BECCI & LOREN CAYER

It’s strange how songs pop into our heads when we haven’t heard them in years. Maybe it’s a memory that brings an old tune to the cerebral forefront. Or perhaps it fits in with a current life situation. Whatever the case, I can’t get the lyrics of Working My Way Back To You, Babe from the Four Seasons song out of my head when it comes to how this lovely couple united.

Becci Ouellette was just a school girl with fond memories of growing up in Maine. One of the things she most looked forward to was the big box of promotional products her grandfather would bring to family gatherings. 

As if Santa Claus had just delivered Christmas presents, the kids would dive into the box. “I want this type of calendar. I want these pens,” they would say, then grab. 

For years until his retirement, Becci’s grandfather ran the sales department at Geiger. That fact alone—plus the fun treasure trove of giveaways she remembers sorting through as a child—played a large role in Becci landing a temp job there at the ripe age of seventeen. 

Almost twenty-five years ago, she started out in customer service. When Geiger first got their website, Becci became involved with ecommerce. “It was something new, exciting and different, and I’ve never looked back. I love ecommerce,” she beams.

In her rookie years with Geiger, she was spotted walking down the hall by a guy who worked in the manufacturing division. “Oh, God! Who was that?” an awestruck Loren Cayer asked his co-worker. 

Turns out his co-worker went to high school with Becci so he introduced the two. 

Becci and Loren became friends, hung out together as a group with other Geiger employees, yet no romance materialized. His innermost secret: “I adored her from afar,” Loren says of Becci, “but we were never really a couple. We were just friends.” 

He was twenty-two and Becci was only eighteen. To Loren, that seemed a little awkward—sort of like robbing the cradle. 

In the meantime, they drifted apart when Loren moved to a different division within Geiger and Becci married. 

Twelve years later, Loren and Becci crossed paths again while working in the same division within Geiger. Kiddingly—but yet seriously—Loren said, “Hey! If things don’t work out with your husband, make sure I’m on the top ten list of guys to call some day.”

The shock of a lifetime came when Becci asked, “Do you want to have lunch tomorrow?”

Loren had no idea Becci had divorced. Thirty-five had creeped upon him, and he had labeled himself a life-long bachelor but was now going to have a date with that one woman he’d never forgotten. The four years difference in age that kept him from asking Becci out when he was younger was no longer an issue nor was it going to stop him. In fact, he had such a high confidence level about Becci, he called his mom and said, “I’m going to dinner with a girl tonight. And if it works out, you’re going to have a daughter-in-law.”

And on October 27th, 2013, Loren’s mom inherited a wonderful daughter-in-law when Loren and Becci were married at Spring Meadows Golf Club in Gray, Maine, before none other than their longtime friend and boss, Gene Geiger. It came as a surprise to learn that on top of running one heck of a successful promotional products business, Gene was also a notary public. 

In order for Gene Geiger to marry a couple, they had to swear to his verbal contract: “You guys are in this forever. This is the real deal and anyone who marries on my watch better stay married.”

That being said, Loren and Becci have as much a loyalty to Gene Geiger as they do to each other. Even though Loren has stayed loyal to Becci, he had worked in every division at Geiger and felt he’d run out of a career path. Six years ago, he became the outside rep for SnugZ in the Northeast, jumping from distributor to supplier. 

Even though Loren is employed with SnugZ now, his ties to Gene Geiger and family remain strong, and his real “snugs” will forever remain with Becci. 

Kathryn Kaufmann is a freelance writer and the author of Marriages Meant to Be, Dating Daisy Fields and The Priest and the Princess. Her books can be found on Amazon, BN.com, and autographed copies can be purchased through www.BooksandSwag.com. She also owns Authentic Creations, an ASI Distributor located in Birmingham, Alabama.