The Crucible had finished its run and to say that Richard was exhausted would have to be quite the understatement, but because your place was closer to the theatre, during its run he would be staying with you while you made the necessary trips to his house to check that it was still on its foundations and to collect his mail, getting to know his neighbours at the same time, all of who you had found to be extremely nice, particularly the older Italian couple a few houses up from him, connecting with them through the fact you were half Italian.
You had been able to put it off for long enough so that you were able to get to know each other a little better but now the time had come for you to meet each other's parents, but rather than be going through the process twice at each house, you and Richard had decided to take them to the Ledbury, which had been one of your mother's favourites during the time in which your father had been courting her, and while you denied it, she suspected an attempt at getting her favour when it came to her finally meeting Richard.
While you chose a simple ankle length blue dress that covered you from the collarbone to the ankles, excepting for the fact that it was actually a sleeveless one, Richard on the other hand had chosen to wear a suit with which he had become synonymous on the red carpet at many of if not all of his film premieres, but that didn't make him look any less handsome, if anything it made you feel as though you were tempted to cancel that night's dinner and spend your first night with him in the three months since you first got together.
You knew it to be a rare find but the truth is that Richard was simply that hard to find kind of man, he was the kind of man who waited until you were ready to be taking the next step and he had never once put any kind of pressure on you, which was a world removed from the last man you were with, and that was back in your first two years of nursing school, from which you immediately gained steady employment at Great Ormond Street Hospital, one of the most renowned hospitals for children in the northern hemisphere.
The night arrived and you and Richard walked into the restaurant a little anxious, seeing the two sets of parents already seated and talking amongst themselves at a level that was as difficult to hear as anything from that distance, but as soon as they saw the two of you, your dad in particular seeing Richard's hand on your back, their faces lit up and Richard's dad just couldn't resist making a simple joke about how the four of them had managed to make it to the restaurant before you and Richard, earning a point look from both of your mothers.
"So Richard tell us what it is that you're doing with your life" your father had started the topics of conversation with the most obvious thing available: what Richard did and though you really couldn't be sure, you thought you saw his normally bright blue eyes go a shade or two darker when Richard said that he was an actor, one who was as dedicated to his work as what he was to maintaining some semblance of a private life, adding that he wanted to do his best to keep you out of teh public eye as long as he could.
A lot of the time during the course of the meeting out the corner of your right eye you could see your father looking Richard up and down, as if evaluating him to see if he was going to be a good enough choice for his youngest daughter, seeing as how your sister Gabi had just gotten engaged to an army Major, which meant she would be travelling around to each of the places her future husband was stationed at, and that didn't look like it was going to alter even if there were children one day added to the equation.
By the end of the night, it was clear that Richard had won over your father, who in his time was a high ranking officer with the Ministry of Defence, which meant that he quite literally was unable to say what he had done at work that day whenever he came home, and while it was a relief to you, it was a great deal more relieving for Richard, who made a joke in his car on the way home how 'at nearly 43, you would think I was getting too old to care about the opinion of my girlfriend's father'.
As he always did, Richard walked you from the car to the front door of your house to ensure a safe arrival there, instinctively knowing he'd never hear the end of it from your father after the positive impression he had left, or your brother for that matter if something were to ever happen to you. "Goodnight Y/N" he whispered in his deep voice as he pushed windswept strands of your hair out of your face, leaning in for a gentle kiss before you could respond to his little statement, finally getting the chance to reply when he slowly pulled away.
Closing the door behind you as you heard Richard's car pull away from the front gate, all you could think about was finally taking that next step with him, but all you had to do was get him to see that it was what you wanted as much as him. "He's really a rare find" was the way your mother had evaluated him when she 'joined you' in the ladies room about half of the way through dinner, and you had to agree even if that wasn't something you did all that often with your mom, however much you loved her.
