About the past (Chapter 2)

Around her friends, Anika has always been known as the girl who believed in a utopian love story. “I will find the love of my life”, she always used to say. “And it will be the one and only boy I ever have to date!”. Then came Peter. She met Peter, her ex, in her first semester of university. He became her first boyfriend. The supposed to be “only” boyfriend. Anika believed in a movie-like love and in the beginning, everything seemed to be nearly perfect. Just a few red flags that Anika ignored because she was confident that the fact that Peter might have been a little too jealous or the aspect that he did not like her spending too much time on her own, would soon wash off. So, blinded by love like she was, she agreed to marry him when he proposed to her after just half a year. But after 2 years of marriage and several fights, she finally accepted that Peter just wasn´t the right guy for her. Anika realized that she had been way too naive when she thought the first guy she met would be her perfect match. Reality hit her hard and she understood that she had to move on. They were way too different. Although she loved him dearly, Anika came to the conclusion that love was not all it needed for a healthy and long-lasting relationship. During the past two years with Peter, she got to know herself as someone who needed space for herself, who needed her partner to trust her and sadly, Peter could not give her these things. The more she finally set her priorities straight the more distant she felt to her husband. Even though Peter knew about her doubts, he did not want to let her go. At first, he tried everything to convince her to stay. But eventually one day he agreed that a divorce was for the best.

With all these new experiences and realizations about what true love really means to Anika, she buried her idea of the one and only love of her life. Maybe it just didn´t exist, she thought. Anika was now set to be more careful when it came to love. To watch out for any signs or warnings to not let something similar happen to her again.

Steve on the other hand was still a hopeless romantic. Other than Anika, he was driven by the vision that true love really existed no matter how many tries it took to find it. So even after several failed relationships, he wouldn´t give up until he found the love of his life. When he met Anika, Steve felt a new wave of hope taking over. Maybe she could finally be the one, he said to himself. Steve’s tactic was to take it slow. That´s what he always did. According to his idea of love, if it is true love then nothing can break it or take it away. It will simply be there, waiting. And because of this, Steve has never really felt urged to rush through a relationship. He was the type of guy who would go on several dates, and get to know the girl deeply before confessing his true feelings.

Anika did not know this about Steve yet, but it would come in really handy for her as she was determined to take things easy the next time a guy would enter her life.