason asks Sloan to join him in Ely for Thanksgiving over his five-week holiday vacation. Sloan thinks they should break up while he’s gone because the demands of his tour and the distance will be too stressful for both. Jason is hurt that she’d end things instead of trying to make it work. He longs to tell her he loves her, but sensing that she’s not in the same place as him, he keeps it to himself.

Jason must make a red carpet appearance with Lola at the movie premiere. Lola is 45 minutes late and arrives riding a Harley Davidson. Jason seethes with anger as he sees Lola as the source of all his problems. He couldn’t bring Sloan to the premiere for fear of what Lola might do, and he hasn’t been sleeping well or eating since Sloan suggested they break up. Jason’s publicist, Pia, coaches him on handling Lola in front of the press. Ernie arrives with the good news that he’s convinced the label to take Lola off the tour because she’s causing Jason anxiety. They agreed, but the caveat is they can still add her back if the tour isn’t successful. Jason is overjoyed and can’t wait to ask Sloan to join him on tour. Lola sidles up next to Jason, kisses him, and grabs his crotch. Jason admonishes her for assaulting him but is thankful that the press did not notice.

Jason doesn’t make it home until the early hours of the morning. When he wakes up, Sloan is next to him, reading an article on TMZ that her mom sent her, which shows Lola kissing Jason and touching his crotch. The article also has a grainy photo from the night Lola showed up at Jason’s trailer, and it looks like he’s kissing her. Sloan is furious, and Jason can’t understand why she believes TMZ’s salacious lies. He explains that he slept with Lola once and that she’s made his life miserable since. He didn’t tell Sloan about her because he is trying to protect her from the chaos. Sloan is angry that Jason wasn’t honest with her about the details of his life. Jason counters by explaining that this type of scenario comes with his fame and that she needs to have tough skin to be with him. He reminds her that she is the one who wants to break up in 13 days when he leaves. Sloan says she has been reconsidering her decision, but this changes things. Jason begs to talk it out, but she asks him to leave.

Sloan is at Josh and Kristen’s house. She ignores Jason’s texts and phone calls that beg her to talk to him. Both Kristen and Josh think she is being too hard on Jason. They agree that he should have told her about Lola but that it’s not a cause to end the relationship. Josh says he hasn’t seen a man look at Sloan like Jason does since Brandon fell in love with her. Still, Sloan doesn’t feel she’s cut out for dating a person in the public eye who is gone for long periods. She fears she would be “twitchy and worried, waiting for the other shoe to drop the whole time he was away” (233). She resolves that the only path forward is to break up with Jason.

Two days of Sloan ignoring his calls has Jason spiraling. Ernie tries to convince him that it might be better if Sloan breaks up with him because the relationship likely won’t survive the tour. Ernie says it’s unfair for Jason to leave Sloan in LA while he’s gone for over a year and expect her to wait for him while he chases his dream. Jason still blames everything on Lola. Ernie says he’s still curious how Lola got the gate code and worries she’s up to something. Admitting that he messed up, Jason can’t wait any longer and goes to Sloan’s house. She hasn’t used the chain lock so he can get in. This gives Jason hope that she will still give him a chance.

Jason uses his key to enter the house and crawls into bed with Sloan. When he wraps his arms around her, he apologizes, and she melts into his embrace. She forgives him, and they profess their love for one another. Jason asks Sloan to join him on tour, and she says yes. They plan to sell the house and move in together after the tour.

Jason buys a giant engagement ring.

Someone snaps a photo of Sloan and Jason in Trader Joe’s, and TMZ reports Jaxon is cheating on Lola. Jason leaves for New York to perform on Saturday Night Live while Sloan remains behind to begin preparing to go on tour with him. She must finish her pet portraits, shut down her Etsy shop, and sell the house. Though everything with Jason is moving fast, it feels right, and Sloan is ready for their future together. Her parents weren’t thrilled when she shared the news with them, and she hasn’t told Kristen for fear of the same reaction. She meets Kristen for a walk and tells her about the tour. Kristin is happy and supportive of Sloan’s decision. She explained that being without Sloan for around 14 months would be okay because she’d felt absent for the last two years. Kristen is happy that being with Jason has made Sloan alive again. Hearing that both Josh and Kristen support her decision assures Sloan that she’s made the right choice. When Sloan returns to her car, the windows are smashed, and she sees the words “Jaxon’s Whore” spray painted on the door.

Jason is furious about the vandalism of Sloan’s car, but in the following days, things only get worse. All of Sloan’s social media is attacked, and she begins receiving threatening phone calls from untraceable numbers. Since he’s in New York, Jason makes Ernie investigate. This, coupled with the preparations for the tour, sends their life into chaos. When he returns home, Ernie reports that his housekeeper gave Lola the gate code. Someone from Jason’s record label paid her to provide them with the code. Jason’s record label, not Lola, is the culprit. Ernie says the label is “manufacturing […] hype” to attract media attention (253). Ernie worries that the label will add Lola to the tour to create more drama, but Jason says he’ll quit if that happens.

Sloan wakes up alone in bed, checks her email, and finds a message from a gallery offering her $4,000 for a commission. Sloan is thrilled at the opportunity to get back to doing the kind of art she enjoys. However, the client needs the commission in December, and Sloan isn’t sure how to make it work with leaving for the tour. Jason returns from meeting with Ernie and tells Sloan what he said about the label. Sloan says Lola doesn’t threaten her, but in her mind, she thinks about how much has changed in just a few days. After SNL, Jason’s popularity skyrocketed, and they couldn’t go anywhere in public without him being recognized or photographed. Jason gives Sloan a gift, which includes a lamp made from salvaged parts from her car and a $1,000 gift card to the art supply store. He encourages her to take the commission and complete it during their holiday break. He asks her to attend his rehearsal at Century City, and Sloan agrees. They kiss, and Jason carries her back to bed.