Vicki was there catching up around the fire pit with her friend Emmett. At the same time, Jake was at Reformation with his friends Jay and Miranda. When Jay and Miranda walked over and asked if they could join the fire, none of us knew that simple question would change everything. At first, Jake assumed Vicki and Emmett were dating. It wasn’t until Vicki stepped away that Emmett quickly cleared things up and told Jake he should get her number. A little while later, Emmett headed out, and Jake took his chance — asking Vicki if she wanted to keep hanging out for the rest of the night. Without hesitation, she said yes. The rest of the evening was spent in downtown Woodstock, talking and getting to know each other. When the night finally came to an end, Vicki drove Jake home — but neither of them were ready for it to end. They ended up talking for hours, completely losing track of time. Now here’s where things get interesting. After that long night of getting to know each other, Jake made what he would call a strategic decision — he nearly went a full year without seeing or speaking to Vicki in person… aside from a few Instagram DMs. If you ask Jake, he was simply playing the long game. Eventually, Jake decided it was time to make a real move. He reached out to reconnect and asked Vicki to grab coffee and go on a proper date. She agreed… and then canceled the night before. But she would later reschedule for the following Friday. As fate would have it, the day before their coffee date, Jake and Vicki accidentally ran into each other at the annual Gobble Jog in downtown Marietta. It felt like the universe giving them a little nudge confirming that this was a story worth continuing. What started around a fire pit and survived strategic delays, canceled coffee plans, and a Gobble Jog reunion turned into something neither of them could have planned, but both are endlessly grateful for.