We're Tying the Knot!

We met in a cafe on a cold night in January. I wore blue, Bonnie wore black. Like any good cafe, the coffee was warm and the open mic poetry was terrible. One melodramatic verse too many drove us to a restaurant for dinner, then a gay bar for drinks, then a photo booth for our first kiss. Leaving Bonnie with yet another kiss, I sat in my car, unable to contain my excitement, eagerly texting my best friend, because I had already fallen in love. It took us three dates to make it official. We lived over 40 miles away from each other, so we braved the dangers of Austin drivers as often as we dared, stealing as much time with each other as our busy schedules would allow. After a year and a half of sitting in traffic and pining for each other, we were ready to quit the whole long distance thing and move in together. That shitty apartment up 2 flights of stairs and 100 yards away from the freeway would become our home through the pandemic, where we endured lockdowns, snowstorms, and endless traffic noise. During those fateful years, as we cultivated a balcony garden and fed local birds, we fed, nurtured, and even tested our shared life together during those days of isolation and upheaval. Our roots deepened, and by the end of that time, we knew we'd be together forever -- or at least until Philip fell off a mountain or Bonnie handled the wrong tarantula. The years after blazed by. Bonnie's beloved service dog passed and we welcomed a one-eyed German Shepherd into our home. Bonnie became a birdwatcher and I returned to (more like relapsed into) Christianity. I proposed to Bonnie in a New England snowy meadow (after a falcon violently ended my first proposal idea). We've taken in an amazing niece who makes us feel older with every new TikTok trend, and I've gone back to college. I've stopped running and Bonnie has started hiking. Speaking for myself, I've found Bonnie has been a point of stability and compassion in the midst of a world that's endlessly spinning. Words fail when I try to describe my feelings for her - to say I love her feels almost trite. Until death do us part - and when I do finally pass from this Earth, it will be with her name upon my lips. - Philip