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,
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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.
“The next morning Cameron made a mad dash at 7 a.m. to head up to Rockford, Ill., for his grandpa’s 80th birthday,” Ms. Spata said.
After that, it was radio silence for two days. “I was just spiraling,” she said. “I thought, ‘What have I done? I may have lost my best friend.’”
Mr. Paton recalled having similar thoughts: “We had this great friendship. Did we just throw it out the window?”
Finally, on Monday morning, Mr. Paton sent her a lengthy text, saying he wanted to make sure she was OK and he didn’t want what happened to affect work or their friendship.
“For a week after that we were like, ‘Let’s just stay friends,’” Ms. Spata said. “We avoided each other for a few days,” Mr. Paton said.
In early November, the two went to Sushi Dokku, in the West Loop, “to smooth things over,” Ms. Spata said. “We ended up talking about it for maybe 30 seconds. We said we’d move on and not ruin the friendship.”
But that plan didn’t last long. A few days later, they went to Forno Rosso Pizzeria Napoletana in the West Loop. Something just felt different that night — a little awkward and maybe romantic, they said.
As they were leaving, “Cam drove his car up next to mine, and I said angrily, ‘We need to figure this out,’” Ms. Spata said. He wanted to discuss it at his place. She wanted to discuss it right there. He won that round.
“We bickered back and forth for a few minutes and both decided that we’d run out of excuses of why we shouldn’t do this,” Ms. Spata said. “I stayed the night, and we have never looked back.”
The two began unofficially living together in Ms. Spata’s home in February 2024, sometimes spending the night at his place in the city.
In March 2024, Mr. Paton told Ms. Spata that he loved her for the first time. And in May 2024, they bought a duplex together in the West Loop.
Mr. Paton proposed on the rooftop of the St. Regis Hotel in October 2024 followed by an intimate dinner party at the hotel’s restaurant Tre Dita.
“The night before I called my friend crying, ‘Why is he taking so long?’” Ms. Spata said. “He saw me in the car crying, talking to my friend. And it was the very next day.”
Ms. Spata, 28, who was raised in Oak Brook, Ill., holds a bachelor’s degree from DePaul University in public relations and hospitality.
Mr. Paton, 27, was born and raised in Ocala, Fla. He is the director of operations at Revel Decor.
The two were married April 4 at the Cook County Clerk’s Office by Philip Fowler, a circuit court judge, with only their photographer in attendance. On the same day, Ms. Spata hit the 23-week mark in her pregnancy with the child they are expecting in August.
A celebratory wedding is planned for April 26 at Tre Dita, where the couple celebrated their engagement.
“I never thought I’d be the type to get married in the basement of a government building, but here we are,” Ms. Spata said. “When you love someone so much, it doesn’t matter where you are, but just who you’re with.”
