This is my new story. If you like the sound of it, then please review so I know whether to continue! Here is chapter one. Throughout the story, italics will represent Gabriella's personal thoughts. Anyway, I hope you like it :)

A Parallel Romance

Boston, USA, October 2010

"Caramel latte to go?" asked twenty-one year old Gabriella Montez as her eyes scanned the crowd of customers for the lady whose order she had ready. She smiled as the customer in question returned to the counter to collect her drink. Gabriella enjoyed her job working in her local coffee shop in Boston, which she had been doing for the past year. The part time hours she worked each week were also helping to put her through law school.

Glancing at the clock, she noticed that there were only five minutes left of her shift. She began to prepare the next customer's order, feeling exhausted and glad to be going home soon. Although Gabriella truly loved the constant flow of customers and the hustle and bustle that was involved in the running of a coffee shop; there were always those days where she longed for the end of the day to come. Not that she had anyone to go home to. She was currently single, and had been for almost a year. Gabriella's first and only boyfriend so far had treated her badly, leaving her wondering if she would be able to trust another man again. His name was Scott, and they had dated for two years in college until he had cheated on her, humiliating her beyond any other shred of hurt she had ever felt before.

Since then, Gabriella had poured every moment of her time into working hard in her studies, and earning the money to pay for them. She had no time for meeting someone new anyway, whether she wanted to or not. The truth was, she did want to. But she knew it was wasn't going to be easy for her. Would she be able to let herself become close to a guy again, when to her, it still seemed a little too soon?

By the time she had served two more customers, it was time for her to go home. Breathing a sigh of relief, Gabriella hung up her apron and said good night to her colleagues, before heading out into the cold night air. She only wished that the evening ahead could be full of relaxation for her. Unfortunately, she was swamped with work to do. Her work-load had been extremely heavy-going since beginning law school earlier that year, and she would be lying if she said that she wasn't feeling the strain.

She finally arrived home after picking up a take-out of Chinese food for dinner on the way. And as predicted, the remainder of the evening consisted of typing, researching, and reading. Gabriella worked long into the night. Which was why, the next morning, she found herself running late for her Saturday shift at work. Late enough to require a mad dash to even attempt to get there on time.

She usually walked to work, as it wasn't far from her apartment. But today her routine leisurely stroll was replaced by a brisk run. Eventually she reached the road on which the coffee shop could be found, and went to cross the street to get to it. She quickly looked to make sure there was no oncoming traffic, then started to make a run for it.

But Gabriella didn't notice a car turning hastily into the road. The driver was going far too fast to realise that there was a pedestrian ahead of him. By the time she turned her head to the left, there was simply no time for her to move. Before she even knew what was happening, the car plunged into her, and she felt herself free-falling into the air. She did not, however, feel the force as her body hit the ground, or hear the screams of horrified onlookers.

.HSM.

Ground. Cold, wet ground was all that Gabriella could feel as she tried to move. She remembered the car, the brief sensations of pain in her hip as it had hit her; and she remembered falling through the air. But she had no sense of time or any idea how long it had been since. As she managed to move one arm towards the rest of her body, she realised that she couldn't feel any pain whatsoever. Maybe I'm in the hospital, she thought. I must be on a heavy dose of pain medication or something.

"Hey, are you okay there?" a male voice called out, and Gabriella slowly opened her eyes, blinking in the daylight. Taking in her surroundings, she saw that she wasn't in the hospital, but still in the street. Only, this was a street she didn't recognise. She barely had a second to process this fact, however, as the man to whom the voice belonged seemed to be steadily approaching her. And all of a sudden she was looking up into a pair of bright blue eyes, as he bent down to look at her.

"I...I was in a car accident..." Gabriella began as she managed to sit up. It was then that she noticed that there didn't appear to be scratch on her. "At least, I thought I was," she added as the man gave her a look of confusion – obviously thinking that she must have imagined any such accident. Maybe I was having some kind of nightmare daydream? "I guess I'm fine. Thank you for stopping to help me," she told the man, slowly getting to her feet. He smiled and nodded in return, but made no effort to walk away. Something inside her made her smile back at him warmly, and she felt compelled to introduce herself. "I'm Gabriella, by the way." His grin seemed to widen and he held out his hand for her to shake, which she took immediately. "Troy," he replied.

After a moment, Gabriella shook herself out of her daze. "Well, it was nice meeting you. I'd better go, I'm supposed to be at work right now," she said, wondering how late she was. But she froze when she remembered that she didn't know what street she was on. In fact, everywhere she turned she saw unfamiliar houses and shops. "Where...where am I?" she asked, trying not to panic. Troy told her the name of the street they were standing on, and this left her even more confused. Apparently, they were definitely on the same road as her workplace. So why didn't she recognise anything around her?

"I don't understand...I work at a coffee shop round here," she told him anxiously, giving him the name. Troy shook his head apologetically. "There are quite a few coffee places around here, but I've never heard of that one, I'm afraid," he replied. What's going on? she thought frantically. Suddenly, another thought occurred to her. "What's the date?" she asked patiently. "October 15th," Troy answered.

Well, the date makes sense. Maybe I'm not going completely crazy. "Two-thousand and five," was what she heard next. Wait a minute...Two-thousand and what? The last I knew, it was most definitely two-thousand and ten. Okay, I take it back. I am going completely crazy...

Thank you for reading :)

Please Review and let me know what you think so far!