It was a dark, late night at the Apotti offices on Sturenkatu in Helsinki. Charge testing was due imminently. Tom confirmed that Rachel and the Beacon team had no work to do and everyone went home happy. More interestingly, a few months later, mutual friends Amanda and Jon held a New Years brunch where favorite books and the use of Goodreads was much discussed. Tom immediately went home, read Rachel's favorite book, and then texted her about it a few days later. They continue to talk to this day.

You know how you talk to someone pretty much 24/7, have like 100 inside jokes that no one else understands, invite them over for Valentine's Day to watch Moana and stuff your face with pho without offering to also buy them food, they're constantly bringing you vegan baked goods, and everyone tells you how great your chemistry is when they see you together… but you kind of avoid them at parties because you don’t want people to think you are secretly together? Then you actually do secretly get together?

Once Tom and Rachel decided to move back to the US together and live in Salt Lake City for a few years, Rachel was pretty much ready to get engaged. So much so that she "proposed" more than once to Tom in some very casual fashions. Finally, Tom let Rachel know that she was not allowed to propose (not because she was the woman, but because she would never be able to keep the secret). Which is true. On June 26, 2021, Rachel planned a waterfall hike for herself, Tom, Afonya, and John, to celebrate getting a lot of the hard work on the house done and moving in on time (and on budget). On the morning of the the hike, Tom woke up at 1 AM and was anxious to get going, meanwhile Rachel was being pretty casual about getting out the door and John slept through his alarm (meaning he didn't even have to pretend to be sick to make sure it was just Rachel and Tom on the hike). It was a great hike up Adam's Canyon to the waterfall but Rachel could tell something was up with Tom, he kept asking how far to go and seemed anxious to be at the end. When they FINALLY arrived (mind you this was, in reality, a very short 1 hour hike) Tom shoved all his things into Rachel's hands so he could grab his water bottle from the pack. Rachel sat down on a rock to get re-combobulated, while really Tom was sneaking the ring into his pocket! He sat on the rock with her and put is arm around her shoulder with the box open. Although Rachel had helped to design the ring, it was exciting to see it come to life, and she squealed just a little bit. The other waterfall observers knew what was going on but, thankfully, decided to mind their own business until they were asked to take a picture. It was a very happy hike back down to the car indeed.

The Ring is a 2002 supernatural horror thriller film directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, David Dorfman, Brian Cox, and Daveigh Chase. It is a remake of Hideo Nakata's 1998 Japanese horror film Ring, based on Koji Suzuki's 1991 novel of the same name. Watts portrays a journalist who investigates a cursed videotape that seemingly kills the viewer seven days after watching it.