I had this person once. She is now my girlfriend.

We met in 2009, when we were both teenagers around 18, because we had a common friend, who would do poetry slams and we both went to one of his gigs to support him. We liked each other from the start and kind of had a crush on each other, texted for weeks and months over ICQ, met regularly, kissed a couple of times, watched movies and cuddled, but never really more and ended up in relationships with other people, including disappointments and tears and all. Teenager stuff. We kind of lost touch, because our respective partners did not like us hanging out. When we met each other after that it was always weird, I was always a bit nervous, my heart raced, but either I had a girlfriend or she had a boyfriend, so we did not meet alone to catch up or anything. I knew that she was my "Robin Scherbatsky", the person I would always have a crush on.

In 2015, we were both in Australia (pretty common for Europeans) and decided to meet and it was the weirdest situation we ever had (still laugh about it on a regular basis today). She picked me up from my hostel, we drove around, went to the Australia Zoo and at night, on the beach, she tried to kiss me, but I was too nervous and just did not feel right. I should have kissed her right there, could have saved us many years we tried to find the right partner. So the next day, after being hurt and kind of embarrassed all night, she dropped me off awkwardly and drove away and we only met at the airport to fly back to Germany together. The flight was great, we had some drinks and fun, but back in Germany, when we saw our families, who did not know each other and waited separately, we just rushed towards them and into our cars and drove home. Texted for a couple of days or weeks and lost touch again. So far for our pre-story.

So, last year, 4 years after we had really talked to each other for the last time, a plumber had to fix something in my bathroom and it took faaar too long, so my (admittely very German) time schedule for that day was 30 min delayed. I walked to the gym and met her and her mother on my way (would never have met her, if there had been no delay), but I was looking on my phone and was in a hurry, so I did not really realize that it was her and only waved at her awkwardly. Texted her 15 minutes later, that I am an idiot and a bit confused, because I had to hurry. Anyway, she laughed it off, we texted again, both being recently separated from our partners and both still living with our (ex-)partners. We met again, had a couple of drinks, nothing too romantic while at the same time having this being-in-love-teenager-feeling, but enjoyed each other's company and could feel that there was something happening and we talked about it and I was glad we both felt it.

Well, she had to go to hospital for a pretty severe operation and I went to visit her regularly for the month she had to stay and we would just sit in her room and talk and got to know each other once again. It was awkward, there was usually somebody else with us in the room (other patients). Well, as soon as she got out, we moved into an apartment together and are now incredibly happy. Many voices said that it went far too quickly, but we just told them that we would give it a try. It would either work out or it wouldn't, but it was definitely worth giving it a try. As I said, we still talk about Australia and how "if you had kissed me, you could have saved me from so much sh*t", but since I met her 11 years ago, I knew she was very special to me and I always hoped that, at the end of the day, we would be together. We joke about not leaving each other "this time", because we would end up together in 10 years anyway. So yeah, that's our story's short version.