Corey Sullivan gave up a chance to compete with his high school track team so he could hang out with Ashley Jones the first time they met. When he saw her again several years later, he raced to catch up with her.
Ashley's cousin dated Corey's cousin throughout high school, and they met initially through that couple. Corey went to North Little Rock High School and Ashley went to Sylvan Hills High School, and a high school track competition between their schools gave them a chance to spend time together.
"He left his team and spent all day with me at that track meet," Ashley says.
But as much as they enjoyed each other's company, their relationship didn't move forward.
"We really didn't make a big effort to keep in contact with one another after that," Ashley says. "Then we got older, we grew up and went to college."
After graduation in 2003, Corey moved to Dallas, pursuing his career in telecommunications engineering as well as various entrepreneurial opportunities, and Ashley worked in finance and started her own businesses as well.
On July 3, 2021, Ashley went to a grocery store in west Little Rock to buy drinks for a family gathering, and then stopped to fill up her gas tank.
"A big white truck pulled up while I was filling up my car and this cute guy hopped out," she says.
The guy was Corey, who had recently moved back to Little Rock, but she didn't recognize him because he had on a cap pulled down low.
Corey noticed Ashley just as she got in her car and sped away. He had seen her in town once, but he had been doing some work around his house and didn't want her to see him not looking his best.
He wasn't about to miss another chance to reconnect, though. He jammed the nozzle back in the pump and took off after her.
"She was about two red lights ahead of me," he says. "I was trying hard to keep up."
He caught up with her as she turned into a parking lot.
"He said, 'Don't I know you?'" Ashley says. "We talked for a while in the parking lot, and then he went shopping with me in the store and he helped me get all my stuff in the car."
Corey called Ashley that very night. They didn't talk long then, but he called her again the next day and asked for a date. They went to YaYa's Euro Bistro for steak, and their conversation lasted beyond closing time.
"We were the last people to leave and then we talked for another hour or two out in the parking lot," Ashley says. "He asked me if he could see me again."
She checked the calendar on her phone to see when she might be free again, but Corey made it clear that he wanted to see her the next day. She was going for a walk on the Big Dam Bridge, she told him, and he could go with her.
Corey lifted weights often but cardio was not something he would normally opt to participate in, but he said he would meet her there.
"It ended up being romantic because fireworks started going off while we were at the Big Dam Bridge," Ashley says.
They grabbed a bite of dinner after their walk, and they started seeing each other regularly from then on.
Both enjoyed traveling, and they did that together -- seeing pyramids and other historical structures all over the world -- as they got to know each other over the next five months. They also like working on projects, and they collaborated on getting an Airbnb ready for executive rental.
Ashley says she starts decorating for Christmas as soon as Halloween is over.
"I just love Christmas," she says.
Corey proposed on Christmas Eve, calling her into the foyer for a quiet conversation while her family was gathered at her house for the holiday.
"He told me he loved me and he wanted to spend his life with me and how happy I made him, and he got down on one knee and gave me a big ol' ring from Sissy's Log Cabin," Ashley says.
Ashley and Corey were married on Nov. 11 in the Chenal Event Venue.
"We had thousands of flowers and classic entertainment," says Ashley of the wedding. "It very much looked like a dream."
Corey's travel schedule was hectic when he saw her in 2021, and Ashley's was as well. They marvel that their schedules aligned for their spontaneous encounter.
He could have tracked her down through social media, but she says it's best that he chose the more direct route.
"I preferred meeting men in person, so you can kind feel them out," she says. "Not that there's anything wrong with dating online, but there are a lot of guys just floating around, sending girls [direct messages]. I probably would have written him off if he contacted me that way. This was so much better."
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The first time I saw my future spouse:
She says: “He made me smile and I felt like I was floating on a cloud. I felt the same way when I saw him again all those years later.”
He says: “She had a beautiful smile. And later I was so happy because I got my Ashley back and get to know her more.”
On our wedding day:
She says: “I remember seeing him come out with the biggest smile on his face. And we all had such a good time at the reception. Everybody said it was the most fun and the best party.”
He says: “I remember walking in and seeing all the work, seeing how beautiful everything was and how much work went into it, and then seeing her.”
My advice we got for having a long happy marriage:
She says: “Get into counseling because we had different backgrounds and different vantage points, so we can grow with one another and get on the same page about making decisions.”
He says: “Communicate. Talk to each other.”
Ashley Jones and Corey Sullivan met in high school but they hadn’t seen each other in 18 years when he spotted her as she was leaving a gas station in west Little Rock. He was determined not to let her get away again. “She has a heavy foot, the way she drives,” Corey says. “I’m a slow driver, so I had to really move through traffic to catch up.” (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)