Chapter Text
Uli had to get out of here as fast as she could or else she thought she would combust. She was, just like everyone else, in a meeting with their new boss. The only difference was, that their new boss wasn’t a stranger to Uli. The second she walked into the meeting room, she knew that in her past life she must’ve done something even worse than in her recent one or otherwise the universe wouldn’t have punished her the way it did in that second. She quickly went into the nearest bathroom and grabbed the sink so hard, her knuckles started to turn white. Her breaths and her heartbeat were so fast, she started to panic that it might stop from exhaustion. She took a few deep breaths in and turned the water on to its coolest setting. The second the cold water hit her face she also felt herself to calm down. Her brain wandered back to what happened just minutes ago.
The moment she saw who their new boss would be, all her insides started to turn themselves and she felt like she had to throw up. The only thing making all of this bearable was that the other woman’s face started to get the same color as the wall paper beside her. She momentarily lost her thought, but quickly regained it and kept on going.
Of course, always the professional. Uli thought and splashed another load of cold water in her face.
Behind her the door to the bathroom opened with a loud bang and she knew exactly who this would be. Her best friend Pit stood in the doorway and looked at her like he was the one that just had an encounter with his past. He looked at her with big eyes and expectations.
“Is there anything I can do for you Pit?“ Uli looked at him as if she didn’t just left the meeting in such a hurry, one could think she was chased by someone. And in some way she had been, just not the way anybody would think.
“Are you serious right now? You’re leaving the room, and our new boss, without any explanation by the way, and now you’re acting all innocent? Oh no my dear, forget it. I’m not letting you off the hook so easy.“ Pit looked at her with such determination. Normally she found this look really funny because she wasn’t the one receiving it. But right now she felt rather uncomfortable and wanted to get out of this situation as fast as she could.
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about… I just started to suddenly feel really hot and dizzy in this room. The new boss probably never opens the windows or something.“
Uli knew exactly how stupid this must’ve sound like, but right this second she didn’t know how to explain that their new boss was someone she had hoped to never meet again after their last time. So the only logical conclusion for her was to stay strong in her point, go on with her day and avoid the other woman for as long as possible.
“Oh you’re not fooling me Kersting. I know you and trust me I will find out eventually“
Uli knew that these were probably some of the truest words ever spoken, but this was a problem for another day. She just pushed her friend to the side and padded his shoulders with the words.
“If that makes you happy, then go on and do whatever it is you have to do… but right now, I am going back to my kitchen and I hope that you will do the same, because I know your boss and she will be pissed if her sous-chef won’t show up on time.“
With that she went down to her kitchen and hoped to never reemerge from there for the rest of the day.
________________________________________________________________________________
At the same time, only a few floors above Uli, a completely worked up blonde paced up and down in her new office. She only thought, that this must be some huge sadistic joke from this god everyone keeps talking about, for some fucked up shit she did in some past life. Simply because there is no other reasonable explanation for what happened only half an hour earlier.
The second she agreed to take this job in Schwerin, she hoped that her life would finally calm down.
Ha! In your dreams de Vries. Life is about to get fucking hell on earth.
Just for a small moment she hoped that her mind or her eyes played a very sick joke on her. But she quickly came to realize that this was very much her new reality and that the woman sitting in front of her was in fact real. She immediately felt her heart stop beating and wanted nothing more than to turn on her heal and leave the room. Or better yet, leave Schwerin again and move back to New York. Of course life there wasn’t easy, but at least no ghosts from her past would be coming haunting her and make her life miserable again.
Oh please… don’t be so melodramatic. Yes, this sucks, but aren’t you being a bit of a drama queen right now?
Yes maybe she was, but also not really. She had hoped to have closed this chapter of her life many years ago and after many sessions with her therapist. But apparently not.
Eva felt herself quickly spiraling into a panic attack and knew she needed to ease herself down. By counting to ten and remembering the tips her therapist gave her before leaving, she felt her heartbeat slowly calming down and herself starting to get back into reality. After taking another big breath, she walked over to the windows and looked down onto the street.
She couldn’t believe that of all the places she worked at over the years, Schwerin had to be the one were her life would get complicated again. All the memories came rushing back. All good memories, but most certainly all bad ones as well. All the tears and questions from back then came back with them and Eva knew that she wouldn’t be able to keep going on with her life. Not without closing this door once and for all. But this included talking to the woman that was responsible for all these memories. The good ones and the bad ones.
But one doesn’t need to do everything immediately right? I mean as long as I don’t have to talk to her, I can still ignore her, right?
This probably wasn’t the perfect and definitely not the most mature way of handling her problems, but Eva really did not care about that right now.
The only thing she did know with certainty right that second was, that she wouldn’t let her heart be broken like that again. That she would be the one walking out of this situation with everything and not loose her pride. She knew it would be hard, but she was wiser and older than the last time and she knew how to protect her heart.
At least that was what she told herself. But Eva had to learn the hard way, that protecting your heart and life itself, don’t always get along like one would want them to.