Chasing our Fate

“…and a vanilla latte for you…as usual,” I announced as I sat down the small mug of coffee.

I watched Stevvie admire the snowflake shape the barista made and smiled, I always made sure her coffee had a cool design on top. For me regular coffee with one cream and two sugars sufficed.

“…I can’t believe it’s only been a year…can you believe it Nick? It’s only been a year since we sat at this very same spot and began this crazy journey,” Stevvie reflected.

I simply smirked and sipped my coffee. “…and it hasn’t stopped yet…”

The coffee shop held it’s usuals…the old married couple finishing the crossword puzzle, the twin old gentlemen, and the mother and her baby…some things never changed. It was around 7:30 in the morning on a desperately cold Sunday in Chicago. Despite all the changes that we’ve both made in our lives, we still kept some things the same. Stevvie and I had grown together and I was happier than ever, especially because we had finally made it the one-year mark. I had been waiting impatiently for us to get past this so we can just keep growing, after the one-year mark, everything was going to get more serious, everyone was use to us as a couple, and it brought us closer to the m word.
What word am I talking about?

Marriage.

I was more than excited for the day I could ask Stevvie to marry me and today was this day I was sure. Yes, I always said she was the one for me and I was going to marry her, but as we sat and simply talked before we made our way to church, I realized that I couldn’t see myself not doing this. Little things like calling her on way home to see if I needed to pick up anything from the store, Stevvie roaming around my house in one of my button ups, and waking up to her cold body nuzzled against mine. We were practically living our life as if we were already married, living together for weeks at a time, but we still paid for our own bills at our own separate house. We’d live apart for a couple weeks but always ending up back together. I wanted to file for taxes and have her listed as my spouse, and I wanted to say let’s go to our bedroom in our house.

I was already planning on how I was going to make it happen. I knew we were ready and I knew she ready, but the biggest thing to tackle was our families and keeping it from Stevvie while I designed the ring. There was only one thing she loved more than surprises, and that was figuring them out. I wanted the proposal to be a complete surprise. The first task on my plan was talking to my brothers. I needed their guidance and because they had already been through what I was about to go through. I was never more excited in my life.

I was about to enter a new chapter in my life and I knew I was following the plan God set up for me. This was about to be the end of a small chapter in my life, being a teenager, learning about love, falling in and out of love and being a naïve teenager. I was growing into a man, a husband and in a few years a father. It was also the start of my career and we’re still going strong, the future could only get brighter from this point on. Mostly because of the Shining light in my life, the love of my life Stephanie Paige Jameson. Soon, she’d become Stephanie Paige Jonas: my best friend, my wife and the mother of my future children. I knew it because of a simple four-letter word: Fate. It was our fate…and instead of chasing it, I wasn’t going to just stand back anymore. I was going to take charge and create it.