"Brad and I just started talking right away," Sherri remembered. He asked about her recruiting work. And she discovered that Brad, who grew up in Columbia, Md., was studying at the University of Baltimore School of Law and working as a legal clerk at David Balto's law offices in Washington.
The group took two cars for the ride to the flea market, and Sherri and Brad were separated.
Brad's group got to the meeting place first. "Right away when we got there, I was like, 'Where are they? Where did they go? Where's the other group?' " Brad said.
When Sherri's group arrived, she and Brad started talking again, and walking together. They sat together at lunch. "It was so easy to talk to Sherri," Brad said. "It was just something special."
Sherri couldn't stop looking at Brad's smile, and she wanted to know everything about him. "I felt like I knew him forever," she said.
That wasn't so far from the truth. While they didn't remember each other, they had played together as children. One summer about 18 years earlier, their families even vacationed together in Wildwood.
Brad friended Sherri on Facebook the next day but didn't send a message. So Sherri messaged him about her flea-market purchase: "You know, my hat is getting good reviews."
But that led only to a hat discussion. So Sherri tried again. "Do you ever come to Philly?"
That was all Brad needed. "I come a lot," he said, deciding on the spot that he'd be up that weekend. "You want to go out?"
Everyone had noticed the two pairing off at the flea market. So on the day of their first date, Sherri's mother and father, Paul, who had a Hanukkah party at their place in the Northeast, offered to invite Brad. But Sherri said no way - this was going to be a real date.
