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Morning dawned on Talia earlier than she had hoped. She had managed to sleep extremely well despite the fact a stranger was just downstairs. Light was shining through the big, curtain-less window beside her bed. She was in the middle of nowhere so why would curtains be important? After all, she got to open her eyes to a breathtaking view of nature. Something she doesn't see in the city.

Talia got smacked in the face with an icy breeze as she sat up. Her view outside was a winter wonderland, with snow topped mountains, fluffy trees and white covered ground. To Talia's dismay, the snowflakes were still cascading down, she was wondering how the clouds could still relieve so many flakes...

She couldn't lie, it was extremely breathtaking. She never saw much snow in Surrey so her annual family trips to Scotland were her favourite. Every year her and her parents would visit her Grandparents here in the Scottish Highlands. As she grew up, Talia and her parents stopped coming every year and she would only see them every so often. Something about an argument that caused bad blood between the generations. She wasn't entirely sure what happened between them all because she was situated at university at this point.

What is Talia's job, you ask? She's a veterinary nurse. A very successful one at that. She's one of the most well known Vet's in Surrey, with many loyal and happy customers. Surprisingly, she does not have a dog or cat of her own because she thinks it would be unfair to be working long hours and leaving them at home on their own. Although, she could potentially bring them to the surgery. But, she would only ever see them on her lunch break and thinks it would still be unfair as they'd be in the staff room or somewhere without her. Her parents are currently living in Cornwall, too far away to ask them to look after her pets whilst she's away in Scotland on her annual winter trips or away abroad in the summer... She only wants the best for all animals.

Talia wasn't exactly vegetarian, as made evident from the pizza she ate yesterday. But, she would try to avoid meat as much as she could. She had gone full vegetarian before but had struggled to get enough protein into her diet without the meat. She wasn't a huge fan of nuts, almonds were the only ones she would eat. So, she had to bring meat back into her diet. She mostly eats chicken and fish, with the exception of burgers too.

Talia sighed, not wanting to leave the comfy bed, that was warm and cozy, did she mention warm? She managed to force herself into the bitter open air, gathering up some comfy clothes to throw on and layer up to keep cozy and warm. She slipped on her fluffy socks before heading down the stairs quietly to not wake Grant up. But, to her surprise Grant was in the kitchen with a frying pan sizzling on the stove.

"Oh hey, I hope it's okay I started cooking breakfast." He smiled his kind smile, turning back around to tend to the contents in the frying pan.

"It's 6am."

"Already? I woke up at 5." At 5?

"How do you have so much energy so early?" Talia questioned, genuinely confused by his energy levels. He must be an early bird...

"I'm used to waking up early." He shrugged it off as Talia wandered over to make some coffee for herself.

"Let me guess, you either wake up early for pleasure or it's for your job?"

"More for my job."

"What do you do?" He was expecting this question to come up in small talk. Which means she had not seen him in anything or recognised him from his most famous role as Barry Allen...

Before he could answer, Talia cut him off in disbelief.

"Are you using a spatula to flip the pancakes?" She placed her mug down by the kettle, thinking of taking over from the brunette stranger. Who flips pancakes with a spatula?

"Yes? Do you not flip them with a spatula?" Grant asked confused, stepping aside to let Talia take over because it was her place he was staying in after all. He did not want to overstep his boundaries.

"No, everyone knows you flip them with the pan." She gripped the handle of the pan and shook it to shake the pale circle in the middle. She jerked the pan to flip the pancake lightly, watching it land back into the pan. Pancakes were the one breakfast food Talia was obsessed with in her childhood. Her and her Mum used to have competitions of who could flip the pancake the highest. Her mother letting her win obviously or else her 11 year old self would throw a tantrum because she hated losing. She was a bit dramatic she knows...

"Last time I flipped a pancake it ended up on the ceiling." Grant confessed, causing a small laugh to escape Talia's lips. She didn't mean for it to come out, it just happened, like a reflex. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Grant's cheeks turn rosy, feeling guilty she turned to him and smiled sweetly.

"How about you try again? I'm sure it won't end up on the ceiling."

Grant gripped the handle of the pan, exactly like Talia did and shook it, getting ready to flip it. This could end disastrous or really good. The last time he flipped a pancake, he was too heavy handed and flicked his wrist too much that the pancake went flying up in the air before hitting the ceiling. He flicked his wrist and then tried to catch the pancake again, just about succeeding. A sigh of relief came out of his mouth as he smiled.

"See? It's fine." Talia smiled at him as he flipped it a few times, getting confident again in his flipping skills.

Both of them had flipped enough pancakes to feed a family of 4 and settled down to eat them after the competition of who could flip the pancake the highest. Some pancakes ended up on the floor, some on top of their heads and some flew across the room... Laughter filled the air as if they were both little kids playing a game. It was safe to say quite a bit of batter didn't make it onto their plates...

* * * *

"Here, I thought you'd be more comfortable in new clothes." Talia handed the stranger some old clothes.

"Thanks." He took them without question, wandering into the bathroom to get changed. He came out with some grey sweatpants on and a plain t-shirt. Talia liked oversized clothing for comfort so luckily they fit Grant perfectly. She gave him some extra fluffy socks since she lived in them in the winter. She just loved the feeling of being warm whilst it's icy and bitter outside. It was the main reason why winter was her favourite season.

"So, do you have any dogs or other pets?" Talia asked as she plopped down on the small sofa opposite to Grant after making the tea round for the both of them. The topic of animals could help her see what kind of person Grant was, after all if someone didn't like animals then they were clearly a psychopath.

"I have three dogs, they're very precious to me. I have a picture with all three of them here" He unlocked his phone and headed straight to his pictures, his eyes on high alert trying to find the best picture with all three of them.
"See, that's Jett, Nora and Rookie." A huge smile grew on Grant's face.

"Oh, they're so cute. Look at their smiling faces. Are they all siblings? They look very similar." Talia practically melted at the sight of the Poodle's faces. Grant's phone screen displayed a picture of Jett, Nora and Rookie (3 white jackapoos) sitting down beside each other with huge smiles on their tiny faces whilst looking up at the camera.

"I don't think so, I got them at different times. They do look identical." The smile on Grant's face grew wider and wider as he spoke about his dogs. He was currently missing them, wishing he could snuggle up with them in the sofa in front of the tv again.

Talia's fight or flight had completely disintegrated by this point. Any trace of a doubt that this man could harm her or potentially kill her in her sleep had completely disappeared.

This man was in fact the softest man.

"They sound like the best dogs."

"Yeah. They are staying at my mom's house whilst I came skiing. They're probably being spoilt. They spend a lot of time there whilst I'm working."

"What do you work as?" Talia took a sip of her tea and wrapped herself back up in her blanket, like a cocoon.

"I'm an actor. I was into music to begin with but I moved to acting, I still sing a lot. I miss it sometimes."

"Wait, I have an idea." Talia burst out of her cocoon and legged it up the stairs to grab her guitar. Grant's face lit up as soon as he saw the instrument.

"You play guitar? No way." He beamed before Talia handed him the guitar. He strum the strings and a very off key sound echoed out of the soundhole. He spent a good amount of time tuning it back up to its crisp, correct notes.

"I learnt in school. It was a little hobby of mine." She threw the blanket back around her arms and allowed it to loosely hang there as she spoke.
"I was hoping you would play a song." She smiled, causing Grant to smile back, thinking up which song to do. He then settled on one and started strumming.

"Let me catch my breath.
This is really hard.
If I start to look like I'm sweating well
That's 'cause I am.
I'm not good with words.
But that's nothing new.
Still I have to try
To explain what I want to do
With you. With you.
Run away with me.

Let me be your ride out of town.
Let me be the place that you hide.
We can make our lives on the go.
Run away with me..."

Grant continued singing, really getting into the song and smiling.

"Okay, that was actually really good." Talia beamed at him.

"Thank you." Both of their spirits were extremely high right now as they bonded over both animals and music.

"Okay. now it's your turn." Grant handed the guitar back to Talia.
"Take it away." Talia was extremely nervous to sing in front of anyone, let alone a complete stranger. Although, maybe she wouldn't see him again after this? After all, he lived all the way in America. If she made a fool of herself, it wouldn't matter...

"Okay. One of the first songs I learnt was a Christmas song since it was close to Christmas at the time. This has been my favourite one ever since." She placed her third finger on the D string as the starting position and then played the intro to 'Step into Christmas' by Elton John. Talia absolutely loved his music after learning this one and he's one of her favourite artists still.

"Welcome to my Christmas song
I'd like to thank you for the year
So I'm sending you this Christmas card
To say it's nice to have you here

I'd like to sing about all the things
Your eyes and mind can see
So hop aboard the turntable
Oh Oh...
Step into Christmas with me, yeah..."

Talia continued with the song, with Grant's eyes averting back and forth every so often between Talia's beaming face and her hands on the guitar. He was completely mesmerised by her voice and her playing. She sounded like a professional and he wondered if she was? What was her job? He never asked her.

"That was insane. You're insane." He complimented her as she finished the song.
"Are you a professional or something?"

"No. I'm actually a vet. I used to do open mics when I was a teenager, but, I stopped doing that when I did my masters. I didn't have much free time."

"Wow, that's amazing. Do you have any pets of your own?"

"No. I work long hours so don't want to leave them on their own for too long." Talia explained the situation to Grant. Telling him her parents live hours away and about her position at her veterinary.

The both of them got to talking about various things from animals to their music tastes to embarrassing stories from nights out. Alongside, jamming out to more music on the guitar. Various songs were played from Christmas songs to Indie songs they both loved to songs they made up on the spot. Lyrics were messed up and words were forgotten or messed up resulting in the both of them to laugh.

Hours had gone by since they first started their jam session and before they knew it it was dark outside.

They had both learnt an awful lot about each other in the span of a few hours. I guess you could now call them acquaintances!

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Ok, I had the idea of making this a book series! The next book was going to be linked to Valentine's day!