Jess’s POV: We first met at our local gym in the summer of 2017 and kept running into each other at various places during that summer. It was finally at our last run-in at Joy District, a rooftop club in Chicago, where we finally talked about exchanging contact information. Tom initially asked for my email (which I thought was odd but wasnt sure if thats what guys his age did since I knew we had some sort of an age difference) and kind of laughed it off and we went our separate bc ways. I later saw that he had Facebook messaged me his number that same night, and a few weeks later, with the encouragement of my friend and bridesmaid, Alaina, I reached out and we went on our first date. (First date is in quotes because I thought Tom was just looking to make new friends. HAH!)


The afternoon of our first date my maid of honor, Nikki, was repeatedly telling me that this was a date and to call her after to let her know how the date went - I later found out it indeed was a date when Tom went in for a good night kiss at the end of the night. A few weeks later we went on what we call our real first date as I made sure to confirm what we were doing was actually a date on said date to be prepared for a potential good bye kiss. After that, we continued going on dates and spending time with each other and the rest is history.


Tom’s POV: What she wrote above is wild. She saw me at the gym and introduced herself to me and it was all normal. Then every time I went to the gym she was there and wanted to talk to me about my lifting form or something else so she could talk to me. I was there just to workout but she was like a wave crashing on the beach with trying to get my attention.

It was a couple months later that I noticed I kept running into her. To be honest, between the gym, outside my house on the sidewalk and at my job on the track when I was coaching, I knew then that she was tracking me. I had too much to drink at Joy District and when she asked for my contact information I only gave her my email because she weirded me out. Later that night my friend Jay asked for my phone and wrote to her and gave her my number without me knowing.

So the moral of the story is that I was either going to continue to run into her the rest of my life or marry her. I hope I chose wisely.