Sunlight invades the room and brings me back to conscience. I roll around and feel my head heavy, barely registering my surroundings. My body tosses and turns until I decide to cave in and open my eyes. I look at the small nightstand and see a glass of water and a small white pill next to it. The glass has a yellow post-it that says Take this.

I get up slowly, force the pill down my throat with the water. With my eyelids fighting the bright sunshine peeking from the outside world, I stumble to the kitchenette to top up my glass with water. My throat feels parched and my stomach queazy.

I look at my clothes and notice that I still have yesterday's clothes on me, but no shoes. I trudge to the bathroom and decide that a hot shower will help me regain my senses.

The feel of the hot water on my skin was a relief to my mind. Once I get out of the shower, I check my messages on my phone. One text from my mom and a couple of junk emails. Nothing from my so-called boyfriend.

I call my mom and put her on speaker while I get dressed.

"Hey, you," mom answers the phone. "Are you busy?"

"It's been a hectic first week, but I found a place to live. I'm actually here now, moved in yesterday."

My mom squeals in excitement. "Oh, I'm so happy to hear that. You sounded miserable in the hostel."

She could sense I was miserable and even I didn't even tell her about the burglary. It would only freak her out.

"Nat, I need a favour," she says. She always uses a different tone to her voice when she wants to ask something of me she thinks is silly.

I take some jeans from the bag that still lie on the ground with half my clothes inside, and put them. "Shoot" I reply.

"I need you to help me with a press op for the new opening."

I scrunch my nose at the request. I can't write a press op without a computer.

I really need to buy a laptop replacement, but my small bank account, and the large credit pilling on the credit card, makes me dismiss the idea. My phone was fine to use for emails. I can always write my reports in the office after hours or in an Internet cafe, wherever that might be, and my notebook will be fine for my writing for now.

"When do you need this by?" I ask while retrieving a red t-shirt and putting it on.

"Next week," she responds.

That gives me less than one week to get a laptop that won't break the bank. Great...

"Sure." I try to sound as lighthearted as possible. I guess I'll figure something out.

There's a knock at my door that distracts me from my financial troubles.

"Mom, someone's at the door. Give me one minute."

I put the phone down on the bedside table and walk to the door. Once I open, I'm greeted by the sweet smell of coffee and baked goodies held by him and his sapphire eyes.

"Guten morgan," he greets.

"Hey, guten morgan," I gesture him to come in and pick up the phone. "Mom, my friend just arrived, so I'll talk to you later, okay?"

Mom says her goodbyes and I hang up. Daniel sits down and leaves the coffee and brown paper bag on the table for me.

"You brought me breakfast?"

He smiles and crosses his leg. "I remember someone saying she had nothing at home to eat."

I take a sip from the coffee. "You shouldn't have, but thank you, and yesterday I shouldn't have drunk so much. Thank you for getting me home." I glance at the bed and start questioning how I even got there. I look at Daniel and cock my head to the side.

He chuckles in response, guessing my inner thoughts. "You're heavy to carry. It took three of us."

I roll my eyes in response.

He chuckles at my annoyed look. "I carried you home. You passed out on the train. I see you don't recall my about last night," he says in an amused tone.

It was weird hearing him referring to this new apartment as home. And yet familiar and comforting.

My cheeks turn crimson at the overwhelming feelings. "I'm so sorry." I cover my face with my hands. "Oh my god, you must think I'm such an oaf."

"I do not know what an oaf is," he laughs. "But you're definitely not one."

I lower my eyes awkwardly.

"Come on, finish your coffee so we can go grocery shopping and walk around the town."

"You don't have to do this. I'm sure you have better things to do with your weekend than spend it with me."

"I have nothing else better to do. Trust me, I'm boring. I spend weekends playing football or watching football. I'm actually happy you're here. You make my boring life less boresome."

My cheeks turn crimson again with his words. "Okay, but on one condition. I'm making dinner tonight as a thank you."

He takes my phone from my hands. He types in his number and gives himself a missed call. I stare at him, puzzled why he did this.

"Call me once you're ready to go."

I frown, "I'm ready. Two minutes only."

He stares at my head for a fraction of a second before looking back at me. "What about your hair?"

I touch my head and realise I've been standing, having a conversation with Daniel with a towel in my head.

"Call me. I'm in no rush." He walks out with a stupid smile plastered on his face.

The small-town feel can grow on me. After I finish getting ready, we walk side by side through the main square. It's a small town centre, with shops all close to each other, and people seem very familiar with one another. Some people greet Daniel with polite remarks, and some stop and he has casual chit chats with them. We even cross his parents that wave enthusiastically at me.

"I love this small-town feel. Is this why you never moved?" I finally say.

He places his hands inside his trouser pockets, a gesture that is clearly a pattern of behaviour. "I moved for a while to Berlin. I attended Universitat there and lived there until recently. Lukas called me to work in Dusseldorf a year and a half ago, and I decided that if I was going to move back, then I should be in my hometown. Closer to my parents."

"Yeah, I've never been apart from my mom. First time, and it's been hard for both of us."

We arrive at a small grocery store. There is a small stand outside with some fruits and vegetables.

"Obst und Gemüse. Fruit and vegetable. Okay?"

I nod in understanding, repeating mentally the two words.

Once inside, I walk straight to the fruit aisle.

"How many apples you want?" he asks.

I laugh. "I can take my fruit."

"You want to learn, right?"

I sigh, "Five."

"Fünf Äpfel." he instructs.

I take a small plastic bag and place the first apple inside. Daniel stops me and stares at me. His look is fierce.

"Fünf Äpfel," I repeat.

"Was sonst?" he asks. "What else?" He shuffles his feet. "I'm going to talk more German, so you don't rely on me translating every word."

"Yes drill sergeant!" I say and laugh while picking up some oranges and showing it to him while sticking my tongue out at him.

He laughs in response. "Orangen"

"That's an easy one." I say and repeat the word. "I might just eat oranges for the remaining six months."

I take a large pomegranate.

"Granatapfel"

I contort my face in response and Daniel repeats the word slower. "Granatapfel"

I stare at the pomegranate and repeat. "Ein Granatapfel."

"Sehr gut," he responds.

We continue our shopping. I pick something, and he tells me the name in German, and I repeat it. Once we have vegetables and fruit, we walk towards a butcher.

"I won't remember all of this." I say, already forgetting half of the words he has taught me and secretly wishing I was recording him so I could practice. Now, the good ideas come to you Natalie!

"It will come with practice." he responds.

I swear, sometimes it's like he is reading my thoughts.

"Can you recommend some movies or music in German? I think the more I listen to it, the better it is."

"Ja, I can give you some, but how will you watch the movie?"

I realise I don't have a television in the apartment and my laptop is gone.

"Okay, just the music." I point at my phone. "Still got this beauty!"

We enter the butcher and he points at the meat and starts telling me what each is.

"Rindfleisch is beef, Truthahn is turkey, Hähnchen is chicken, und Hase is rabbit."

I take my time selecting the meat but end up selecting a couple of things. I struggle to understand the butcher and Daniel is a great help to translate how I want the meat to be cut.

"Do you like rabbit?" I ask.

He nods in response.

"I'm making a rabbit stew then for dinner."

We proceed to another small shop, this time for dairy products.

"We can watch a German movie tonight after dinner at my place," he unexpectedly says while I take a couple of milk glass bottles from the fridge. I haven't seen one of these since I was a child.

"That's a full day of putting up with me," I joke.

He smiles. "I like the company. Besides, if you are going to make an elaborate dish, you better use my kitchen. Yours is too small, and we can see a movie afterwards."

"Deal," I say excitedly. "But this means we need to get popcorn."

He laughs.

"And ice cream."

"Anything else, Fraulein?" he teases.

I sigh, content, before continuing with my shopping. It's funny how a few days ago I felt so desperate navigating this new world, and in less than twenty-four hours, I feel a glimmer of hope that everything will be okay.