The Steps to Love You

Chapter 1. A One-time thing.

I had published this story a long time ago, but after some changes I'm willing to give it another try.

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Sometimes, when bills were too hard to pay, Bai Lu thought about it and cursed herself. Why had she sold all the furniture and left that house that was so perfect for her? Even since then, she found it hard to find a place, moving every few months, it felt like fate was telling her there was no place for her in the world.

Telling her she had made a mistake.

Once she had a safe place, one that felt like home. She sold everything off and decided to make things hard for herself and start again."I was so stupid." She repeated, sighing as she tried to figure out what expenses she'd have to cut this time.

It happened once in a while, but later she'd remember again how she had felt two years ago, when he left. Actually, no when he left, because it was supposed to be just a short trip, she might have even joined him there if the circumstances were different. It would better to say she remembered how it felt when she knew in her heart that he would never come back, and that everything they had been building wasn't but castles in the air.

Their friends would always ask about him. Where was Peter and when would he come back? She'd just kept quiet and after a few months admitted that he would not be back. He decided to stay in his country and they both agreed to end things like adults. Bai Lu's mind repeated this like a mantra, but how could her heart understand that easily?

The truth was, he just stopped contacting her, and being too afraid of hearing the words she didn't want to hear, she also stopped contacting him after a while. She knew later that he'd found a better job in France, and moved there. He probably also got a girlfriend there.

Everything in the apartment was something they got together with their hard work, and every corner of that place reminded her of him. So eventually she sold everything off, trying to free herself from the memories and broken dreams as well. She wanted to start over, but when she took that decision she didn't know it would be that difficult.

Two years later she was cursing Peter and her young naive self that decided to make things hard for herself.

She had just enough money to go for a drink. Her drinking habits were also something that would surprise Peter if he saw her now. In the past, Bai Lu never drank because alcohol disgusted her. However, the years of teaching in the school and the experience of having to throw away her dreams had changed that. She still didn't drink much, and she preferred wine to anything else, but at least once a week she would go for a drink to the pub that was just three blocks away from her building.

That night was one of those nights.

She changed into a pair of light blue pants and a black sweater before walking down the streets that led to "Loko's".

In theory, there should have been nothing different that night. Bai Lu always sat alone and ended up leaving after one bottle of wine. She would have probably done the same, but then a handsome man from the other side of the table invited her a Margarita.

" You look like you'd enjoy sweet things." He said.

Accepting drinks from a stranger wasn't something good girls like Bai Lu should do. But she was feeling a bit rebellious, so she accepted. Why did she have to be a good girl? No one cared. And she had been alone for too long... couldn't she have some fun once in a while?

"Thanks."

He was truly good-looking. He was tall and thin, but had a very fit body from what could be appreciated through his shirt. His hair was black and shiny, and under the dim lights of the pub, his eyes seemed to be almost of the same color.