Almost out the door now; pausing at the welcome mat. He could tell this by the tick of the dead bold sliding away to allow passage through. He could almost hear her breathing in that first breath of morning air.
          Edward leapt out of bed and flew down the hallway towards the front door.
          “Riza!”
          She turned just as his fingers reached her shoulder.
          “Edward…?”
          Not caring that the covers lay in an elongated heap along the rug in the hall, or that any passerby would glimpse his scantily covered body, shivering slightly in the early-morning chill, he smiled as he found her eyes.
          “Have a good day!”
          Her eyebrows rose, and her reply was silence. Lips parting in disbelief, she seemed to want to question him, but, an instant later, she was smiling and shaking her head.
          “Thank you,” she said, and genuinely meant it.
          After granting him a kiss on the forehead, she left him in the front hall.
          Edward smiled after her for a few moments, and then yawned dramatically. The early wake-up call was both unplanned and premature, but he didn’t mind. After all, he thought as he strode back into the bedroom, retrieving the sheets, sometimes you just have to make sacrifices in order to do what’s most important.