Page 2 of Anyone But Me

My smile dropped slightly at the reminder of my required relocation.

“No. That’s why I’m not sure if I want to take it.

I’d have to move to New York.” I reached out and squeezed Olivia’s arm, keeping my eyes on her to avoid looking at my moms, who I worried would be upset about my potential move.

“But, it’d be pretty cool to be living in the same city as you. ”

“Fuck!” Olivia shouted so loudly that half of our family and friends standing in the yard turned to look at her.

“Olivia, what did we tell you about using that kind of language at your grandparents’ house?” our mama scolded. “If your grandma hears that, she’ll have a heart attack.”

I was less worried about my grandma hearing her swear and more worried about the fact that my sister didn’t sound happy about the prospect of me moving to New York with her.

Olivia held up one finger and looked at our mama. “First of all, grandma couldn’t hear a marching band playing outside of her bedroom door. There’s no way she heard that.” She turned toward me and held up a second finger. “Second of all, I really wish you had told me that like ten minutes ago.”

Okay, now I was really confused. “What happened ten minutes ago?”

“Quinton asked me to move in with him.”

Even though I was happy for my sister, a lump formed in my throat. “In Philadelphia?”

Olivia nodded, eyes dramatically wide. “We’ve been talking about it ever since he moved to Philly, but I wasn’t ready to leave New York yet.

It wouldn’t make sense for him to come to me when my plan was always to move closer to home at some point anyway.

It must be all the love in the air, but all I could think about throughout the ceremony was how I didn’t want to be away from him anymore, and it turns out, he was thinking the same thing.

He told me he understood if I wanted to stay in New York longer, but he wanted me to know that whenever I was ready to move, he was ready to have me.

And I figured what the hell? It’s time. Sure, I’ll be leaving my life in New York, but I’ll be moving closer to not only the love of my life, but also the majority of the family.

” Olivia raised both eyebrows at me. “At least, I thought it would be. If I had known about your job, I would have told him I want to stay in New York longer. Hell, I could still tell him that.”

Olivia pointed her thumb in what I assumed to be the direction of where Quinton was and turned as if she were about to walk over to him right then, without any more discussion.

I grabbed her arm to stop her. “Don’t tell him that. You two are clearly ready to take this next step. I think you should take it. I honestly don’t know if I’ll even accept the job.”

The thought of accepting the job felt much less appealing than it had a few minutes ago.

The thought of moving to New York with my sister there was scary enough.

Moving to New York with absolutely no one to lean on was downright terrifying.

I didn’t know if any job was worth it, even if this one was everything I had dreamed about.

Before Olivia could say anything, we were interrupted by the sound of an incoming email on my phone.

I pulled it out to find it was the contract from VisuSphere.

I told myself I should put my phone away and open the contract later, but my curiosity got the best of me, and I tapped the phone screen.

I thought my eyes might pop out of my head when I saw the salary front and center on the first page of my contract. It was even more than I expected.

A choked sound rang in my ear, and I looked over to find that Olivia was now leaning over my shoulder and reading the contract as well.

“Is that real? Shit, I should have worked harder at school.” Olivia put her arm around me and squeezed my shoulder.

“You have to take the job. I know it sucks that you’ll be leaving when I’m coming, but you can’t turn down an opportunity like this. ”

“She’s right,” my mama said from where she was standing now right beside me. “Your mom and I obviously believe that it’s up to you to make the final decision when it comes to how you live your life, but I think you’d regret it if you didn’t take this leap.”

My mom winked at me. “I also vote that you take that leap, but like your mama said, you need to follow your heart.”

At that moment, my heart knew exactly what it wanted. I could scientifically analyze the pros and cons of taking the job, but I’d always come to the same conclusion—this was what I needed to do.

I took a deep breath and blew it out as I prepared myself to say the words out loud. “You’re right. I’m going to do it. I’m taking the job.”

Olivia screeched loudly, once again gaining the attention of almost everyone at the wedding.

“We have so much to celebrate.” She whipped her head around.

“Where’s Ronan? We need him. We’re going to do shots as a family.

I’ll find him.” She snapped her fingers as if she had just remembered something.

“Before we do that, I need to break the news to Jax though. It wouldn’t be right to keep her in the dark about something that directly affects her. ”

Jax Michaels had been my sister’s best friend ever since they met as roommates during our freshman year of college. To this day, the two of them still lived together in New York.

“It’s not like it will be a shock to her,” Olivia continued, as if she was trying to convince herself.

“We’ve been discussing this possibility for a while.

I’ll just have to help her find a new roommate.

” Olivia’s eyes went wide, but this time there was a new light behind them as she looked at me. “Oh my god. You and Jax. It’s perfect!”

“What about me and Jax?” I asked hesitantly.

I didn’t dislike Jax, but the two of us were barely acquaintances.

Even with her and Olivia being friends for so long, I had only hung out with her a handful of times.

Jax was one of those people with a very big personality—the kind that made me nervous.

You’d think I’d be used to it after growing up in a family of big personalities, but I’m pretty sure that’s also why I’d always been drawn to people who were kind of the opposite.

I loved my family more than anything, but they were a lot.

Spending my time with people who were more subdued was a nice escape.

Olivia took both of my hands in hers and shook my arms. “You two can live together. It’s perfect. You’ll take over my lease. It’ll be like I never left.”

I choked on a laugh. “Yeah, except that we’re nothing alike. Living with me will be nothing like living with you.” Jax will hate it.

Olivia squeezed my hands. “Exactly. You’ll be a much better roommate than I ever was. You’re much cleaner and you actually know how to mind your own business.”

“I don’t…” I shook my head. “If Jax agrees to it, I’m in.”

There. The perfect solution. Jax was never going to agree to living with me. Clearly, she would want a roommate who was more similar to Olivia - someone willing to go out to a bar on a whim in the middle of the week. Someone whose idea of fun wasn’t reading after a long day of work.

“That’s awesome.” Olivia dropped my hands and held hers in front of her mouth, as if she needed help to amplify her voice. “Yo, Jax! Get over here!”

I watched as Jax said something to my brother before patting his arm and walking away from him and over toward us.

Jax’s blonde wavy hair, which currently had rainbow coloring on the bottom layer, fluttered in the wind as she walked, and it seemed like the sun shone off of her smile with how wide it was.

If Jax was a girl on the street, rather than someone I’d known through my sister for years, the sight would have made me take a second look.

Heck, I might not have been able to look away at all.

It was no secret that Jax was hot. Anyone with eyes could see that.

“What’s up?” Jax looked from Olivia to my moms. “Mom and Mama Miller-Cooper, I need you to know that you’re the most gorgeous brides I’ve ever seen. The ceremony was perfect. I can only hope I find a love like yours someday.”

“Thank you, Jax. That’s very sweet of you to say.” My mom smiled at Jax before smiling over at my mama with all of the love in the world. “We’ve definitely been lucky.”

As a hopeless romantic, all my life I had dreamed of the day I would marry my soulmate.

As a realist who had her heart shattered by the person she thought was her soulmate, I realized that most likely wasn’t the path my life was going to take.

And I was okay with that. Seriously. Totally okay. That’s what romance novels were for.

Olivia grabbed Jax’s arm and waited to speak until Jax was facing her completely. “I have to talk to you about something. It’s bad and good, so I’m going to start with the bad.”

“Okay.” Jax moved her eyes between all of us as if she was trying to get answers to my sister’s very vague introduction. “Quinton and I decided we’re both ready to move in together, which means I’m going to be leaving New York.”

“And what’s the bad news?” Jax teased.

Olivia playfully shoved Jax. “Jerk. The good news is I already found a roommate for you.”

I watched as Jax lifted one perfectly sculpted eyebrow and smirked at Olivia. “Oh yeah? Who is this roommate?”

Olivia swung her arms around in a wide circle before using both hands to point at me. “My wonderful sister.”

Jax swung her head around to look at me and her eyes stared directly into mine, unmoving and barely blinking.

It was how attentive she always was when she spoke to someone, and if I was being completely honest, it was one of the things that made me so nervous around her. “No way. You’re moving to New York?”

I nodded slowly. “I believe so. I was offered a job at VisuSphere, and it appears I’m going to take it.”