In the mid-1980s, I was a 16-year-old Walloon teen bursting with energy. At the time, I was dating a girl from the next town over. In my region, young people used to bump into each other at the local farmer's markets, and on that day, we went for a walk. It's there, on the steps of the train station, that I saw Vicki for the first time. I was entranced by her beauty, long blond hair and blue eyes, and found it hard to hide my infatuation from my girlfriend, which made her laugh. Our eyes didn't meet and we didn't talk, but she remained in the back of my mind. I sometimes saw her again from a distance.

Around the age of 19, I started my directing studies in another region, announcing to my roommates at the start of the school year that I intended to find myself a blue-eyed blonde that year. It was no coincidence: I think Vicki had created a yearning in me. I longed to be in love. One Thursday evening in November, I arrived early to a student party. There, in the middle of the room, I immediately recognized her. I couldn't believe my eyes. I approached her and we connected easily since we came from the same area. She was studying choreography in Brussels and had come with a cousin. We hit it off immediately.

Then came the slow dance. I asked her to dance and she said no. When I tried again a little later, she accepted. I could feel that the attraction was mutual, that we were letting our guards down. At 2 am, her cousin left and, there in the street, just the two of us, I got the feeling that it was now or never: We had our first kiss.

The following weekend, I picked her up in my car and we went for a drive – I was very proud because I'd just gotten my driver's license. To spend more time together, we went for vol-au-vents in the only restaurant open on Sundays, a supermarket cafeteria, something students never used to do back then! We started a relationship, soon lying to our parents to spend our first nights together in my dorm room. During the week, we called each other from phone booths. I'd never been so in love in my life, and I think she was just as much.

After three years, we moved to Brussels. We had our first cat, everything was going well... I started my professional life as a news director for RTBF, the Belgian public broadcaster. I poured my heart and soul into this job I was passionate about and, without realizing it, withdrew somewhat from my relationship with Vicki. To top it all off, I got permission to continue working at night while doing my compulsory military service during the day: We hardly saw each other for a year. I loved her, but I was never present. She warned me about it, but I didn't listen.

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