How We Met
I never really believed in the notion of a “soul mate”… Someone who was created specifically for you.. But our story changed all of that. Jordan and I have been together for the last 9 1/2 years, but our story goes beyond that.. It is something you’d find written in storybooks.
Our families have known each other since before we were born. They had mutual friends, and Jordan’s aunt (from his mom’s side) introduced my mom to my now stepdad (who was best friend’s with Jordan’s uncle). From then on, we had always been involved in family parties and get-togethers. My family was definitely closer to Jordan’s aunt’s side, as my stepdad and her husband were best friends. I remember this one party in particular, though.. It was back in 2003. It was a surprise party for his aunt Jackie.. We were in elementary school at the time, 4th grade to be exact. I remember the exact thing I was wearing.. It was a night that I will continue to remember for the rest of my life. All the kids were playing in one of his cousins room and we were taking turns making jokes. It was my turn, side note: I am not the funniest, at least not when I am trying. I said an awful joke, that to this day we laugh about.. While all this was going on, Jordan’s mom, Maria, was talking to my mom in the kitchen about how Jordan had just started modeling and how she could take pictures of me and my sister; that’s it, the appointment was set up. We left the party that night, with me dreaming of this boy who was so cute and so funny.. With a date set up in the coming week for his mom to come to my house and take pictures (I wasn’t 100% sure that Jordan would come).
That day, the day his mom came over, I remember getting ready.. I remember my mom doing my make up (super natural as we were kids, in elementary school.. so really just a little powder and mascara).. Then Maria called (his mom).. she said “We are on the way”.. I FREAKED! He was coming.. I quickly snuck into my moms make up drawer, and loaded up on the powder, I needed to look perfect. I was so nervous. He was so cute.. I had a major crush.. Little did I know, so did he. That day his mom took pictures of my sister, pictures of me, pictures of us together, and pictures with Jordan in them.. Some of my favorite pictures, to this day. After that day, I did what all little girls do when they have a crush, I told all my friends I had a boyfriend who was a model. I didn’t see him for years after that.
Once, I walked into an Aldo Shoe store with my grandma and sister and saw him about 12 feet big, on a poster, modeling for Aldo… My heart skipped a beat, even after not seeing him for some time.
Fast forward to the end the summer of 2009. My family and I took a boat ride down to Key Largo, to visit my step dad’s best friend and his family (Jordan’s uncle). I had a boyfriend at the time, but I was telling my friend all about Nick’s (Jordan’s cousin, who is our age) super hot cousin, and how I was hoping that we’d see him. We didn’t, but we hung out with Nick and had a great time. This was at the beginning of Facebook becoming big. So we all became Facebook friends, and I took this as an opportunity to go through Nick’s FB Friends to find Jordan, I didn’t even know his last name. Found him, this was GOLD. Of course, I sent him that Friend Request. A week later, he accepted and sent me a message. I remember asking him if he remembered me, and his words were “of course I remember you, how could I forget”. We chatted a bit, and he was suave enough to ask me for my number since he had to sign off and go do homework, lol (we were in 10th grade at the time).. We chatted a bit that day, and then never texted again.. One Saturday afternoon, that Fall, I came home from work to find my mom (a hairdresser, with a salon at home) doing Maria’s hair. She hadn’t seen me in many years, and we took the time to catch up.. She asked me what I was doing that night, and I told her that I was going to this event called Sleepless Nights in Miami Beach with my friends, my mom and one of her friends. She instantly took the opportunity to volunteer Jordan to meet us there. I didn’t think it would happen.. I hadn’t talked to him in months. Well later that night, I got a text message from Jordan asking what I was doing.. Shortly after, he was strolling down Lincoln Road with his older brother and sister, to meet up with us. It was a fun night, but Jordan barely spoke (he was so nervous). After we left the beach that night, we text a little more. I didn’t hear from him for about another month when he wished me a Happy Thanksgiving.
The following May, his mom reached out to me via Facebook message, inviting me to their annual Memorial Day Weekend Party that they have in the keys, stating “I’m sure Jordan would love to see you..” I giggled at that, because I hadn’t heard from the guy in MONTHS. But also, at this point, I had a boyfriend, so I wasn’t too interested (I did always think he was cute, though). Then that June, Jordan reached out to me, inviting me out to a friend’s restaurant with his siblings; I kindly declined, as I had plans already scheduled. That July, July of 2010, my family and I were going down the Key Largo to spend the Fourth with my step dad’s best friend and his family. I was excited to getaway. I was in an unhealthy relationship and just wanted to have fun with my family and friends. On our way down, Jordan text me saying that he had heard I was coming down and that he was excited to see me.. Queue the butterflies. Man, this guy was always going to have a special place in my heart that would make me feel like that 8-year-old schoolgirl, making awful jokes, to get this cute boy to laugh. Sure enough, we spent that weekend having fun & “flirting” (I put “” around flirting, because if you knew Jordan then, you’d know he barely knew how to hold a conversation with me..) He picked me up on the jet ski, took me for a ride, we went tubing, and really had such a great time. He texts me, a bit more. I came back home from that trip and INSTANTLY broke up with my loser boyfriend. Jordan did way better at texting me, although I’d later come to find out that it was really his brother or his best friend texting me.. but we hung out. One weekend, he asked me down to the keys and my parents said yes.. So his older brother picked me up, and I spent the weekend there.. We went on the jet ski, he let me drive and I did a crazy turn that got him knocked off the jet ski. When I went to help him back up, he pulled me into the water. We had our first kiss in the Florida Keys. From that moment, we didn’t stop texting and hanging out.
On August 5, 2010, we went to the movies with some friends. His older brother and sister took us. After the movie, we were all hanging out and Jordan pulled me aside to ask me to be his girlfriend.. he was so nervous that he actually said, “will you be my boyfriend”.. It was great. I was Jordan’s first girlfriend. His first kiss. He was so shy with me, he never wanted to say the wrong thing. You know, they always say that girls are more mature than guys, and in this case, it was so true. So true, that it was frustrating. He didn’t know how to communicate. He never made an effort to come see me. He was just a bit childish for me. So that following December, I broke up with him in the parking lot of The Falls mall, after my shift at PacSun. It was awkward. Heartbreaking. But, we both handled it pretty maturely. I was his first heartbreak. The breakup didn’t last more than 2.5 weeks. We reunited on Christmas Eve and he got his first car Christmas Day.. We’ve been inseparable since.
9.5 Years. Junior and Senior Year of High School. All throughout college. Figuring out what we wanted to do for the rest of our lives. Starting of careers. The works; I would be lying if I said it was all butterflies and rainbows, like the fairytales. We had our share of heartbreak, from our best friends completely abandoning us, to witnessing family issues, and all the normal growing pains of young love. But we made it.
How They Asked
Jordan’s birthday was in February. So his mom and I began to plan his Surprise 26th birthday. Once my mom found out, she was ALL on board. She wanted a theme, she loves themes. He’s a firefighter, so the theme was “Hot, Hot, Hot”… Everyone was to wear red, my mom was making all the decorations. My job was to send out the invites, and to request that everyone send a quick 5-6 second video clip wishing him a Happy Birthday; we have a friend who is a video editor that was going to compile a video to play at his party. My second job was to make sure he wasn’t any where near the house come Friday and Saturday (2/21-2/22). So naturally, I had a friend reach out to him to plan a fun boat day in the Keys. We took off Friday morning and spent the next two days relaxing and hanging out. The plan was to come back to Miami, to have a be-lated birthday dinner with my dad. We were going to get ready in the Keys, so that we didn’t have to rush back to Miami. On our way back, I was driving, so nervous and trying to figure out at what point I would blindfold him, so that he would have no idea where we were going (his house). His mom was texting me, my dad was texting me, his sister was texting, and we were running late. I was a ball of nerves, a total wreck. I decided I’d get off the turnpike in Miami to get gas and that at that point I’d be able to blindfold him. As I stepped out of my car, it started to pour. The panic was rushing in like you wouldn’t believe. I was already running late, his mom was worried about the rain (the party was outside), and so was I. After I blindfolded him, I made ZERO effort to confuse him with my drive. I literally had one goal and that was to get him to the party before it rained and ruined everything. I prayed so hard, with a mixture of road rage, and we got there. I was stressed. I walked him out of the car, and everyone yelled SURPRISE. It was great, and I needed a drink. Shortly after we got there, they wanted to play the birthday video.. Our friend and one of his sisters, edited the entire thing. I was coerced into sitting down, because “I looked so stressed” and he was standing behind me. We watched the videos come up, laughed, I’d look back at him every once and a while.. it was great. Then an old birthday video of his played, where we were all singing him happy birthday and he blew out the candle.. the screen went black. I was confused. Then the date 09.22.2019 popped up on the screen and a dial tone could be heard. A video of Jordan, sitting in the car calling his parents and siblings and our friend to help him plan a party.. He looked at the screen and said “Surprise”….. I knew. A flood of pictures of us, over the years, were flashing through, tears streaming down my face, as the countdown began. I closed my eyes, and he closed the ring box. Then it was video clips of us, with him reciting “Demi… I always knew it was you..Our story goes back way more than 10 years and it will last a lifetime, I am sure life still has a lot left to teach us but we already have so much figured out. Let’s always be the first ones on the dance floor. Let’s always be the fastest ones down the mountain. I can’t wait to laugh with you for the rest of my life. I love you.” I met him on the side of the house, where there were pictures of us over the years posted all alongside the fence, and there was my person, my soul mate, standing under string lights. I was so nervous, so excited, so in love. He looked at me, I nervously said hi.. He said ” you know how much I love you”.. We kissed, he kissed my neck, then got down on one knee and asked “Will you marry me”.. That was the easiest YES of my life. He picked me up, we kissed and then he placed the most stunning ring (that he designed from scratch) on my left hand. His mom bought me a white dress to change into, and we all danced the night away.
NO ONE AT THE PARTY KNEW. The only people that knew this was going to happen were his mom, his two sisters, his brother and our friend Kimie. His dad found out 3 days before because he overheard them talking about it. The people at the party were all family and friends that have been a part of our relationship through the years, and each one of them got to feel the same surprise and flood of butterflies, that I got to feel. WE ARE GETTING MARRIED!!!! 9.5 YEARS DOWN, FOREVER TO GO.
