Two weeks after that St. Patrick's Day meeting, Emily kept her promise to visit Tom in Richmond. After a long and arduous drive, she reached Richmond and was immediately gripped by the urge to turn around and make tracks back to Philly. "What if I hate this guy?" she thought. "I'm stuck with him for the whole weekend."
Fortunately, Emily's fears were not realized, and they had a nice weekend together running a 10km race (for those keeping score, Emily beat Tom) and watching the Final Four. A couple weeks later Tom visited Emily in Philly, and both realized that at least one of their fears had been realized: they were officially in a dreaded Long Distance Relationship. That meant high phone bills and ever-climbing odometers.
So, Tom found a great long-distance phone plan and Emily found all the good rest areas between Philly and Richmond, and they wore a track up and down the 254 miles of I-95 between the Capital of the Confederacy and the City of Brotherly Love.
Finally, they came to the conclusion that, relationship-wise, they should fish or cut bait. So Emily packed her bags, Tom bought a house (and a trampoline), and they set up housekeeping in Richmond in June 2001.
Then a year or so later, they decided that once again they had reached a FOCB moment in their relationship. So Tom and Emily went shopping and bought a sapphire ring. Then they got engaged on August 9, 2002.
