You're definitely right, Dawn Embers .

The thing is that we Germans are raised to "start and finish" things, so that made me lose sight of the "intermediate".

After a good night's sleep – and realizing there are certain days in the month/year important for both MCs – I "restructured" the story so that it "layaways" along this string of "day pearls."

The result was mind boggling to my Inner German.