People Are Sharing Their “Enemies To Lovers” Stories That Actually Happened IRL, And I'm Swooning

Maybe it's the stubborn bottom in me, but wow, do I love a good "enemies to lovers" storyline! There's something sweet about two people discovering that they're wrong about each other and, by stroke of fate, that they're actually hot for each other. There are many fans of this literary trope, and real-life examples of it too — here are a few dug up from the internet:

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1."This is totally my uncle and his wife: There was a time he was working as a short-order cook at a diner, and he was constantly butting heads with one of the women waiting tables. My uncle is a patronizing joker, so that behavior tracks. Their combativeness escalated to the point where one day, his other coworkers brought in two sets of boxing gloves and told them, as a joke, to go duke it out behind the building. They did. They beat the crap out of each other and then started getting along so well that they got married. They're still together 18 years later."

2."I hated my husband. Like, I really hated him. When someone talked about him, I felt heat scrolling under my skin and as if my eyes were going to pop out from nerves. Meanwhile, he loved me. Like, really loved me. He loved me even when he didn’t really know me. He just heard about me from my brother-in-law — they were best friends, and my brother-in-law used to talk about me because I love my niece and always organized activities with her. After a year of me doing my best trying to avoid him at all costs (in hindsight, I was very rude with him) and him doing his best trying to talk to me, he succeeded. And I fell. Fifteen years and four children later, I now think he is the best man ever."

3."My parents met representing opposite sides in a lawsuit!"

4."My husband and I were coworkers who absolutely hated each other the first couple of years! I thought he was an obnoxious, immature player who was well aware of his good looks and his effect on women. He thought I was a cold, uptight bitch. Neither of these assumptions was true. He'd just ended a long-term relationship with his high school sweetheart, who cheated on him and broke his heart, and was doing what he never got to do in his late teens and early 20s; I avoided him like the plague because I was attracted to him physically and didn't want to be a bedpost scratch. I transferred departments after a few years, and during my goodbye party, we got to talking — we were friends by the night's end. We continued hanging with other coworkers monthly for the next year. We were all out a few days after my then-boyfriend and I broke up, and he point blank told me he had no interest in being a rebound. He planned to be my 'last first date.' And he was."

5."My old coworker used to complain about this one guy all the time — he was the friend of one of her best friends. One day, I laughed and said you're going to marry this guy. She laughed at me. I told her that from everything she had said, he sounded like a good person and all her petty annoyances were pretty minor. They're now married with a baby. I like to think my comment made her reconsider her opinion of him."

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—u/CeaBreazey

6."The longest marriage I know between my friends is one that started in college, with the woman thinking the guy disliked her because he was quiet and kind of standoffish. They had to do some schoolwork together and talked about it on AOL Instant Messenger, but he still mostly ignored her in real life. So she was probably reasonable to think he hated her. But eventually they talked more on AIM and started hanging out in real life after class. They became friends. About a year later, they ended up together. He's still kind of a cynical grump, but they've been together for over 15 years, so something's working there."

7."My husband and I knew each other in high school because I dated his close friend. And we hated each other. We couldn't even be in the same room without fights erupting. The guy I was dating got so fed up with us all the time. Eventually, that guy and I went our separate ways and my now-husband and I moved to different states and lost touch. Ten years later, we reconnected on Facebook. We had both grown up a lot. And we clicked. We worked. We've been together for eight years now and have a baby."

8."My old boss! My section was working on a special project, and my boss, 'Joe,' and the other office’s boss, 'Jane,' absolutely hated each other. They were both acting as our boss, so we were kind of caught in the middle — he would come in and tell us to do something, then she would tell us to do the opposite and pitch a fit when we told her that Joe had already given us a directive. Joe would come in and vent about her on a regular basis. Fast-forward a year: The project is complete and we’re back in our normal work center working for Joe. My coworker comes to me and says, 'Joe is dating someone. Remember Jane? They’re together now.' At first I was happy for him. He’s a great guy and deserved to be happy. Then I remembered who Jane was...and almost died laughing."

9."My dad told me that when he met my mom in grad school, he was this awkward, quiet, nerdy guy and she was this outgoing, popular woman. When she started talking to him, he was standoffish because he was just completely confused why she was giving him the time of day. He'd had the same shoes so long, they had holes in the soles, and she finally convinced him to go shoe shopping with her for their first date."

10."As far as famous couples go, Tupac and Kidada Jones, Quincy Jones's daughter, come to mind. I'm oversimplifying their tumultuous story, but Tupac called out Quincy for having 'fucked-up kids' with white women in an interview, after which Kidada's younger sister Rashida Jones (then 17) slammed him in an article for his lack of respect. So I imagine there was no love lost between Tupac and the Joneses. Kidada and Tupac apparently met a few months later in a nightclub, and he sought her out and apologized. They dated for a few months (even briefly living together), and he was said to have made amends with Quincy and Rashida before he was shot and killed. No 'happily ever after' here, sadly."

11."My husband and I did not get along at all when we met each other. We were 15 years old in high school and we both took marching band class together. He was a huge flirt with a lot of my friends, dated a lot of girls from our school and other schools, and I couldn’t stand his arrogant attitude. He'd try to talk to me, and I would tell him to screw off. I even called him a 'man whore' — not my best moment. That continued for a year of us picking on each other, until one day, my boyfriend at the time dumped me. I was so sad and was crying during lunch. My friends walked away from me to give me some alone time, which made me feel worse. My future husband came around to do his daily teasing and saw me crying. He sat down and asked what was wrong. I told him the details and had expected more teasing, but he was actually kind and supportive. He offered to go punch my ex to make me laugh, and I felt much better. The teasing stopped, and a light friendship began."

12."In my high school, there was a girl in my year who was a proudly queer, feminist, punk anime lover. The high school consisted mostly of wealthy and quite liberal kids, so there were a lot of people like her there. A year under us, there was this guy who started out his school career with concerning anti-gay behavior. He'd draw graffiti bullying the LGBTQ crowd. He seemed quite sick of the fact that they were like at least 30% of the school's population. He was super intelligent and eloquent but very problematic toward the queer community. I believe he was influenced by his conservative upbringing. He'd often get into public Facebook arguments with the girl in my grade. They even tagged graffiti on desks, calling each other out. Well, spring of my final year, I caught them screwing in the girls' bathroom on the second floor. "

13."In high school, a guy in my grade used to constantly tease me for being 'emo,' almost to the point of bullying. One day, he was following me down an empty hallway and saying crap to me. I was generally really quiet, but I had enough. I spun around, shoved him against a wall hard, and said something like, 'Emo means you want to hurt yourself. I just want to hurt you,' and then walked off. He stood there dumbfounded. After that, he backed off, started being nicer to me, and somehow convinced my dumb ass to go out with him. We were together for a little while. It was kinda fun at first — high energy, high emotions, feverish sex. He was a terrible person, though. He was manipulative, incredibly dishonest, and cheated on me multiple times."

14."We are not lovers, but my best friend and I did a sort of enemies-to-friends thing when we met. We both started a new job and did not get along. Like, I would actually get angry when I would see that we were scheduled together, and because we're both sort of quiet weirdos, we couldn't find any common ground. This went on until we had a slow shift and started actually talking. We called each other fake friends for a bit, then eventually she was my roommate, and later my maid of honor in my (failed) wedding. We've been friends for almost a decade now."

15."This one boy and I despised each other all of sixth grade. We would argue every time we were together. Then, in seventh grade, we gradually bonded over Minecraft and became friends. We grew even closer in eighth grade and started officially dating by the end of that year. We continued dating for most of high school. It was good, but at the end of 'us,' we had changed too much and grown apart. However, we're still friends four years later."

16."I was in 12th grade and had a girlfriend. Even though this other girl went to a different school, we did not like each other. I had known she was a little bit bullied by a guy. One day, that guy hit her and she went home crying. After I heard this, I searched for him and found him right after school — I won't go into details, but he got what he deserved. He ran away after that. Later, I was single and she was too. We started meeting and fell in love really quickly. It didn't last long, but it was funny how we went from a 'Fuck you!' to 'Fuck me!'"

What are your own real-life stories that fall under the "enemies to lovers" umbrella? Share them in the comments!

Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.