Welcome to the forum, lots of good folks willing to share their knowledge and lend opinions here...hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
I'm new to beekeeping myself, got interested and starting researching it heavily a few months back, got my bees, 2 Nucs, a little over a month ago. My original plan was to start with one hive, however, the more I researched it, it's almost universal advice, something very rare in the world of beekeeping by the way :), that you should start with at least two hives. There are many good reasons for this...First and foremost, a lot of things can go wrong, even if you do everything right, 2 hives doubles your chance of success. Also, as a new Beek, it allows you to compare and contrast one hive against the other to aid in the learning process. It also gives you the ability to rob Peter to pay Paul...If one hive is in trouble, you can take a frame of brood or honey, whatever may be needed, from one, and give it to the other. etc. etc.
Fair warning...My early experience is that this hobby is quite addictive! You may think you only want one hive, my guess is you'll quickly learn that's not the case. :)