* Please review even though this story is finished! I am redoing this story. You should see the movie, A Crime with Norman Reedus in it!*

Vincent lightly jogged up the stairs to his apartment with Vicky at his side. She had just came in third place in her weekly race. It was cold so he just wanted to get into his place and warm up fast. He reached the top of the stairs and turned around to go to his place. He stopped walking right away. His door was blocked by a girl he had never seen. She was holding onto the end of a couch. She was looking into the apartment that shared a wall with his kitchen. Vincent had known someone was moving in but he hadn't realized moving day was that day.

' New neighbor's a girl. That's nice.' He thought.

" Nick! I can't hold this up forever! Pull it!" She called into the apartment.

" I'm trying!" A male voice called out.

" You are almost completely useless as a man! You should turn in your man card!" She snapped playful. Vincent cleared his throat and came forward.

" Hey, can I help you with that?" He asked, making the girl jump and look at him. She smiled and laughed slightly.

" That would be great. Thank you so much!" She said as she moved over to give him room. He looked down at Vicky. He quickly looped her lease around his belt loop. He tied it then moved beside her. He looked into her apartment and saw a blond guy at the other end of the couch.

" You ready, man?" He asked.

" Yeah." The guy said.

Vincent nodded and together, the three of them started moving the couch. They moved the couch over to the big window on the other side of the room and set it down gently. Her apartment looked just like his. Her living room was also the kitchen and dining room. If he had to guess, he'd say the two doors off to his left where her bedroom and bathroom. The wall on his right shared his kitchen.

" Thank you so much!" She explained as they straighten up. He smiled and unfastened Vicky's lease.

" No problem." He said. He took a quickly, deep breath and stuck out his hand to her. " My name's Vincent. I'm one of your neighbors." She smiled and shook his hand.

" Gabriella Collins." She said.

" My apartment actually shares this wall with you." Vincent said as they dropped hands. ' Fucking stupid thing to say. Real fucking smooth.' He cursed himself. He shouldn't be too hard on himself. He hadn't been with anyone since his wife was killed 3 years beforehand and he had been with her for 6 years.

" Oh, wow. Well that's cool." She said as she slipped her hands into her back pockets. " This is my friend, Nick." She motioned with her arm. Nick smiled and brought his hand out. The two guys shook hands and exchanged very male, ' how ya doing' greetings.

" Do you need help moving anything else? I could put my dog up and help you." He offered. She smiled and her green eyes sparkled.

" Well, it's mostly just boxes and a few chairs." Gabriella said.

" I'll just put Vicky in my apartment and I'll help you." Vincent said.

" Wow, okay, yeah. That would be great." She said.

" Alright, just give me two minutes." Vincent said. He turned and went out of her apartment. His door was directly to his left. He dug out his keys and quickly unlocked his door. He took off Vicky's lease then pushed her into the apartment. He shut and locked the door then faced them. " So where are you parked?"

It only took them an hour to finish bring up the rest of her stuff. Gabriella started up her coffee pot and offered to buy Vincent dinner. He declined but she insisted so he finally agreed. She ordered them some Chinese food and they sat around her table, talking. He found out Gabriella had moved to New York from Ohio and that she was going to be living alone. When he asked if Gabriella and Nick were dating they both got disgusted looks on their faces, making Vincent smile.

" I'm not his type." Gabriella said.

' How can she not be some one's type?' He thought. She was the first girl in a long time that spiked his attention. She was pretty and her smile was contagious.

" What type is that?" Vincent asked. Nick grinned.

" She doesn't the right equipment." He said with a wink to Vincent, tipping him off that Nick was gay. Vincent nodded his head and cleared his throat.

" Okay, I get it now." He said. Gabriella and Nick both smile and laughed.

After a while the food arrive and, after she paid for it, they sat around her table and ate together. She drank coffee while the boys had some beers she had bought earlier in the day. When they were done eating, she thanked him again for helping and he thanked her for the dinner then took his leave to his own place.

XXXXXX

It was around one in the morning when Vincent's phone went off. He jumped awake and stared into Vicky's brown eyes. At first he wasn't sure what woke him up until the phone went off again. He threw his blankets off and slipped out of bed. He crossed the short distance of his room to his kitchen/dining/living room and grabbed the phone as he ran his hand over his face.

" Hello?" His voice was low and rough from sleep.

" Is this Vincent Harris?" A voice asked.

" Yeah, who's this?" He asked.

" My name is Officer Grimes. Your girlfriend, Alice Jones, was in an accident . She's okay but she was drunk so we are holding her. Would you like to talk to her?" Officer Grimes asked. Vincent sighed and put one arm on the cabinet in front of him and rested his head on that arm.

" Yeah, I guess so." Vincent said as he closed his eyes. Alice was not his girlfriend and he was getting tired of bailing her out of her troubles. There was a few moments of silence before Alice's voice came over the phone.

" I didn't say I was your girlfriend." She said.

" So you're drunk." Vincent said.

" I drove my car into a perfume store and the perfume made me drunk." Alice said. He started shaking his head.

" You know, I can't keep doing this. I can't keep bailing you out of shit." He said.

" Just one more time." She said. He sighed again.

" I will be there in morning." He said.

" Vincent..." She started.

" No, Alice. It's one in the morning and I'm tired. I will be there first thing in the morning. It will give you time to sober up. Good night." Vincent said as he hung up his phone before she could complain.

He pushed away from the counter and went back into his bedroom. Vicky looked up at him and sighed. He smiled and crawled back under his blankets. He closed his eyes and reached out scratch his dog's side. After a few minutes, Vincent sighed and sat up again. He went out of his room and to the cabinet again. He opened it up and took out a small bottle of pills. After his wife had been killed he had a hard time sleeping so his doctor had given him some pills. Vincent popped one of the pills in his mouth and picked up the glass of water he had always sitting on the counter. He washed it down then went back to bed. He crawled in next to his dog and waited for the pill to take effect.

Gabriella crept back into his mind. When he had found out the empty apartment had been rented, he wasn't happy. He liked that he was alone in the corner of the building plus he was worried about who the neighbor would be. But Gabriella seemed nice enough and it didn't hurt that she was so pretty. Vincent laughed to him in the darkness. Yeah, she was pretty alright and he found himself looking forward to seeing her the next day.