I was just a girl, twenty five years old, fresh out of university, with no real idea what I was going to do with the rest of my life; looking for somewhere to live on the cheap whilst I decided on a course for the rest of my existence. He was an alien, a Time lord, looking for somewhere to lie low whilst he was stuck on this planet because his mode of transport, his Tardis had broken down.

Of course I didn't know any of this stuff when I first met him.

Us meeting each other and getting a place together happened in the usual way. A friend of a friend knew someone who also needed a housemate and a place on the cheap.

I arrived late, a hot mess, and he was already there pacing back and forth. He was tall, at least six foot, and he had this mess of brown hair on top of his head that seemed to defy gravity. He had a really impressive set of sideburns. He was dressed in a slimming brown pinstripe suit with a long billowing brown coat that he was currently throwing casually over the back of a couch, as if he had already claimed the apartment as his own space.

As I entered the living room and the landlady started telling me stuff about the place, the stranger spun around on his toes and I noticed, in either awe or shock (who knows which) that he was wearing white converse shoes with his expensive looking suit.

"Well, hello there fellow roomie." He held out his hand as his bright deep brown eyes met mine. From appearances only, he seemed to be in his early thirties, but his eyes seemed older than that. He flashed a smile and gave a slight cock of his head which showed off his impressive jawline and sharp, high cheekbones. "It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm John. John Smith." He held out his hand as he spoke.

I met his hand with mine. "Um, nice to meet you, but I've only just got here, not too sure if I'm ready to commit just yet. I want to have a look around first."

The landlady watched this exchange with evident confusion displayed on her features. She didn't even bother to try and hide it.

His facial expression changed to disbelief for a spilt second; widened eyes, mouth dropped open a little bit and then he composed himself remarkably quickly. "Of course," he was saying as if this was completely obvious. "Of course, continue on, browse, view, observe." He gestured with his hands. "All the crucial stuff is here; kitchen for making tea, gotta have tea, the living room, for well, living and bedrooms with beds for sleeping." He cracked another bright smile.

"R-Right." The landlady gestured with her hand, "if you'd like to come this way Miss Gwilt-Grenden."

The strange man whistled as he leaned against the back of the couch, lanky legs crossed at the ankles and arms folded across his chest. "What a last name you've got there."

I stared blankly at him, not entirely sure how to respond to such obvious rudeness.

He gestured to the living room. "Go on, Miss Gwilt-Grenden, go and view the property."

I deigned not to respond to his last remark, kind of annoyed that he now knew what my last name was, despite how I avoided telling my name after he gave me his. He was acting as if he knew it got to me too, which was really bugging me.

I was shown into the living room where there was a lovely silver, black and white colour scheme going on. There was a lovely black leather sofa with a silver plush throw covering it, a fireplace with a flat screen TV above the mantel, some beautiful dark oak bookcases and a matching table with gorgeous black wallpaper with silver flowers sprawling across it with white and black leaves.

The kitchen, which I was shown next, was quite spacious and well stocked with a decent fridge, a tumble dryer and a washing machine, but there was no dishwasher though. It came complete with every cooking implement under the sun, which more than made up for the lack of a dishwasher.

There was a very small toilet on the bottom floor. Everywhere I walked was laminate flooring and I enjoyed listening to my heels clicking lightly against the floor as I went.

Next, I was shown upstairs. "Up here," the landlady was saying, "are two good sized bedrooms and a decent sized bathroom." I was shown the bathroom first, the colour scheme this time was soft shades of silver and cream, and there was a beautiful claw footed bathtub with a shower that looked very recently fitted. One of the new, high powered ones. My hand subconsciously went to my long wavy dark brown almost black hair as I thought about how nice it would be to wash my hair under such a lovely, powerful shower head.

In my daydreaming, I didn't realise that the landlady had moved along the corridor and left me in the doorway of the bathroom, I also didn't realise that Mr Lanky had decided to bless us with his presence on the second floor.

The landlady turned to face us both. "As Mr Smith knows, there are two decent sized rooms. You'll have to decide between the two of you which room you want, if you were both to sign on, that is." The landlady added on the end, mostly for my benefit it seemed, as I was the only one here who was clearly reluctant, Mr Lanky here was clearly pretty decided already.

The first bedroom had laminate flooring, several shades darker than the rest of the house and a large beige rug on the floor. The walls were a matching beige and all of the furnishing was a dark, beautiful wood with gold handles on the drawers. There was a desk with a computer office chair in front with a beautiful dark wood mirror set up on the wall above the desk. My eyes lit up at the amount of draws on the desk. There was a lovely side cabinet with an antique lamp, a couple of framed pictures of black and white flowers, a couple of house plants and a window that started on the floor of the room and went at least six feet up. In the middle of the room, positioned on the rug was a double bed with the same dark wood frame with two big fluffy pillows and a couple of dark brown plush pillows.

The second room had a slightly different colour scheme going on. The floor was a lighter shade, not as light as it was downstairs, all the furnishing was a light brown with elements of wicker woven in, the walls were also beige but I was put off slightly by the bright blue curtains and the mix of blue and white pillows on the bed. It had its own TV though, which was a plus, no desk though, which was a negative.

Without me realising it, John Smith had gotten inside the doorway and he leaned in to talk to my ear and I felt his breath on my bare shoulder. "Feel free to pick which one you want, I'm not really fussed about which one I get, I don't sleep much. And, I happened to see the way you were eyeing up the desk in the other room."

I started and took a step forward into the room and spun around, as if I was admiring it, rather than getting away from him.

"I think I'm very interested, Barbara." I said as I maintained eye contact with Mr Lanky.

"R-Right, well I could do with knowing definite answers from the both of you as soon as possible, because of the situation and the price, there's quite a few people interested in this place."

Why should I let Mr Smith make me feel awkward about moving into a place that's literally perfect for me? It's close to town, it's ridiculously cheap, with really nice good sized rooms and a well stoked kitchen, not to mention the fact that the contract is ran monthly on a rollover scheme. So, if I decided I'd had enough after a month, I could leave with no qualms, or, if I find a decent job elsewhere, it means I can pack up and go with no trouble. And, I can take Mr Smith up on his offer and get the other room.

"I'm in." We both said at the same time with our eyes locked on each other. He raised an eyebrow at me as he stood there leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed. I raised the opposite eyebrow as I regarded him coolly with my hip cocked and my hand upon it.

John Smith went from being all serious and staring me down to light hearted in a second flat. He let out a small chuckle, gave me a massive smile, clapped the landlady on the shoulder and went off bounding down the stairs with an energy that I don't believe I've ever seen from a thirty year old before. "I'll get my money!" He called over his shoulder.

Me and the landlady both looked at each other and shrugged and I couldn't help the small smile that crept its way across my features. Barbara popped open a plastic wallet and pulled out a contract. I read it through as Smith came bounding back upstairs with a huge wad of notes in his hand. He flipped through them at lightning speed and passed them over to Barbara. The poor lady looked bewildered. "There you are. The deposit and first month's rent, it's all there. That's all that."

The landlady handed over his own copy of the contract. He stared at it for a second as if he didn't register what it was. He blinked and then said, "ah yes, of course." He pulled out a pair of glasses and flicked through the contract as quickly as he flipped through his notes earlier. He pulled a pen out of his pocket, scribbled some gibberish on it and handed it back. "So, that's all that then? Have I reached the point where I can go and starfish on the bed?"

"Eh?" Barbara was evidently flustered and she routed around in her pocket and pulled out a set of keys and handed them over. "Well, if that is what you wish to do Mr Smith, then by all means, do so, I can't stop you, not now you've paid."

John gave a chuckle and a thousand watt smile and ran past me, who was still stood just inside the room and he jumped atop the bed backwards in a true starfish pattern.

I couldn't help the laugh that escaped from behind my hand.

His head shot up. "Is that a laugh that I just heard from you, Miss Gwilt-Grenden?"

"Perhaps." I said coolly as I continued reading through the contract.

"Well, now that we're going to be roommates after all, how about we get on a first name basis?"

I waved my pen in the air. "Not quite, Mr Smith," I said very deliberately "We don't need to be on a first name basis just yet."

"Aww, why not?" He said, sounding a bit like a kicked puppy.

"Because I haven't decided one hundred per cent whether I want to stay here just yet." I waved the paper in my hands. "Haven't signed the contract yet."

"Come on, you can't fool anyone, we all know you're going to take the room. Let me know your first name." He folded his hands beneath his head and crossed his legs over each other in mid-air.

I was stunned. "W-What makes you say that?"

He made eye contact with me again. "Well, you could just call it a hunch. Or a very good guess, both work really." He jumped up from the bed and maintained eye contact with me as he marched on over and stopped just shy of a foot in front of me.

"You're a very recent graduate, possibly from some kind of English degree looking for somewhere cheap to stay because you can't go back home and you are after a place exactly like this because you don't currently have any direction for your life and you want somewhere that you can cut yourself loose from relatively quickly."

I spun around in spite because he'd pretty much hit the nail on the head. I pushed the contract against the wall with one hand and pulled my pen from the bun on the back of my head and as my hair fell down; my hand was on the page, signing away my name in full sight of the curious man next to me.

He held his hand out after I'd handed the contract to Barbara. "Let's try this again, Miss Elizabeth Gwilt-Grenden. I'm John Smith. It's a pleasure to meet you."

I met his hand. "The pleasures all mine, Mr John Smith. If that's even your name in the first place." Point set and match. I thought to myself as I pulled out the edge of my skirt and went down in a half curtsy, before fluidly dropping his hand and spinning around in the curtsy to come to my full height in front of Barbara. "Can I please have your bank details? I work through online banking."