Page 3 of Somewhere Only We Know (Healing in Cincy #4)
JAX
I untuck myself from my chair and work to get everything sent to my editor.
My episodes are generally thirty minutes long.
Sometimes, when things happen in my life, the episodes can stretch to an hour.
Sully gets up from her spot when I turn off the studio lights and looks at me like I can read her mind.
Our routine has gotten easier. Between the first week filming, recording, and her restlessness I think we were both on edge.
She was scared of the lights and I was just a scared dog mom.
Wordlessly, I grab my phone and shut the overhead light off as Sully trots behind me as I head up to my room to change. Who needs a man when you have your faithful, loyal sidekick?
“Go get it.” I tell her as I lob a tennis ball across the field for the fifth time. Bringing Sully to the park reminds me how energetic labs are. We’re out here for about an hour before another dog eventually joins and I smile as I watch Sully play.
“I’m sorry. He’s been cooped in the house all day,” a petite brunette, with a full colored tattoo sleeve down her left arm, says next to me.
I look over at her from behind my sunglasses. Break the pattern, Jax . “That’s okay. I work from home so this is her first time out as well.”
“I’m Sophie,” she introduces herself to me, “and that’s Hank.”
“Jax and that’s Sully.” We watch them play together for the next ten minutes. I’m not great at making conversation with strangers so we stand in awkward silence, but maybe it wouldn’t hurt to try. “Are you new to the area?”
“Is it that obvious? I scream transplant,” she jokes and it lightens the mood. I shake my head as she turns to look at me. “Me and my fiancée just moved here last month. He actually got traded so this really is my first opportunity to get out of the house.”
“Traded?” I ask, my nosiness coming out to play.
Her eyes widen. “Oh, yes. He plays shortstop for Cincinnati.”
“That’s so fun.” I tell her.
She smiles and sighs. “It is. But it’s also exhausting. Him having such a heavy schedule has forced us to work our wedding around his season. We were in Atlanta for the last few years. So this is a bit of a change in pace for both of us.”
“My brother-in-law would flip if he knew I was standing by an Atlanta adjacent member.” I’m already planning ways to rub it in his face.
“He’s a big fan?”
“You could say that.” I say and toss the ball when Sully brings it back with Hank on her heels. “Although now that he retired from Cincinnati, he has more time to stalk the stats.”
Sophie quirks her head. “Retired?”
“He was Cincinnati’s starting QB.”
She coughs and hits her chest. “Mason Brooks?”
“Mm hmm.”
“My fiancée is going to be so mad that he had to miss this outing for practice.” She jumps up and down like she can’t believe her luck.
I pull my phone out of the side pocket of my leggings and unlock it. “How about you put your number in and we can do a group thing.”
Sophie and I chat for a little while longer while our dogs play. And as more dogs join the park, I whistle for Sully while Sophie does the same for Hank.
“Well, it was great meeting you.” I tell her as I hook Sully’s leash.
“Likewise,” she says.
We part ways with a wave and happy, but tired dogs.
Despite the park being right down the street, I take the long way home.
In my single-dom, I’m realizing how much I missed and how much I’m rediscovering in terms of Cincinnati.
I look down at Sully who has her tongue lolling out of her mouth and a slow walk, I realize how much she needed this time at the park.
Luckily, an ice cream shop is on the way home, so I stop in for a treat which immediately perks her up.
I guess you could say this is also part of my new pattern. Ice cream and my dog. This is the after me. The me after the toxic ex. The me who learns to love herself. The me that wants to create a new pattern. The me that finally wants to live a happy life.
The sound of the ice clinking against the sides of my glass fills the quiet in my house as I look out the windows in the back of the house.
It’s just after ten in the morning and I’ve finished recording next week's podcast and took a break before uploading my next YouTube video. I’m hoping this second iced coffee will keep me energized through the editing process.
Since my breakup, I’ve buried myself in work. When Kam and Mason went on their honeymoon, I buried myself even further in work. Anything to keep me occupied.
Having a house to furnish has helped me the most and kept my mind busy.
But now that I’ve finished decorating my new space, I’m finally able to call this place home.
Will it be my forever home? It could be.
I lucked out finding a four-bedroom home.
With the way I’ve changed throughout the years, I was able to curate the space and the rooms just the way I like them.
I walk down the short hallway and up the stairs into my office.
The shining sun and distant sounds of birds chirping is a sound I used to take for granted in dark years of my life.
My office overlooks the city which is a bonus because I love seeing the hustle and bustle.
When my realtor sent me homes to look at, I could not stop thinking about this place.
So now I work from home with an insane view.
I connect my camera to export the video to my computer and while that’s transferring, I open up the door to the balcony to let the fresh air in.
Nails tapping on the floor alerts me that Sully has wandered up from the living room and straight to the open balcony to find her spot on the dog bed.
Bending down to kiss her on the top of her head, I head back over to my desk and log into my dashboard to reply to any comments left on my videos.
This is one thing I stopped doing while with my ex.
I stopped connecting with those who supported me in the early days of my career and for that my work suffered drastically.
But now, my work has improved to where it was before he and I started dating.
I took no time to mourn that relationship to reset my life before diving back into my blog and channel, eventually working hard to gain 5,000 new subscribers on each platform.
My computer pops with a notification that the export is done. So I slide my blue light glass on my face and get to editing with hope that I can finish this in a couple of hours for tomorrow’s upload.
“JJ?!” A voice shouts an hour later as I’m deep in the editing cave.
“In my office,” I shout before attempting to zone back in on my edits but it’s no use.
“You really did a great job decorating this place,” Kamryn says from the hallway.
“Thank you.”
My sister in all her natural beauty finally breezes into my office and dramatically falls onto the couch I have in here. Sully gets up from her bed and greets my sister, covering her face in kisses. “What are you doing this weekend?” She asks and sits back up to halt Sully’s love.
“Um, other than my usual work and taking Sully to the park, nothing. Why, what’s up?” I ask and turn to face her.
“Well, Mason got us tickets to go to the Cincy game. How great is he? ”
“Good for Mason?” I deadpan.
She throws a pillow at me but it falls short of reaching me. “No, good for us, silly goose. You and I!”
“Who are they playing?”
“Philly. Say yes, please!” She holds her hands in front of her in a prayer pose and sticks her bottom lip out.
We may have been living in Cincinnati for the last five years but we’re still Philly girls through and through.
“Okay, I’m in. Plus, I can see if my friend is going to be there.” I say thinking of Sophie.
My sister sits up straight. “A friend?”
“Easy. I met her at the dog park. Her fiancée just got traded.”
“Look at you, making friends.”
I throw a pen at her which actually reaches her and she swats it away effortlessly. “But, yes. I’m in.”
“Yay!” she exclaims and pops up with the energy of a toddler. “I’ll come over around twelve and then we can just walk to the field.”
“Sounds good,” I tell her.
“Later tater. Bye, Sully girl.”
And with that she’s gone. I love my brother-in-law, but I love baseball more than football.
It’s a good thing he’s retired and doesn’t have to hear me complaining.
My relationship with my sister is also on the mend.
Whether she knows it or not, the closer she got to her wedding with Mason, the closer I got to Trent and that pulled me away from her.
Kamryn and I have always had an easygoing relationship.
There was never any competition and it helped that we’re two years apart in age.
But with her years away at college and me still in high school, she was out of sight out of mind.
I mean, she still came home for breaks. But it was never the same as when we were kids .
While sometimes I resented my sister for hogging the spotlight, that just meant I was free to do what I wanted. And now that the spotlight is mostly off of her, I feel like there’s an unspoken rule that I have to follow her path to success.