ARCADE | Rebić

4

"I really try not to miss you, but in the end I do."

20 November 2019

"I met a girl." Mirko Abadžić announced happily.

"Really?" Ante replied back, between laughters.

It was not very cold to be a November day in Milan, so the footballer grabbed the occasion to show his friend, there for a little visit, his new city.

"What's her name?" Ante asked.

"Ivana!" Mirko said, the biggest smile on his face.

Ante looked at him. It couldn't be his Ivana, could she? Nah, he was probably just overreacting, it was just a girl with her same name. Ivana was still a very common name in Croatia.

"Ivana?" Ante replied again, probably sounding even stupid to Mirko's ears.

The Croatian man laughed and nodded. "Yes. Ivana. Like that famous girl you fell in love with two years ago but never actually introduced her to us!"

Ante shot him a death glare. "That was a coward move, do you know it?"

"Sorry!" Mirko laughed. "Oh, man, you must absolutely meet her! She's perfect!"

The footballer smiled, it was very nice to see his friend that happy. "Absolutely! So, how long have you started dating?"

"Actually two weeks!" Mirko nodded, taking a sip of his cocktail. "But they have been two intense weeks!"

"How did you meet her?" Ante asked again, truly very curious to know more about this woman who apparently stole his friend's heart. "I'm all ears!"

"Ante, you're such a gossip girl!" Mirko bursted our into laughters. "I met her in a concert in Split."

Okay, at least it wasn't in a bar, like him. Ante nodded. Even though they met in Zagreb, his Ivana told him she was from Split. But he believed it was just another coincidence. How many chances did he have to have been the same Ivana? His Ivana?

Oh, if only he knew then what was waiting for him.

—

"Oh, honey, are you excited?" Ana Damjanović asked to her husband.

Stjepan simply rolled his eyes. "If she was marrying another man..." he muttered slowly to his wife, in a way that Mirko's mother and sister, who were looking around, couldn't hear him.

His wife rolled her eyes too. "Oh, Stjepan, please, she looks happy..."

"She doesn't." Stjepan said firmly. "And you know it perfectly."

"Are you ready to see Ivana with her first dress?" The assistant asked, as also Mirko's mother and sister joined them on the white couches. "Come, darling!"

Ivana left her changing room with a very big dress, very princess style, with some flowers on the bodice and sweetheart neckline.

"Oh dear, you're stunning!" Dragica, Mirko's mother, said in awe.

Ivana weakly smiled at them as she looked at herself in the mirror. "Well..."

"Mirko would love it!" Željka, his sister, said, agreeing with her mother. "You're stunning!"

"There's no doubt she's stunning." Stjepan said. "But this dress is horrible."

"Stjepan!" Ana gave him a death glare.