When Raj's lease came up that August, it was Rosalind who suggested that he give up the apartment. She made it sound practical, which he had to concede, it was. He said he'd think about it; as usual, thinking about it meant discussing it with his friends.

Leonard was incredulous: "Raj, you used to spend all your time complaining about living in a crappy apartment and having no girlfriend. Now you have a nice, smart girlfriend who wants you to move into her beautiful house. How is this even a question?"

Raj pushed, "I don't want to feel like a kept man."

Howard chimed in, "Then pay rent, pay bills, buy groceries."

Raj tried another objection, "But I don't want to lose my independence."

Howard dismissed this with, "What independence? You've been following her like a puppy dog since March. Are you going to suddenly start dating other women?"

Raj considered this. "Well, I could. Couldn't I?"

Even Howard rejected this, with, "Sure, if you're a jerk."

"I'm going to have to side with Wolowitz on this one," Sheldon chimed in. "You owe Rosalind your ability to speak to women at all. To use that to go to other women, abandoning her, would be ungrateful, to say the least."

Leonard tried another angle, "Look, you're already living with her. How big of a change is this really?"

Raj looked around at his friends. "So, you guys think I should do this. You don't think this is all moving too fast?"

Leonard nodded, "Oh, it's fast all right. Too fast, I don't know. Are you happy? Is she happy?"

Raj was pensive: "Some days, I feel like we've been together for years."

Howard cut him off. "That doesn't actually answer the question, Raj. Were my parents happy? What about yours?"

Raj pondered that: "I don't know if my parents are happy. I never really thought about it. I think they love each other, in their own weird way."

Leonard cut in, "That's the bigger question, Raj. You might be happy sometimes, you might be unhappy sometimes. But are you in love?"

That evening, he went back to his apartment to sort things out. He'd spent very little time there in the past few months; he'd gone there to work sometimes, or after a late night with the guys, or for his weekly conversation with his parents. He'd spent a few days there when Rosalind had traveled to New Mexico to visit with her favorite aunt, and he'd felt weird about staying in her house on his own. Giving up the place felt strange, but returning to it felt strange, too, and it seemed to him that this was the choice he was faced with, really; all or nothing.

He quickly fell into his bachelor habits; after he dozed off on the couch in front of the TV, he decided to go to bed. But he couldn't get comfortable. His bed was narrow and cold; Rosalind's bed was larger, with good linens. His room was cramped and dark and smelled of old laundry; Rosalind's second-floor bedroom had a Juliet balcony; she kept the doors open at night, and the room smelled of jasmine and was lit with moonlight; the curtains moved in the night breezes. His air conditioning felt clinical and stale. He sat up, sighing, and pulled on some clothes. When he left his apartment, his thought was that he might sleep better if he could find some jasmine to tuck in his pillow, but as he wandered, he forgot that plan. The quiet, the fresh air, the movement, all soothed him, and he let his thoughts flow. He had no idea how long he'd been walking, or even where he was, when he became aware of a presence beside him. Rosalind matched her pace to his and met his glance, but otherwise said nothing. He noticed that she was wearing his sweater vest. It looked good on her, too.

"Hey," he nodded.

"Hey, yourself."

"You're wearing my vest," Raj pointed out.

"It's cozy. It smells like you." Rosalind smiled to herself. "You couldn't sleep?"

"I couldn't sleep." Raj affirmed. "You?"

Rosalind shook her head.

Raj tried scolding. "You're not supposed to be out alone at night, you know."

Rosalind shrugged. "As it turns out, I'm not alone."

Raj nodded. That was true.

"Still thinking, I take it?" Rosalind asked. Raj nodded again. "Anything I can help with?" Rosalind asked.

Raj shook his head, then switched to nodding. "Yes, actually, you can."

Rosalind stopped and turned to him, all eagerness. "What can I do?"

"You can stop being so damn accommodating, is what. Make some demands, expect something of me."

"What?" Rosalind was confused.

Raj warmed up. "You're always so nice. You make everything easy for me; you never asked me to change in any way."

"Why would I want you to change? I never understood that. If I like you, why would I want you change? And how would my suddenly becoming demanding make you less reluctant to leave your apartment?" Rosalind was confused.

When she put it that way, Raj was confused. "I feel like you're doing everything in this relationship. I don't want to be the…. junior partner."

Rosalind nodded. "OK. I don't think you are, but that's not the point here. Cards on the table?"

"Cards on the table." Raj nodded back.

Rosalind took a deep breath, then forged ahead. "I love you, Raj. I want to be with you. Other than a roof over my head and decent work, that's pretty much all I want in the world right now. But I'll tell you one thing you can do for me: you can tell your parents about us."

It was Raj's turn to stop in his tracks. "Rosalind… You know what my parents are like."

"No, I don't, and they don't know what I'm like." She turned to face him.

"They want me to settle down with an Indian girl. You're not Indian." Raj disagreed with his parents, but he understood their point of view. Still, it sounded pretty stupid when he tried to explain it to Rosalind.

"Priya thinks they can handle it. She thinks they'd take the line that any woman is better than no woman." Rosalind did not back off.

"Priya? How do you know Priya? What…" Raj was befuddled.

"Settle down, Raj. She thought you seemed 'unusually contented' lately – her words – so she e-mailed Leonard. He gave her my e-mail address, and she got in touch. That was a month ago. She's nice." Rosalind explained. "Talk to her, if you don't believe me."

They started walking again. Raj didn't know what to think. He was annoyed with his sister, but she might have a better read on his parents' attitude than he did. He did his best to avoid discussing women when he talked to his parents; it had been a few weeks since he'd even heard a lecture about the virtues of Indian wives. He sighed. "I don't know, Rosalind."

"Well, you'd better make up your mind before you give up your lease." Rosalind was firm.

"You'll break up with me if I don't talk to them?" Raj was surprised.

Rosalind shook her head. "No, Raj. I won't. But I'm worried that you'll break up with me if they do, in fact, disapprove. I don't want you to wind up homeless."

Raj hadn't thought of that. He'd never been in the position to choose between his parents and a girlfriend, and he didn't like it. He looked around. "Where are we, Rosalind?"

She smiled and pointed around the corner. "Your apartment is two blocks that way. I'm walking you back home."

"Home?" the word pointed in so many directions – his apartment, her house, his parents' – he was disoriented.

"Here," Rosalind held out her hand. "Take it. Jasmine. It's my favorite. The scent always makes me feel like I'm home."

They were in front of his apartment now. Raj took the flower and smiled. He pulled her into his arms for a kiss. "I'll, um, come by tomorrow, OK?"

Rosalind nodded, kissed him on the cheek, then turned to walk herself home. He watched her until she reached the corner, then sighed and went into his building.

The next day, he turned up at Rosalind's door with his laptop in his hands. She stood aside to let him in; he went into the living room, connected to the network, and called up his parents on Skype. Rosalind stood across the room, anxious. His parents were instantly alarmed; he rarely called them, and they worried that something had happened. He reassured them, and then they noticed his surroundings.

"Where are you? This isn't your apartment. What's going on, Raj?" The questions poured over each other and Raj barely had a chance to get a word in edgewise.

Finally, Raj burst in on them. "Mami, Papi, I've met a girl." That shut them up, he thought.

After a minute's shock, his parents had more questions: "What is she like? Are you in her house? Does she work at the university? Is she a scientist?"

Raj smiled. At least they hadn't brought up race first. They might have a chance after all. "Her name is Rosalind Wald. She teaches English at the university. This is her – our – house."

His mother reacted, "Wald? That's not an Indian name."

"No, Mami, it's not. She's smart and funny and pretty and I really li – I love her, Mami." Raj remembered what Rosalind had said the night before; he was putting all his cards on the table.

His mother was thinking; his father looked worried. His father spoke up: "Well, can we meet her?"

Raj looked up at Rosalind. He had been focused on his parents; he hadn't seen her wide smile until this moment. He smiled back, pleased. At least one of his audiences liked what he had to say.

Rosalind sat next to him on the couch, and gave a little wave. Raj made formal introductions. "Mami, Papi, this is Dr. Rosalind Wald. Rosalind, these are my parents, Dr. and Mrs. Koothrappali."

Rosalind was polite and composed. He'd seen her in situations like this before; he was always impressed by how she handled herself with new people. His parents surprised him; they were uncommonly polite. They only asked a few impertinent questions about her income and family. Her story about her relationship with her own mother was very persuasive, however, and finally Raj's father said to her, "Well, we're sorry to grill you so much. It's just that Raj hasn't introduced us to a girl in a very long time – well, he never has, now that I think about it - and we worry about him. Our marriage was arranged, you know, and it worries us not to see him settled."

Rosalind defended Raj, "You must be patient with him. My own parents had a long and happy relationship, too, and you don't realize what kind of pressure that creates for the kids. You judge every person you date as a potential mate, and eventually, you reach the point where you won't even go on a second date unless you think you'd be willing to marry the person."

Raj's mother perked up at that. "Are you saying that you'd be willing to marry Raj?"

Rosalind fumbled, "Well, I just meant that children whose parents have long, happy marriages like yours and my parents' sometimes have really high expectations for relationships…"

Raj stopped her. "I think you should answer my mother's question."

Rosalind sighed and turned to him, glancing at the laptop out of the corner of her eye, conscious of her audience. "All right, then. Yes. Ever since the day you came to my office and spoke to me. All right?"

Raj was taken aback: "But we'd only known each other…"

"Two weeks," she affirmed, solemnly.

Raj continued, "And I hadn't even spoken to you yet."

"What would be the point in encouraging you to speak to me if I was only going to dump you later?" She was entirely sincere.

Raj swallowed hard, and glanced at the computer screen; his parents were hanging on every word, and his mother was saying, in a hoarse stage whisper, "Get on your knees, Raj. It's more romantic, like the movies."

Almost automatically, Raj began to kneel, but his father interrupted him, "You need a ring, Rajesh." He nodded, flustered, and stood again. He paused for a second, then dashed from the room, leaving Rosalind with the laptop and his parents.

"Where did he go?" his parents demanded.

"He's … in the back yard," she said, looking out the window, then smoothed out her skirt and smiled nervously. Raj's parents were calling to other people in the house, and the screen filled up with faces. Hasty introductions were made, and Rosalind smiled and nodded at each one. Priya was one of them, and she greeted Rosalind, "Hi. I told you so."

"I believed you. You'll have to gloat to him later. I'm not sure that this is quite what he – or I - had in mind." Rosalind glanced at the people surrounding Priya.

Priya smiled at that, "You're going to have to get used to this kind of thing if you're going to be part of the family."

By the time Raj returned, there were half a dozen people watching. He displayed a flowering vine he'd twisted into a ring. "Jasmine. It's beautiful and fragrant and it reminds me of stars. It blooms at night, and grows in California and in India. And it's a vine. Vines are romantic, right?" He smiled nervously, before adding, "And it… it makes me feel like I'm at home."

Out of the corner of his eye, Raj caught his father's approving nod and his mother's rapt smile. He returned to his previous posture, on one knee, and said, "Rosalind, I love you. Will you – here in front of my entire family – will you marry me?"

Rosalind laughed, "Yes, in front of your entire family, Rajesh Raman Koothrapalli, yes, I will." He put the flower on her finger; she leaned in to kiss him and to whisper threats in his ear. He laughed at her threats and laughed at himself.

His family applauded; as he shut the laptop, his mother called out, "Now go upstairs and make me some grandbabies!"

Raj and Rosalind both blushed and kissed again, and Raj said, "Maybe we should do what my mom said. She's been right so far today."