We’re doing this!

April 29th, 2016 First date- First words Her: “Hey, I’m Katie- it’s nice to meet you-” Him: “Alex; and yes, I am going to hug you!” The agenda: Dinner and grocery shopping The menu: Breakfast for dinner It was something quaint, and trepidatious- the nerves we shared across the table-. Over Eggs-over-easy, we let our guard down. Over bacon and toast, we let one another in. We wondered what it would feel like to do this on a Sunday mornings, how the other one might like their coffee, and whether they truly were a bacon or sausage kind of person; but, more importantly, whether they were the type of person to add syrup to that equation. A comfort-like “something” began growing in the aisles of the grocery store soon thereafter, something that had us piecing together what grocery lists would look like... Discussions of which cereal was actually best, and of what sandwich was truly the most underrated, started the frameworks for daydreams of Sundays- together- dawdling- just as we had that night. It was something mundane that had us seeing the future, and that future was rich, and exciting, and full. That future was weekends with eggs, bacon and coffee. That future was grocery shopping together because we wanted to- because we knew we would from day one. Something about it all was comfortable and safe- as if we had had this standing date for years- as if we had lived, and loved, and settled into one another already.

April 27th 2019 Just under 3 years later: Alex popped the question. He was nervous, shaking, and at a loss for words standing in front of her. He asked the question, down on one knee. Although she was still in shock - seeing her Mom and her Brother in the back yard of Alex's Mother's house, she replied without hesitation."Yes." It had been a long time since either of them had been nervous around the other one, and even longer since either of them had felt so nervous in front of their families. Days later and in a quiet shared moment between the newly engaged pair, Alex pulled his phone out and pointed to notes he had written. "this is everything I wanted to say that day" he told her... She read it, cried again, like she had at the mere sight of him speechless -shaking- stooped on one knee just days earlier, and said YES all over again. It had always been important to them to share moments like that- moments which were just for the two of them, moments they could carry with them like secrets from the rest of the world - quietly proving that their love was a special one. This was proof that no one ever had to see, it was the kind of proof they intended to live every day with - the kind that they'd remind each other of as often as they could. This proof - theirs - was going to be their vow to one another.