Meet Eva King, a high-spirited manager in an international firm. She scraped her way up from zero to hero in the cold, hard world of power, money, and politics, where nothing and no one was going to get in her way.
Until handsome Sven came along. No...
Media/YouTube song: Lovefool by The Cardigans, for the Leo DiCaprio fans.
I wish I knew my life would turn upside down.
Not in a bad way, but more like an hourglass being flipped over, where the sands of time stream downward. I'm thinking of the hourglass you see at the start of the daytime TV soap Days of Our Lives. I'm not even sure if the show still airs anymore.
Corny? Yeah, I know.
I had it all, like the sexy male business executives you read in romance stories. Except I was a woman; a woman with money, recognition, handsome men, and a top job that I scored thanks to bloody, hard work, and a little luck.
My life was the city life. I lived in an inner-city apartment in an upmarket area, near the riverside. I loved the place—it was a swish building, cleverly revamped by a bunch of overpaid architects. It used to be Brisbane's landmark wool store.
Where the heck is Brisbane?
It's a city on the east coast of the state of Queensland in Australia. BrisVegas, baby! The nightlife was happening, the weather was warm and sunny, and the city never slept. Not if your life was downtown. Heck, there was even an artificial beach smack bang in the city - Southbank.
As for what I did for a living, I managed contracts for a large firm in town. The security at the lobby knew me by my walk—my high heels clicked fast and hard on the marble tiles. The guards said hello to me every morning, and I smiled back with a quick greeting while trying not to spill my Gloria Jeans triple-chocolate coffee on my designer blouse.
At night, I attended lectures at a city-based university. I was gunning for my Master of Business Administration and aimed high. My grade point average was pretty good, and nothing was going to stop me from competing to win. I thought of going for an exchange scholarship for a semester at a partner university in London, Sweden, or India. Sweden and India sounded exotic for a dinkum Aussie like myself.
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My couldn't-care-less MIA father once told me that an MBA stood for a Master of Bullshit and Arrogance. I looked forward to the day I could fling that "MBA" in his smug face and hand the diploma to my mother, who sweated blood and tears to raise three kids all by herself.
I planned a holiday in Italy, where I hoped to see the wonders of Rome, the delights of Florence, and the beauty of Tuscany. I might even be lucky and find a dashing Italian prince—not that I was in dire need of rescuing. Rescuing was for the hopeless sissies.
Job – tick. ✅ Lifestyle – tick. ✅ Master's degree – getting there. ⚠️ Planned holiday in Italy – tick. ✅ Content in my own skin – tick. ✅
Then Sven the Viking came along and ruined everything. He was buff, muscled, and beautiful, with gorgeous strawberry-blond hair and blue-green eyes that reminded me of the ocean on a calm day. He was over six feet tall and sexy as fuck.
Yeah, I was as shallow as a kiddie pool that was left out to dry under the sun on a hot, balmy summer day. Ever seen an attractive guy who caught your eye? Join me in the kiddie pool. We'll drink margaritas and bask in the sun.
Anyway, little did I know that this Scandinavian love god would shake my life, like a naughty kid shaking up an ant farm. In one fell swoop, I would happily lose everything—like a madwoman tossing all my favorite belongings off a cliff, while singing The Sound of Music. I became an idiot in love. If I was a song, my tune changed from being a Madonna bust-those-balls anthem to a becoming a heavily manufactured sugar pop song...or worse. Elevator music. A panpipe version of Barry Manilow's Copacabana.
Thanks to this Viking Sven, and no thanks to myself, I fell in love for the first time of my life. If there was one song that would describe how my life turned around, think of the Cardigan's song "Love Fool", from Romeo and Juliet with Leo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. I'm a sucker for Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet. It's my favorite film version of a Shakespeare play.
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My name is Eva, and this is the story of how Sven and I met and roller-coastered our crazy relationship.
