Page 97 of Irresistibly Us
The buzz in my ears and the weight suddenly sitting on my chest makes it hard to talk, but luckily, Luke plows on ahead, utterly oblivious to the fact that my chaos brain has entered the chat. “We understand relocating to the Bay Area is a big decision, so we would like to invite you out here for a couple days to get the lay of the land, with the hopes that seeing it in person will help you make your choice. We are all flying out to Europe for a series of conferences for the next two weeks and then turning around almost immediately for the annual STEM educational symposium in Japan, but if you’re amenable and can make it work, we would love to fly you out on April ninth and have you spend the day in the office on the tenth. You can meet our entire team, see the office…”
Luke keeps talking, but I don’t hear the rest of what he says because the wordsApril tenthkeep pinging around in my brain.
These people, who are asking me to uproot my entire life andmove across the country, are also asking me to come have a preview of what my new life would look like on the one day of the year when I have my most unbreakable plans.
Birthday night.
Tyler.
The thought of not being with Tyler on birthday night the very first year we’re together-together is so unacceptable to me I nearly turn down the offer on the spot.
Professional, Sophie, I remind myself.Be a motherfucking professional.
“I am so sorry.” I interrupt the three men talking amongst themselves. “April tenth is tricky. Is it possible to pick a different day?”
Any other day.
Literally any other single day would be better than that one.
“I’m so sorry,” Luke says. “We’re diving right into our busiest conference season right now, so if it’s not the tenth, it’ll have to wait until the end of May. Candidly, that is far too long for me. It has to be the tenth. I would be so appreciative if you could make it work.” Luke’s tone of voice shows me, for the first time, exactly how he became one of the most successful founders in the world. He says it all like he’s giving me a choice when I know the truth is there’s no choice at all. If I want to be considered for this job, I have to agree. I don’t know if I want it, but I also don’t want to shut the door on what could be the opportunity of a lifetime. So, I take a deep breath, force a smile, and give him my answer.
“April tenth is fine.”
“Anyone home?” I call, letting myself into my parents’ house.
“In here!” my dad yells.
I drop my bags, kick off my shoes, and follow my dad’s voice and the unmistakable sounds ofFortniteup to the game room. Ilaugh when I walk through the door and see my dad and my uncle Brian sitting on the edge of the couch, each with a controller in hand and eyes glued to the TV. My dad’s youngest sister, my aunt Olivia, is sprawled out in one of the big squashy chairs, e-reader in hand.
When she sees me, she pops up with a grin and wraps me in a hug. “You’re here! Did we know you were coming?”
“Nah, I’m a surprise,” I say, flopping down on the chair next to her. “What are you doing here?”
“A client got the flu so she cancelled our meeting. The kids are in school, and Bry was coming over here to hang with your dad, so I tagged along. No work today?”
I shrug even though the answer is that I did, in fact, have work. So much work. But after the interview, I couldn’t focus for shit. I couldn’t stop thinking about not being with Tyler on birthday night for the first time in twenty years, and then what it would be like never to be with him on birthday night again because I live an entire country away from him. That obviously led to a chaotic spiral extremely unconducive to reviewing the estimates for our first quarter numbers.
“Needed a break. I thought I would come hang with my dad, but it looks like he’s otherwise engaged.” I wave a hand at my dad and Brian, who are focused so intently on the screen a bomb could explode right in the middle of the room and they probably wouldn’t notice.”
Liv laughs, grabbing a Dr Pepper from the built-in drink fridge next to the chairs and handing it to me. “You know how they get when they’re into it. They forget the rest of the world exists.”
Brian turns and gives Olivia a wink. “Baby, I could never forget you. Especially in those jeans that do absolutely insane things to your extremely perfect ass.”
“Fuck off man, she’s still my damn sister,” my dad says with a roll of his eyes, slapping Brian on the arm.
Liv snickers. “You know we’ve been married for, like, twenty years, right?”
Brian is Maddy’s dad Jeremy’s half-brother, and he and my dad have been best friends for years. Family lore is that Brian, who is the general manager of the Renegades, first met Olivia a couple days after I was born. She was living in D.C. and came to town to meet me. Apparently, Brian took one look at her, fell head over heels, and that was that. Olivia moved to Pittsburgh a couple years later, and all it took was a snowstorm, a middle of the night kitchen meetup over cookies, and one hundred eighty-nine handwritten letters when Olivia left to spend six months in Europe for culinary school for them to fall in love.
So, couple goals, basically.
My dad grumbles. “Twenty years or twenty minutes, you’re still my baby sister. I practically raised you. You don’t get to be married and flirting with my best friend and shit.”
Laughing, I grab a handful of M&M’s from the bowl on Liv’s lap. “It’s nice he’s an equal opportunist in his overprotectiveness.”
“Bet your ass I am,” my dad says. “Fuck yeah, I win!” He tosses down his controller and smirks at Brian. “Maybe next time you’ll pay attention to the game instead of flirting with my sister.”
Brian scoffs, standing from the couch and heading straight for Olivia, taking a quick detour to hug me. Then he lifts Olivia up, takes her seat, and settles her into his lap. “Literally never.”
