"My first partner was my first great lesson in feminism."

Dear Marta,

I'm about to do something one of my teachers at journalism school told me to avoid: sneaking in the first person into my text. The truth is, I haven't always been very good at following the rules, and today I'm breaking them once again. Your friend, Eduard Vallory, told me on a terrace in El Born how they met, how they went from being a couple to being lifelong friends, and it seemed to me that a letter—a format I know you're all familiar with—is the most appropriate way to tell this love story.

It seems you caught his attention right away, when you met in the Escoltes Catalans groups, at 17 or 18. You were dating an older guy back then, and Eduard thought you were a bit out of reach: even back then, you were very driven and had very clear ideas. Thank goodness, already single, shortly before summer, you were the one who gave Eduard his first kiss. His seduction skills, he explains, "were close to zero due to shyness and not knowing how to start with someone who, to him, was incredibly powerful." Thank you, Marta, because Eduard says that his relationship with you was "his first great lesson in feminism." Since then, he explains, he hasn't stopped asking himself questions about masculinity, gender roles, and relational diversity, and later on, he has allowed himself to freely explore bisexuality and non-monogamous relationships.

Falling in love with you, he says, was strong and mutual. He still remembers that first summer he had to go to separate camps, he would walk almost two hours down and up the mountain to get to the only landline and talk to you for a while. He also wrote letters to each other, which he still keeps, just as he maintains the relationship even though it's no longer as a couple.

Eduard says that you are now a family, that Ares and you made him godfather to one of the children, and that he can't imagine life without you, without you all. Sometimes, when someone speaks to you with so much love, when they tell you "I've never told this story before," you can only honor it by writing it down with the same love with which it was passed on to you. Oscar Wilde writes in The Picture of Dorian Gray There's something tragic about friendships so close to love, and listening to Eduardo's story, one wonders: wouldn't it be tragic if friendship weren't so close to love? Love, Selena.