Meant to Be

Olivia continued to sit in her car, staring out the windshield, until she finally propped her arms on the steering wheel and laid her head down. She was exhausted to say the least, having to work late the past week, and going over details for her wedding and Charlotte’s. She let out an exaggerated sigh, grabbed her purse, and walked into the apartment building. She knew Jason would be up waiting for her like he had been that week and only wished she could walk into an empty apartment.

“You look completely drained,” Jason commented on her appearance as she walked into their bedroom.

“Thanks. That’s exactly what I wanna hear from my fiancé with I get home from work,” she said sarcastically, taking a seat on the bed.

She felt him move across the bed towards her and soon his strong hands gripped her shoulders, slowly massaging them. His lips pecked at her neck making their way to her jawline.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered in her ear.

She turned around to look at him and gave him a half-hearted smile. “No, I’m sorry. I’m just stressed and exhausted and irritable. I have no reason to take it out on you.”

“I think you’ve just been working too hard. Maybe it’s time you thought about…” he paused.

She arched an eyebrow looking at him curiously. “What?” she asked.

“…quitting. I mean it’s not like you need to work anyways. I pay for everything now and I’ll still be paying for everything after we’re married.”

Never once had she thought about giving up her job; she loved working at the hospital, putting her education to good use. It was an absurd idea to her and something she would never stop doing.

She shook her head. “But I like working. What else would I do if I didn’t work?”

“It was just a thought. I figured once we get married and start a family you’d quit and be a stay at home mom. I mean, I’ll be going out of town for business and with your schedule you come home late and I don’t want someone else taking care of our kids,” he explained.

Olivia nodded her head understandably and shrugged her shoulders. “We’ll see. We still got a while ‘til we’re married and kids at that.”

Jason got up from the bed and went over to the dresser to pick something up. “Speaking of marriage. Look what I just got from my mom,” he said handing her a card.

She looked at it puzzled to what it was. “A wedding invitation?” she asked raising her eyebrows at him. “Whose?”

He let out a small chuckle and carefully caressed her cheek. “Ours of course.”

Her eyes grew wide with shock and a little fear. If she had been chewing on something, she should’ve chocked on it. “Our wedding? How? We haven’t even set up a date or planned a location. Is this like a prototype invitation or something?” she asked worriedly.

Jason shook his head. “No. It’s a real invitation. And what do you mean we haven’t set up a date or planned a location? We discussed this a month ago. I told you the date and you just nodded your head and said ‘sounds good to me’.”

Olivia looked away from the invitation, trying to recall any conversations about the wedding a month ago, but to no avail, nothing came to mind. She reluctantly opened the card and read through it. “November? This November? No. No. There’s no way I would’ve agreed to this. I’ve always wanted a summer wedding,” she said handing him back the wedding invitation.

“But you did. Next you’re going to tell me you hate the location,” he said taking the card from her hand.

“And where would that be?” she asked fearing the answer.

“Here of course; in Seattle.”

“Here? But I don’t have any family here,” she pointed out to him.

“So? We can fly them out here, it’s no problem.”

“Jason, you know my dad can’t fly out here. If he doesn’t come…” she shrugged her shoulders. “…then I don’t know,” she sighed. “This isn’t turning out to be the wedding I had planned for myself.”

Jason saw how disappointed and unhappy she was about everything. All he wanted was for her to be excited about getting married and if that meant changing things around then he would do it. He sat next to Olivia, placing his arm around her back and pulled her closer to him. She laid her head on his shoulder while he stroked her hair.

“Look, I want you to have your dream wedding, so I have an idea. How about we go through with getting married in November, just us, and my parents will come as witnesses. Then we plan for a real wedding in the summer. What do you say?” he asked looking down at her with a hopeful smile.

“In Vegas?” she asked.

“If that’s where you want to have it. You know that actually works out. When we go to Vegas in a few days we can look around for venues and see if they have any openings for the summer.”

“That sounds perfect.” She paused going over what Jason told her, when something he said caught her attention. “Wait, why are we going to Vegas in a few days?” she asked looking up at him confused.

“Boy Liv, you’ve really started to forget a lot of important things. Where’s your mind been lately?”

Brendon. “Nowhere,” she whispered.

“It’s my cousin, Kara’s, wedding. Brendon’s sister. We RSVP’d for this awhile back.”

She remembered the blonde girl with the wide grin from Vegas, the one who used to tease her and Brendon about getting married and how he was paying her to date him to become popular in school. She smiled a little remembering those times. She thought it would’ve been nice to see the Urie clan again, but she knew if she went, everything about her and Brendon’s past would be revealed, and Jason would put the pieces together.

“You know, maybe I shouldn’t go. I’ve been exhausted and haven’t been feeling well; I wouldn’t be much fun as a party guest if I went.”

“Liv, come on, you have to go. I can’t go and tell everyone I’m engaged without a fiancé.”

“You haven’t told your family you’re engaged?”

He shook his head. “No. I wanted to tell them in person and have them meet you. You’ve told your family?”

“Yeah, I wasn’t gonna wait ‘til we made a trip to Vegas to tell them. Please Jason; I’m not up to going to a wedding.”

He took her hands in his. “Please Liv. I don’t ask much from you. Can you do this one thing for me?”

She couldn’t believe he was guilt tripping her into going to his cousin’s wedding and it was working. She sighed, rolled her eyes, and nodded in defeat. “Fine.”

All Olivia knew was that nothing good would come out of going to Vegas and possibly seeing Brendon.