Disclaimer: I do not own GMW or it's characters.

It had been a long time since Joshua Mathews had stepped foot in New York City, almost four years to be exact. After finishing high school, he was given the chance of a lifetime in the form of a full ride soccer scholarship to UCLA. Unfortunately, that meant rarely being home. Of course he came home for summer and Christmas break, but between training camps and study time he rarely got to spend more than a few weeks a year in Philly, let alone get up to New York. He missed family friend Shawn's wedding three years ago because he had a home game and he hadn't been able to make his niece Riley's High school graduation because he was in Seattle for the conference final. Missing family milestones was something he had never gotten used to so when it was time to apply for grad school, he knew it was time to go back to the east coast. He spent the summer at home with his parents and during the last week of august he made the move into the city where he would be living with an old friend from high school and working for a small firm while getting his master's. He planned to have a relaxing night after moving all his things into his apartment because his brother was planning a welcome dinner for him the next day, but his roommate Andrew had different plans. When he had unloaded his last box and seen his friend's troublesome smirk, he knew he was in for a long night. And so, before he knew it, his apartment was full of young adults dancing and drinking. He recognized some people as friends of Drew's from home but he seriously doubted he knew half of the people there. Hell, he doubted Drew knew half of them. Josh had decided it would be best to stick to the people he knew which was why he was speaking to Hannah, a friend's little sister who was about to begin her sophomore year at Parsons.

"We didn't think you'd ever come back from Cali" she laughed

"Well, there's a lot to like in California, nice people, good weather, beaches…" he went on.

"So, why'd you decide to come back?"

"I missed home, I guess. I already missed my niece's high school graduation I want to be here when she graduates college"

"Does she go to school in the city?"

"No, she's a sophomore at Princeton"

"Wow, fancy"

"Yeah, she definitely got the brains in the family"

"Oh Maya!" she smiled and waved at a girl across the room "Over here"

He felt some kind of strange déjà vu as the young blonde approached but he guessed that probably had more to do with the now empty bottles of beer around him than the actual girl that was walking towards them.

"This is my roommate, Maya"

"This is Josh, he just moved back here to get his MS"

"Nice to meet you"

"You too" He tried to keep his cool but there was no denying how attractive she was. "So, you go to Parson's, right? What's your major?"

"Illustration, but I'm thinking about going into teaching or maybe art therapy"

"That sounds really cool"

"You?"

"I'm at NYU, Civil and urban Engineering"

"Wow, sorry but sounds really boring" she chuckled

"Are you trying to tell me that young smart beautiful girl such as yourself isn't interested in the mechanics of bridges?" he feigned shock.

"Beautiful huh?" she smirked.

"I think that's my cue to go get something to drink" Hannah laughed as she left.

"So, are you from around here?"

"Born and bred, you?"

"Philly"

Cheesy as it may sound, it really did happen just like in the movies. They spent the whole night moving between the dance floor, the beer pong table and the couch, where they could have more intimate conversations. They talked about everything from the Mets and Phillies to plans for the future. Maya, it turns out, wanted to go into education because she had been inspired by a great teacher who always believed in her. Josh told her about his plans to eventually work for the city. Before either of them realized it, it was well after midnight and the crowd had started to thin until eventually disappearing. He'd love to say that he made some incredibly suave suggestion but in reality, it was Maya who made the first move, not that it took him long to respond. Soon enough he had her pressed against his bedroom door as she fiercely kissed his neck and made quick work of his jeans.

His pillows still smelled of apples, that was the first thought he had upon waking up the next morning; he had a sneaking suspicion that was the key ingredient in Maya's shampoo or perfume. It was followed by the gut sinking realization that she was no longer in his bed. The disappointment, however, was short lived because as soon as he got out of bed, he saw elven digits written on his mirror in a very familiar shade of pink lipstick with the simple message "call me" scrawled underneath.

The rest of his day was pretty uneventful. He tried to keep his mind off the beautiful girl he had spent the night with for fear he wouldn't be able to resist calling her right away. He didn't want to seem too eager and scare her off after all. No, he would wait a respectable amount of time and text her later. He needed to distract himself so he unpacked the last of the boxes in his closet, made some progress in his reading and went about making his way over to his brother's home for dinner.

"My brotha" he was greeted at the door.

"You saw me on the 4th of July Cory" he replied accepting his brothers hug anyway.

"Holy crap!" said another voice from further in the house. "I guess I can't call you mini-Mathews anymore"

"Shawn" he ran to hug the other man enthusiastically.

"It's been way too long kid"

"Yeah, well it takes four years to graduate"

"Is my peaches here?"

"Hello to you too Riley" he greeted his niece who was making her way towards the kitchen.

"Yeah, yeah, is my peaches here? I haven't seen her in almost a month, stupid summer camp"

"She's on the subway" Shawn supplied.

"Explain to me how you ended up becoming her best friend's stepfather again?"

"It's a long story"

"So, what have you been up to little brother?"

"Not much, Andrew had some friends over last night. You know, so I could meet some new people"

"Was one of these new friends a girl by any chance?" Riley asked smiling.

"What makes you ask that?"

"The stupid smile on your face"

"Oh Joshie has a girlfriend" Cory teased

"How old are you?" Shawn rolled his eyes "Seriously kid, who's the girl?"

"It's no one" he insisted "ok there was a girl, she was cool, end of story" he conceited after seeing their clearly unconvinced faces.

"Is that really the end of the story?"

"I don't kiss and tell"

"Ew this is gross" said Riley "I'm out"

"Yeah, me too" her father followed suit.

"Have you called her?"

"I'm playing it cool"

"Well, it's none of my business but you seem to really like this girl"

"Why's that?"

"Because you can't stop smiling" the older man smirked "my advice would be to call her soon. Don't let something good slip away because you're too busy playing games"

"Is this what you do now? Now that you're a dad I mean. Do you just hand out advice to everyone?"

"Pretty much"

"Well, I might just take it" and with that he excused himself to hall to call the girl that had been running around in his head all day. Of course as luck would have it, it went straight to voicemail so he decided to leave a message. Hey, if he was going to be a boomer and call instead texting, he might as well go all in. "Hey Maya, it's josh; from last night. I had a great time yesterday. If you want to hang out again, call me". The pre-dinner affair was pretty uneventful, Topanga arrived from work with stories of useless partners, gossiping paralegals and sweet secretaries. Auggie came barrelling through the door to tell him all about his crazy best friend and their antics and Riley told him all about her life in New Jersey. That was until the intercom buzzed and she ran excitedly to answer.

"Peaches?" she asked

"Hey honey"

"Yaaaaaaay"

Josh barely made out a blur of blonde curls before Riley had tackled the poor girl to the ground with cries of "I've missed you so much" and "a month is way too long".

"Hey kiddo how come you're not answering my texts?" he barely heard Shawn ask

"My phone died" she replied but Josh wasn't paying much attention. In fact, he didn't even feel the glass of water he was holding slip out of his hand. No, he was much too focused; focused on a pair of horrifyingly familiar blue eyes.

"Holy shit"

A/N: It's been a long time since I've written a multi chapter but I thought this would be an interesting idea to explore. Anyway, as usual please leave a review and let me know what you thought or where you'd like to see this go.