Title: Falling into Place

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Elizabeth McGuire leases out an apartment in New York, only to have the owner David Gordon return sooner than expected. Will he turn out to be the roomie from hell?L/G

Dedicated to my wonderful 'ghost writers'! You know who you are. Much love xx

AN: I thank every one for reviewing my first story, 'If it Wasn't For You' . The reviews were very much appreciated! For the people who wanted more stuff from me, here it is… hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1- The Move

"Now Elizabeth, I think this is the place for you!" Astrid exclaimed cheerfully as she inserted the key into the keyhole and hastily turned the lock.

Elizabeth noted that this was the 7th time she'd heard that comment today, seeing as this was the 7th apartment she had seen all day. She was beyond tired now, and she was willing to just take any apartment that she saw. Unless…

… Unless she didn't like it. Which was the case for the last six places she had been to.

She was hoping that this place would be perfect so she could just go back to her hotel and indulge herself in a much deserved spa bath. Sure enough, as soon as she stepped into the place, she knew that she would be pampering herself in no time.

She knew she would have been pampering herself right now, if it weren't the cab driver's first day on the job. If he actually knew his way around Manhattan, he wouldn't have taken the wrong turn at the last street and Astrid wouldn't have wandered around the streets observing all the other apartments.

And if Astrid hadn't found the apartment with the 'For Lease' sign out the front, she wouldn't have called the agent and asked if they could inspect, and if all of that hadn't happened, Elizabeth wouldn't be here in the first place.

"Wow, Elizabeth. Look at this. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms and oh, just look at this living room."

Even though she was beyond tired, Elizabeth was actually surprised at how different this place was compared to the others she had seen that day.

She paced around the room searching for any hidden faults that weren't easily seen and recited her observations slowly, "No loose floorboards, no visible cockroach or mouse droppings, no deadly stenches…"

Astrid gleefully smiled at Elizabeth, deciding that she might finally be coming around.

Elizabeth didn't really care if it wasn't flashy; she was satisfied with the gloriously humble feel to it. It was just the thing she was used to, back home in Hillridge. But there was something else. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but there was something even more appealing about the apartment, which was telling her to lease the place in an instant.

She whirled around after taking another good look at the living room. "Astrid, I'll take it." She said firmly. As if it was possible, Astrid's smile stretched even wider.

"Well that's great, Elizabeth, if you're certain. Are you sure you don't want to take a peek at the other rooms first?"

Elizabeth smiled sheepishly. She had completely forgotten about the other rooms, due to the overwhelming feeling inside her that was telling her to stay.

"Yeah of course," she agreed, following Astrid into the bedrooms.

Each room seemed superbly modest and cozy to Elizabeth, which was exactly what she was after. After just only seeing the two bedrooms, she told Astrid she needn't see another room, but Elizabeth found there was no arguing with Astrid.

After inspecting all the rooms, Elizabeth had agreed to lease the place, much to the delight of Astrid, who was overjoyed that she had served another 'happy customer'.

"So I talked to the owner of the building, and he said he's willing to have you stay six months, apartment fully furnished, as long as no other alterations are made." Astrid explained to Elizabeth.

"Sure" agreed Elizabeth.

"I'm so happy for you Elizabeth. It's been such a long day, and I know how tired you are." Astrid mused.

Elizabeth nodded wearily. All she wanted to do was go back to her hotel and relax.

"Y'know what Astrid, I'll give you a call when I get back to the hotel. I'm exhausted."

Astrid nodded knowingly and took a hold of her client's hand.

"It was a pleasure helping you, Elizabeth. I know you'll just adore your time spent here."

Elizabeth forced a smile. She sincerely hoped Astrid would be right.

----------

The process of moving Elizabeth in to her new apartment was surprisingly quick. The owner, as it had seemed, was adamant about leasing out his apartment as soon as possible, which wasn't a problem for Elizabeth, who was just as keen to get out of that synthetic hotel.

It was about 5pm on a Thursday afternoon, the day that Elizabeth moved into her apartment. Unfortunately, she hadn't gotten round to unpacking and hadn't managed to get herself settled in yet. Work at an unexceptionally early hour hadn't allowed her to do so.

So when she opened the door on her return home, she wasn't surprised to find that she could barely move an inch. She had taken a lot of her belongings with her, and the furniture movers had simply dumped all the furniture wherever they pleased.

She grumbled to herself and blamed the reason for their actions on their 'big city' attitudes. She seriously didn't know why she had decided to stay in New York in the first place. Ever since she first arrived she'd hated it, and nothing seemed to have changed her mind so far.

Frustrated and tired after a hard days work, Elizabeth didn't bother to unpack right away. She figured she would have plenty of other opportunities to do that. Right now, she just felt like staying in and ordering a pizza.

As soon as she changed out of her work clothes she dialed the nearby pizza shop and was about to settle in front of the television when the buzzer sounded.

"Boy that was quick." She muttered, thinking it was the pizza already being delivered to her door.

She quickly took some money out of her purse, ready to pay the delivery person and opened the door. She expected to see a pimply pizza boy dressed in an obscurely bright work uniform.

Instead, she was faced with a frazzled looking brunette dressed in simple jeans and t-shirt. As soon as the brunette saw Lizzie, she smiled wearily.

"Hi, you must be the person who's renting out David's apartment." The brunette began "I live just down the hall. My little sister is staying in my apartment at the moment, and being the little rascal she is, she locked me out."

"Oh" Miranda said, playfully smacking herself on her head, realizing she still hadn't introduced herself. She stuck out her hand. "I'm Miranda Sanchez."

"Elizabeth McGuire" Elizabeth answered, shaking Miranda's hand

"David has the spare key to my room, it's just under this mat here." Miranda pointed down at the mat Elizabeth was standing on.

Elizabeth smiled and moved out of the way so that Miranda could retrieve the key. Having been sufficiently lonely in the last few days, and not really having any friends down in New York, Elizabeth took this opportunity to get to know her neighbor.

"Would you like to come in?" Elizabeth offered.

"If you don't mind." She answered, seemingly glad to have been asked such a question.

"Not at all." Elizabeth stood out of the way to let her new friend in.

"Thanks, Elizabeth." Miranda said with a smile, walking into the apartment.

Miranda looked around the room in awe. "Wow, this is some place David's got here. It's almost twice the size of my apartment." She exclaimed.

Elizabeth smiled, loving the personality Miranda seemed to possess. She reminded Elizabeth of her brother, Matt.

Miranda whirled around and smiled at Elizabeth. "How long have you been here?" she asked.

"I only just moved in this morning."

Miranda looked around at the closed boxes. "I can tell," she muttered. "But I meant how long have you been in New York?"

"A month. How do you know I'm not from New York?"

"You don't seem like a typical New Yorker," Miranda explained. "Not many would let strangers into their apartments."

"So where are you from?" Elizabeth asked, taking note of Miranda's apparent accent.

Miranda sat down on the couch, which was the only space that wasn't occupied with junk. "Mexico. That should explain the accent." She answered.

"How long did you live there?"

Miranda shrugged. "Until I was twenty. Then I came to live here. My parents sent my twelve-year-old sister to stay with me for the summer, just in case she wants to come here too." Miranda shuddered at the thought.

"So how well do you know this David?" Elizabeth asked. Since she moved in here, Elizabeth had wondered what type of person he was, and judging by the lack of furniture and vibrancy to the place, she concluded that he seemed to be the type of guy who kept to himself.

"To be honest, I hardly know him." Miranda responded. "We only talked once when we decided to keep our spare keys in each others room."

Miranda seemed to think carefully about her answer. "But come to think of it, he seems to keep to him self a lot. And he's quite popular with the ladies, if you know what I mean."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "One of those guys, right?"

Miranda nodded and giggled. "Men. What would they do without us, right?"

Elizabeth didn't really laugh at that joke. Although it was funny, it kind of stabbed her inside.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the buzzer. Knowing for sure that this time it was the delivery boy, she retrieved her money once again.

"Hey, would you like to stay for pizza?" She asked.

"As long as its got lots of cheese, I'm in." Miranda answered enthusiastically.

And somehow now, New York didn't seem all that bad to Elizabeth.

AN: Am I the only one thinking that was probably the worst chapter ever written? Lets face it….the first few chapters are really hard to write and I had writers block for a while for this one. I know you guys may get confused about the Elizabeth/Lizzie situation and before you complain, I'm not 2 fond of the whole Elizabeth thing either but don't worry… she won't be "Elizabeth" for long… you'll see…

-popkornchicken