"Finding love in later life is very different, it's healthier."

Designer Verónica Fuerte had been single for five years when she made match on Bumble with Ale. He chose the place for the date, Zim, a wine bar in the Gothic Quarter, small enough to allow for a great deal of intimacy. "I really liked the way he spoke, the small gestures... I pay a lot of attention to these things: if he's attentive, if he looks at me, if he asks me questions... I was fine on my own and had things very clear, so before meeting up I was honest with my expectations: I wanted a partner, nothing more than one night.

After a year together, during which they slowly got to know each other, Ale proposed to him. "It was very much like a Netflix movie; he's much more romantic than I am," says the designer. They were traveling in Paris with two coworkers, who agreed with Ale to make sure the moment was extra special. "It was three days and we did everything together, but that day they disappeared and Ale grabbed a wine and two glasses to steal it from us to the Eiffel Tower. At midnight, when all the lights in the tower were coming on, he asked me to marry him," she recalls.

Since then, they have built their own private family. "He became a father at 16 and has three sons, and I have a daughter from a previous relationship. From Nora and I being alone, we have gone, at times, like on vacation or Christmas, to being a large family. It's a lot of life," celebrates the designer.

Now that she's turning 45, she says, she experiences love in a very different way than she did when she was 20 or 30. "Finding love in your later years is very different, much healthier. You get to know yourself and your limits, and what you want, and the other person had zero. First you come first, and then you come first. person and then me, I think changing the order makes everything go better", she declares. For Fuerte, a happy love is "one with whom you can share everything, knowing that you are different people, and that brings out the best version of yourself". "If it is not the right person, it is quite easy for a relationship to bring out the worst version of you", believes the designer, who together with Ale has found the right balance of calm and adventure.