For the next two years they dated steadily, going to concerts and parties with friends. Their parents saw it as puppy love, and Gould says, “For our first couple years together, that was the case.”
But as they prepared to leave for different colleges — she was headed to Florida State University, he was enrolling at the rival University of Florida — they decided to stay together.
Each became involved in campus life, but three weekends a month they’d take turns making the two-hour drive to spend time together.
There was no talk of future plans or permanent commitments — they were, Gould says, “just going with the flow.” But during a visit their sophomore year, she spent an hour organizing music equipment that
seemed to be overtaking Perrott’s room.
“I don’t want to clean up after you for the rest of my life,” she remembers telling him. “Then I was, like, Oooh, I’m using this ‘rest of my life’ language that was not intended. That was the point where I was, like, Wow. This is a big deal.”
They seemed to grow together, both becoming politically active NPR junkies who shared musical tastes and surrounded themselves with artists. Before they could legally drink, the two set up a joint bank account so their entertainment costs could be split equitably.
When Perrott graduated from college a year early in 2008, he moved in with Gould and worked for the Obama campaign in Tallahassee. That fall, she applied for Teach for America while he sent off applications to law schools; they coordinated their efforts so they’d end up in the same city. Soon, Gould found out she’d been picked to come to Washington and Perrott got an acceptance letter from American University.
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