Cupid Comes Calling: When Long Distance Goes the Distance

Cupid has a sense of humor. Just ask my dear friend Marie. Her first date with Edward began with Catholic Mass. Her second threw her amidst 60+ members of Edward’s family, after which Edward’s dad pulled Marie aside and asked about her relationship with his son.

With a wry half-smile, she replied, “Define ‘relationship.’” 

It was a fair point. Months had passed between their first and second dates. More than that, Marie’s career had moved her 1,200 miles away from Edward.

This was the mid 80s. She and Edward were both employed by a Fortune 500 company as professional nerds engineers. From early on, their coworkers had sensed their potential as a couple—both of them super smart gaming geeks—and tried to set them up. But while Edward was all for it, Marie hesitated.

“He was scary,” she told me with a laugh. But a Star Trek convention came to town and their wily coworkers arranged for Edward to be the one driving Marie home afterward. The two talked all night about the many things they had in common, and he finally asked her on an official date.

The result was Mass plus dinner plus “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (during which Marie laughed before the jokes happened because she saw them coming).

Immediately thereafter, Marie moved clear across the country.



While Edward scrambled to transfer his job and follow her, their courtship proceeded by phone. In just four months, the two had racked up $5K in long distance expenses. Things were clearly serious, in spite of having only had one official date.

Their second rendezvous wasn’t even an official date—more of a complex interweaving of their individual travel plans by road and air—and it culminated in Marie’s defining moment with Edward’s dad.

A couple of weeks later, Edward proposed. Over the phone.

He flew out to see her. They bought a ring... and a house. Her family said it couldn’t last.

Well... more than 26 years have passed since I had the privilege of witnessing their vows. Their four, mostly-grown children are super smart. They all love Star Trek.

Marie still anticipates jokes. Cupid is still laughing.

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It’s my book birthday! Flushed hits the virtual shelves today. At the risk of spoilers, these characters come face to face with the prospect of a long distance relationship.

The blurb:

 When it hits the fan, he’s your man.

 Kissing her plumber in the middle of her dinner party wasn’t in Isabelle’s carefully-laid plans. But neither had she expected an ambush by her uninvited ex. So when Kim Martin, plumber to the rescue, charms her guests and poses as her new guy to spare her humiliation, she gets carried away.

 At first, being Isabelle’s faux beau suits Kim Martin just fine. She’s hot, intriguing and won’t get in the way of his plans to blow town and build a business he’s passionate about. But Isabelle just isn’t cut out to be a good time girl. She gets under Kim’s skin and into his head—and he’s not entirely sure what to do about that.

 Isabelle’s been fooled too often to trust a gorgeous flirt like Kim. Yet the more she tries to fit him into a box, the harder he fights his way out of it. Hot, bothered and more than a little flushed, she’s having trouble keeping her hands—or her heart—to to herself.

 Find Flushed at:
AMAZON
BARNES AND NOBLE
KOBO

 Visit Sally's website.

Would you ever risk a long distance romance? Has the advent of Skype and Google Hangouts and Face Time made a difference in making it work?

Weigh in in the comments. And be sure to include your email address to be entered to win the $200 Visa gift card!