Jacqueline Spata and Cameron Paton, former co-workers, eventually settled on an answer.
When Jacqueline Marie Spata and Cameron Thomas Paton went from work friends to hooking up one night, they were terrified they had just ruined an amazing friendship. Instead, they opened the door to a deeper relationship, one that now has a baby on the way.
The two formally met, briefly, in July 2022 as employees of Revel Decor working on event setup for Lollapalooza, the four-day music festival in Chicago.
It wasn’t until a little over a year later, in August 2023, that they began to get to know one another when they went out for a drink — as friends — at Soho House Chicago in the West Loop neighborhood. “I gave Cameron dating advice and he left to go pick up a girl that night,” Ms. Spata said.
They continued to go out platonically, and along the way, “We each were catching feelings but didn’t want to admit it because of how great our friendship was,” Ms. Spata said,
[Click here to binge read this week’s featured couples.]
Then, in late October 2023, Ms. Spata invited Mr. Paton to a Chicago Bulls game at the United Center. After the game, they went bar hopping until 2 a.m.
Ms. Spata said, “Cam was a gentleman and walked me up to my room,” at Nobu Hotel, where she often stayed when in the city, as she lived 40 minutes away in Clarendon Hills, Ill., at the time. He ended up staying the night.
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