Is Los Angeles the new Mexico? John Paul Jones has officially made the move to the West Coast to be with his girlfriend, Tayshia Adams, Us Weekly can exclusively reveal.

“A few opportunities came up that were really just too hard to pass up and it just made sense to move,” the 24-year-old, who previously lived in Maryland, told Us on Friday, October 18. “Tayshia is only an hour and a half away so that was a big draw and to my surprise, a talent agent reached out to me and they’ve been consistently getting me auditions and I’m waiting to hear back [on projects]. I honestly never could’ve expected this entire occurrence, it’s completely crazy. I’ll never be able to do this again so it just seemed like the right move.”

JPJ, who drove cross-country with his brother, arrived in L.A. on Thursday, October 17. He told Us that he is ready to have a bigger role in Adams’ life.

“I’m excited to consistently see my girlfriend who I’ve been dating from across the country, so that will eliminate a lot of loneliness that I experienced [living in] Maryland, working in my career as a finance analyst,” he explained. “Tayshia is definitely excited. It reduces a lot of the hassle that came with buying a plane ticket and visiting her for a weekend. It was really difficult [being long-distance]. I had a full-time job working 50 hours a week and it was tough to go out for three days. I would come out here and have one day with her and have to fly back. Really I am killing two birds with one stone.”

The aspiring actor met Adams during season 6 of Bachelor in Paradise over the summer. While the twosome left the beach solo, she tracked him down in Maryland before the finale special and they got back together.

“I’ll see Tayshia this weekend,” JPJ told Us on Friday. “I’m really excited to just be a normal couple. We just really haven’t had that normalcy that you would experience in a relationship given that we were hanging onto each other via FaceTime and now it’ll be more of a tangible thing. We’re just excited to be around each other. We were trying to savor every moment that we had with each other when we were long-distance but, again, really just excited to have a really normal relationship. I’m excited to be a part of Tayshia’s life.”

Reporting by Kayley Stumpe