‘Oh, so you knew each other before you came to Berlin?’

I admit it is not something I imagined would happen, or that I thought it would be a particularly good idea to live with someone you had been practically married to. And I realise that for the people that shuddered at the thought of having enormous posters of an ex-boyfriend all over town this might sound pretty awful.
I’m not going to go into how it came about that we both happened to be in Berlin in the same time or why we ended up sharing a flat. It wasn’t planned. But here we are. Víkingur and Eva. Sharing two rooms and a kitchen with a bathtub.

We sometimes get funny looks or raised eyebrows when we meet people here and it comes out that, yes we did know each other back in Iceland. In fact, we used to be a couple… for four and a half years actually… but broke up a year and a half ago and now are just good friends and flatmates.

‘ahaaaa… I see’
wink wink and a smirk, even a little nod.
Are you thinking what they are thinking?

In many ways I think this is the perfect living arrangement.
We know each other inside out, have done it all before and we know each other’s habits, peculiarities and insecurities. We have run into our conflicts and know how to avoid them or work with them. We had a long enough time together to have developed a liking for a lot of the same things. We are a bit like an old couple like that, with our ways and rutines and roles.
Víkingur sleeps in the living room where we both also work during the day. I sleep in the bedroom where be both keep our clothes. When we go to bed we can chat through the half open door. In the morning we wake each other up and eat breakfast together. If we feel like a cuddle or snuggle we can have that too and I admit it is very nice to be able to do that sometimes. But that is all it is and neither of us tries to turn it into anything else. If we were not over the sexual tension or excitement or curiosity, that often comes up between flatmates or close friends I don’t know if this would be possible.

Of course it is funny in some ways and I know it is unusual. Like sitting and talking on skype with webcams to my mother, or to Víkingur’s children and ex-wife.
But to be absoluely honest, it really does feel like the most natural thing in the world. It's great!
And why shouldn’t it work out when we had a great relationship that worked out for almost five years? We were the closest friends then, and we still can be now, just in a different way.

And if we want to have lovers?
Well, it might be better if we hang out at their place anyway…