Mood: Madness by Muse. Sven loves Muse, so c'mon and play it for him.
Come to me,
Trust in your dream
Come on and rescue me
Yes I have known, I can be wrong
Maybe I'm too headstrong
Our love is
Madness.
— Muse.
July 27
Sven
Hei. That's "hi" in Norwegian.
I'm Sven. Yeah, it's me.
Listen up, because it might be the only chance I'll get my say, as Eva likes to talk.
You see, I'm trying to write a speech for her, to tell her how much I love her on our wedding night, but I need your help.
I'm struggling with putting the words together and we're getting married in a few days—July 31, to be precise.
She's currently shopping with Kaja, who now works as a software developer in Oslo. Those two get along like a house on fire, which is great.
By the way, I told Eva that Kaja's name is spelled with a "j", not a "y", but there's no harm done.
So, here's my chance to speak, while she's out.
What was that? You want to get to know me better? Very well then. Let's talk.
What's my favorite music?
I love Muse. I also don't mind Queen, AC/DC, and add a dash of Mozart, Debussy, and Vivaldi. My favorite concerto of The Four Seasons is Spring. I played the violin in high school, you know.
What are my hobbies?
Unlike Eva, I love the outdoors and I'm planning on taking her to my family's holiday cabin after we get married. She's a city girl, not one for the country life, so it'll take some time for her to get used to our cabin. She can handle a little bit of nature.
I'll teach her to play volleyball and convince her to go hiking with me.
Don't tell her yet, because it will freak her out. I'll do the talking—I know how to talk to her. Besides, it'll be good for Eva.
I've always been in tune with nature. You see this scar here? Yeah, it's about an inch long, near my left shoulder. Right about here. I had a trampoline accident in the garden outside the cabin when I was nine years old.
Okay, next question.
What kind of women do I like?
Is that a trick question? C'mon, guys, you know that Eva is my type. She's strong, smart, and I love her confidence.
The most attractive thing I find in a woman is her confidence. I don't give a shit about what kind of labels she wears or why the fuck someone would want a butt implant.
I'm not into fake.
I once dated a girl who was into appearances. She was fucking hot, but I was shitting tears of pain by the end of our date.
What pissed me off was when she called one of my school friends a nerd.
I'm sure Kaja told Eva that I was the math nerd back in high school. They called me the human calculator. See this old passport photo?
Yeah, that's me—the skinny little kid who resembled the Sherminator from the movie American Pie. Back then, a group of girls stuck the knife into me, saying that I was undatable.
According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, undatable means "not capable of being given a date."
It fucking hurt, but I got over it.
While some guys hit their peak in high school, I didn't muscle up until I was around nineteen.
When I started my undergraduate degree in Oslo, I worked as a bartender to make ends meet. It was financially tough being a university student in one of the most expensive cities in the world.
Girls started noticing me at the club I worked at, and...well, I lost my virginity behind the bar.
Sadly, I heard a lot of "Oh, Sven's so hot!" or "Wow, he's so handsome", but no one was sincere enough to ask me how I was feeling.
Eva was, in fact, the first woman who asked me about my family and what my hopes and dreams were. No woman had ever wanted to really know my mind until she came along.
What do I love about Eva?
I love everything about her. Especially her flaws. I know I'm not marrying perfect, but who the fuck wants to marry perfect?
Unless you're Kanye West. No offence, bro, but Kimmy ain't my type.
No matter how much you try to perfect a person, the perfection is often in their flaws. You just need to open your eyes and appreciate that.
Why the fuck would you want to change someone when you knew what you were getting? I don't get some people. I'm shaking my head.
What do Eva and I have in common?
Ah, Eva. She and I could talk for hours about Brexit, the Obamas, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk's plans for a SpaceX colony in Mars. We both joked about volunteering to be part of the Mars mission.
Eva is a big Michelle Obama fan, while I've been following Elon Musk on Twitter. I plan on buying a Tesla one day—I'm going to take Eva for a sweet ride in that baby. Electric cars are tax-free in Norway.
What else can I say about what we have in common? Eva's sense of humor is on par with mine. I love a good joke, and we certainly enjoy being a little on the adventurous side of life.
We have a healthy sex life and we know how to respect each other's bodies, minds, and emotions.
While we enjoy kinky sex and don't mind getting a bit rough sometimes, we consider each other's feelings. Whenever Eva or I are unsure about something, the other partner stops. If it's not a "yes", then it's a "no." That's how it is between us.
On another note, we both agree that self-irony in life is healthy. You have to laugh it off sometimes, when life gets tough.
Ja, ja...there's no point crying over what can't be undone. You just have to move on. That's one philosophy she and I agree on wholeheartedly.
What have I done for Eva that she's not aware of?
Do you remember the ring that I bought her when I counter-proposed to her on top of the mountain in Brisbane? Do you know why it fit her finger perfectly?
I took one of her rings and sunk it into a bath soap. I then gave the soap, with the ring imprint, to the jeweler to make sure they resized the ring correctly before I presented it to her.
Not bad, huh?
Who is the better cook?
I am, of course. I love to cook and she prefers to do the laundry.
I like to make Eva a nice sweet and sour chicken meal, with jasmine rice.
I learned to cook, sew and bunch of other stuff when I was in the army, which was compulsory for school leavers in Norway—at least during the time I graduated from school. I'm not sure how it is these days. I think the rules are more relaxed.
Have I been tempted to cheat on Eva again?
Fuck, no. I want to clarify one thing. I've made mistakes earlier on, but I'm a guy who moves on from the past. I do not intend to ever intentionally hurt Eva. Ever. My heart, my mind, and my dick are loyal to her.
There's a manager in my company who slipped a condom in my pocket at a work social event. I was thinking, who the fuck pulls that shit? Maybe a female Larry. Yeah, Eva told me all about that fucking creep.
You know what I did? Before I threw the fucking condom at her face, I warned her that zero tolerance for sexual harassment in the workplace worked both ways. I had no hesitation reporting the incident to my HR manager, who dealt with the shit.
Thankfully, my direct line manager treats me with respect and understands my love for Eva. She's been with her partner, an American, for the past fifteen years. She insisted that I had the afternoon off and lent me her second car to pick Eva up at the airport when she arrived in Oslo.
Am I a feminist, like Eva?
Abso-fucking-lutely. My mother is a feminist and as a boy, I joined her in equal rights protests and marches on International Women's Day on March 8.
According to the Cambridge dictionary, a feminist is "a person who believes in feminism, and tries to achieve change that helps women to get equal opportunities and treatment."
Based on that definition, I am a feminist.
I believe in equality.
Think about it.
One day I may have a daughter, and when that happens, I want her to have equal opportunities in her lifetime. I would hate to see her suffocate from anything or anyone who attempts to restrict her from her right to be herself.
Together, Eva and I are going to make sure that our future kids, may it be boys or girls, treat people with respect and equality.
My turn. Do you want to know a secret?
Eva secretly loves kids. She pretends she doesn't like them, but I watched her play with my little nephew last Christmas.
She thought nobody was watching when they played hide-and-seek behind the corridor, while my relatives were eating coffee and cake.
Are we done now?
Yeah, I think I know what to say to Eva on our wedding night. Thanks for lending me your ears to hear my voice.
Everyone wants to be listened to, and every voice deserves to be heard. Even the Larrys of this world. Maybe they wouldn't have turned out to be assholes if their voices were heard from the start. Who knows?
Just one last thing.
When I moved to Australia, deep inside I was still feeling like the boy you saw in my passport photo. However, I've progressed past my boyhood days, and I've manned up.
I know that I'm going to be a good husband to this amazing woman, who reminds me of a female Bond villain. Why do I like Bond women? They're fucking smart and I find an intelligent woman sexy.
I'm aroused by intelligence, wit, and self-confidence.
Fuck Barbie, I'm with Eva.
Guys, you've really helped me out with what I'm going to tell Eva on our wedding night.
Screw the planned speech.
I'm just going to wing it and tell it to her straight from my heart about how I feel.
She already knows I love her but I'm going to tell her again. And again. And again.
For the rest of my life.
I love you, Eva.
That's what matters, right? It's what comes from the heart.
A/N: This chapter is dedicated to DariaLamtsova PSPhoebe123 loiseaublanc and dlcroisette for giving me the motivational kick that I needed to soldier on.
We talk about women supporting women in this book, but I want to make a point that it's also important to show support for writers.
My stories would not exist without the help from other writers, and that's a fact. If you ever want to show support for any writer on Wattpad, don't be afraid to do so.
Sometimes encouragement is all they need to shine.