We were jolted awake early the next morning by my alarm, which I had forgotten to switch off the night before. I groaned and fumbled for my phone, rolling out from under Richard's arm which was draped over me. Finally locating my phone, I cancelled the alarm and lay back on the pillow, trying to decide whether it was worth going back to sleep. Richard's arm curled around my waist and cuddled me from behind. He kissed the back of my head and said a sleepy good morning.

"Should we get up?" I suggested.

"Mmm." He replied. "Well that's the first time I've been woken up by my own voice so I don't think I can sleep any more after that." His voice was still hoarse with sleep. I had to laugh at that: my alarm tone was "Wake Up" by Emigrate. "However." He continued, and I could hear the smile in his voice. "I can think of a way to put these extra hours to use..." I grinned and turned around, surrendering myself to his early morning desires.

A couple of hours later, at a more appropriate time for a Saturday morning, we were up, showered and ready to face the day. I was putting the finishing touches to my eyeliner when my phone went off with a text alert. I asked Richard to read it for me, and he informed me that Emily's train was just leaving Edinburgh and that she would be arriving at our station in a little under an hour.

"Will we be nice and pick her up?" I asked. "A train journey from Wales all the way up here can't have been fun, comfortable sleeper carriages or not."

"Sure." He shrugged. "We don't have our apartment viewing until 3pm anyway, so we have plenty of time." Hmm, the apartment viewing. Maybe we should have talked budget rather than colour schemes, since I had a feeling that my meagre salary wouldn't be able to afford the kind of place he would be looking to live in. Money probably hadn't been an issue for him for some years, but it still had a huge effect on my life. I decided to say as much to him: better to be honest than to have him think I was happy with the situation when I wasn't.

"Don't worry about that." He waved his hand dismissively. "I'll pay for the bulk of the rent and such - if it makes you feel better it can be 'my' apartment." He added, seeing the look on my face.

"But I'll be living there more than you." I protested. "And I'll be the one using the electric and the heating and all that sort of thing the most..."

"Okay." He said. "If it makes you feel any better, you can pay half of the bills." I thought about that for a moment. As much as the idea of being seen as a 'kept woman' irked me, it would mean that I could save the vast majority of my pay every month and put it into savings, as well as use it to pay for the travel that visiting Richard in Berlin would involve.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "It feels like you're offering an awful lot."

"Yes. If it means that I have somewhere to spend time alone with you whenever possible, then I'll pay a million pounds a month. Well, maybe I couldn't afford a million, but you get what I mean." He amended at my raised eyebrow.

"Okay then." I rubbed his arm affectionately. "If that's what works, then that's what we'll do."

"Alright." He grinned. "Now, maybe we should clean up a little before your sister and parents arrive home." I agreed with him there, our dinner plates and wine glasses from the night before were still strewn around, and I figured we could make a start on the laundry and at least have an empty basket for when my parents got in. Half an hour later the place was spotless, the dishwasher and washing machine were both humming gently to themselves and Richard had even made the bed.

We left in plenty of time to pick Emily up off the train, parked the car in the station car park and walked round to meet her on the platform. Soon the train pulled off, and we waited for her to emerge from the crowd of people disembarking. Typically, she was one of the last people off the train, and in fact looked more well rested than we had anticipated. She greeted us and we walked back to the car, Richard carrying her bags for her. He put them in the boot of the car and I let her ride in the front.

"Ooh, nice car Reesh." She commented when we started the drive back.

"Thanks." He grinned. "Also, thanks for all the information, the surprise went completely as planned." They high fived and I rolled my eyes at them from the back seat.

"Anytime." She laughed. "So," she turned in her seat so that she could see me. "What's on the cards for today?"

"A flat viewing." I answered. "Then it's meet-the-parents time. I assume you told them of your plan?"

"Yeah, I did...otherwise they would have a fit when the nosey neighbours told them about the mysterious older man paying their eldest daughter visits." She winked suggestively. "A flat viewing?"

"Mmm. Closer to work, more space...all the pros that I've had in my head forever, but now I have someone to share living space with." I poked Richard in the shoulder at my last comment, and he laughed as he maneuvered the car into it's parking space.

"Mind if I tag along?" She asked. "Give me time for a shower and a can of red bull and I'll be ready for action. I really don't want to sit at home alone, I miss Jay enough as it is."

"Sure." We agreed easily. We went back into the house and Richard and I spent some time in my room while we waited for Emily to get ready. We messed around on the internet for a while, he nosed around my CD and DVD collections, and I mused about how often we would get to spend easy time like this together.

In what almost seemed like record time - for Emily, at least - we were back in the car and driving towards the city. Richard had the postcode of the apartment we were viewing and had programmed it into the satnav. We stopped for some lunch first, since Emily was complaining she was starving and Richard and I hadn't eaten yet either. We arrived at the appointed time, and were greeted at the front of the building by who I assumed was the landlord. I let Richard take control of the situation, even though he was holding my hand and indicated to the landlord more than once that it would be only me living there for the majority of the time, I would never have known the right questions to ask about lease lengths, or how energy efficient a place is.

Emily and I entertained ourselves by looking around, while Richard discussed the finer points. It was huge - by our standards, anyway. Three large bedrooms, one with an en-suite, a main bathroom, a smaller box room for storage or maybe a tiny study, a huge kitchen with a breakfast bar, and a sizable living room. The windows were all large which gave the place an airy and bright feel. It was unfurnished but I was happy with the decor, it looked to have been recently done and was quite minimalist, lots of white, cream and black. The floors were mostly laminate, apart from the bedrooms which had cream carpets, and the bathroom which had black tiles.

We wandered back to where Richard and the landlord were still discussing things, and when Richard met my glance I gave him a nod of approval. Things moved faster from there, and they seemed to have reached some sort of agreement, since they shook hands and the landlord looked pleased. He walked us out of the building, and waved us off as we drove away.

"Nice guy." Richard commented. "So you liked it?"

"Yeah, it's awesome." I grinned. "What were you so deep in conversation about?"

"Just finding out the details. Can we redecorate, can we have pets," at this, Emily's face brightened,

"when can we move in, those sorts of things."

"And...?" I pressed.

"We're free to redecorate as long as we paint it back to neutral when we leave. Pets, as long as we repair or replace anything they damage, are fine. And it's available immediately, though I thought we could maybe take some time and move in when I'm free, do it together." He reached across to take my hand. He really was very sweet, I couldn't believe that people could have taken advantage of him in the past.

"Sounds like a plan!" I said, at the same time as Emily burst out, "Can I help you choose a pet?!" We all laughed.

"A pet will have to wait until one of us has the time to spend with one." I rationalised. "It wouldn't be fair to adopt a cat or a dog then leave it by itself for minimum eight hours a day while I'm at work."

"Hmm, I suppose." She nodded.

We spent the rest of the drive home listening to Emily's recounting of her latest visit to Jay. In the week she had spent there, she had drank more than she had in the past year, but had also had as much fun. She had met Jay's daughter, Abigail, and was completely in love with the five year old. They had taken her to Cardiff zoo one day, and I had to admit she really was quite adorable, as close to a mini-Jay as a little girl could be.

When we arrived back at the house, the first thing we noticed was that our parents had returned, as their car was parked in the driveway. We went in, and immediately went through to the living room so that Richard could introduce himself. They were sitting in silence with no TV or magazines so I could only assume that they had been waiting. Their first meeting went well, and afterwards my mum remarked that he was nothing like what they had expected, which I could only take as a positive, since they had seen most Rammstein videos and a few pictures in the past. Emily and I exchanged a pleased look, they had now approved of both of our boyfriends - we had been a little surprised that they had taken to Jay so quickly given his tattoos and piercings, but they loved his easy charm and constant cheeriness.

Richard suggested we went out for dinner, since by this point it was nearly 7pm. We all agreed and walked into town to a restaurant the whole family loved, and since no one was designated driver we could all have some wine.

The meal went well, Richard was charming and polite, and complimentary of the food which pleased my mum greatly as it was her favourite place to eat. We told them about the apartment we were going to rent, and though they looked slightly taken aback that we were "moving in together" so soon, they were also pleased that I was going to be getting out of their hair again. They even joked that maybe Emily could think about looking for a place in Wales so that they could sell the house and move abroad. We all laughed appropriately at this but knew that there was more than a slight chance of that happening, considering that she hated being so far away from her boyfriend. Richard paid for the meal after a token resistance from my parents, and we walked home to share another couple of drinks at the house, after my dad gave Richard the standard "look after my little girl" chat, though without much conviction as he could clearly see that he was looking after me very well already. Richard assured him that he would, and we went off to bed feeling pleased that the first meeting had gone so well.

We were up early again the next morning - without the embarassing alarm clock - and decided to take a trip to Ikea to order furniture for our new flat. We organised for it to be delivered in a fortnight, which gave us plenty of time for Richard to finish off everything he needed to tour wise, and also for me to pack up my belongings from my parents house. We also booked flights for me to visit him in Berlin the following week, I would be arriving on the Friday afternoon in time for the show, and would be able to spend a day or so with him afterwards before flying back on Sunday afternoon, to be back to work on the Monday morning. I found myself really hoping that we would see more of each other while Rammstein were on a break, then mentally slapped myself - as a fan of the band, I would be devastated under any other circumstances if I was told that the band were on hold because of a clingy girlfriend. I shook off the thought, and resolved to fully enjoy all the time I would spend with him, as often or as rare as it might be.

All too soon we were saying goodbye at the departure gate, his fancy BMW back at the rental garage and his cases stowed away on the plane. We stood wrapped around each other, silent, absorbing the last few moments of togetherness. He pulled something out of his pocket and unravelled it, holding it up so that I could see it properly. It was a chunky silver chain, not too long, and in the centre of it was hanging one of his rings, closer inspection told me that it was the Emigrate one that he so often wore. I bent my head forwards and he slipped it around my neck, fastening it gently and patting it into place. "Beautiful." He grinned, putting his hands on my shoulders and rubbing them.

"Thank you!" I smiled up at him, glad that he seemed to know that a heartfelt gift was more important to me than an expensive or over the top one.

"You're very welcome." He said, kissing my nose lightly and pulling me into another long hug. A moment later, the final boarding call was announced, and he sighed, releasing me reluctantly. He put his finger under my chin and raised my face, kissing me softly with his eyes open, looking deep into mine. "I love you. See you soon." He said softly, leaving me momentarily speechless.

"I love you too." I replied finally, a little breathlessly. "See you in a week!" I grinned, recovering myself. He nodded and walked away, the last one to board the plane, the air hostess looking at him with a mixture of impatience and sympathy. I waved until he was out of sight, then sighed and made my way to the train station to go home. That, I thought to myself, was without exaggeration, one of the defining moments of my life.