After her long soak in the tub she opened her wardrobe to put on a dress. It was proving to be a gloriously sunny day and she felt like a town book sale demanded she made a little more effort with her appearance, after all, her community were getting the first glimpses of the ‘outsider’. She had been here a couple weeks, cooped up in this cottage, surrounded by the mess and eating microwave food and oven meals. A trip to suss out the local shops was not a bad idea, she could pick up something fresh, maybe even some cakes and take Muffin for a stroll beyond the gravel road that led out onto the main road from her own tree covered nook.

Pulling out a fitted baby pink sundress which flared out from the waist and brushed her knees, she slid her feet into matching flat pumps and brushed out her long dark hair, pinning it up the back of her head loosely, so tendrils fell around her face. Her skin had tanned to a lovely shade from all the garden work the last couple of days and she applied minimum make up. A spritz of her favourite perfume, a quick glance in the mirror to approve how she looked with a satisfied nod.

She grabbed a cream coloured canvas shoulder bag to throw her purse in and girly essentials, like strawberry lip balm and sun screen spray. She picked up her baby pink framed sunglasses, Audrey Hepburn style, and picked up Muffin and his leash.

Ready to rumble!

Rose was singing to herself tunelessly when she swept out to her car, with dog in tow.

Her little pink mini shone in the sunlight in front of the cottage, relieved to be free of both boxes and roof rack and crying out to be driven. Lovely and clean from her morning washing and polishing it days before. Rose had always had a pink obsession, since childhood, always obsessed with all things pink, girly and sparkly. Her car had been her one indulgence in London, going for a baby pink, tiny, car that suited her girly - All things cute! Obsession. She had hated that every male she had dated criticised it and it was partially why none of them made it beyond two weeks with her.

Blaring the summer hits CD, she pulled out with Muffin in the passenger seat and headed along the road; pulling out into the main road and reaching speed quickly, she was singing and smiling at how free she felt, energised by this impromptu outing and the glorious sunshine which was not typical for Scotland this early in the summer. It was truly shaping up to be a wonderful day.

Out of nowhere, the nose of a black car poked out in front of her from the tree edged hedge way, causing her to swerve and scream as she tried to hit the brakes in alarm. Her car skidded halfway across the road with an almighty screech before slamming to a halt and Rose fell forward on her steering wheel, trying to catch her breath; sure, she had just suffered a major heart attack.

Grabbing at Muffin to feel he was still in one piece, her hands began shaking violently and her heart pounded through her chest; trying to keep her head on the wheel to steady her breathing and calm her nerves, she could feel her rage rising.

Who in the actual hell???? What the actual f...?

Her car door was ripped open from beside her, causing her to snap up and around and glare angrily into the steel coloured eyes facing her, which had suddenly appeared a little too closely.

‘Are you o...’ A smooth and deep voice that sounded genuinely concerned tried to infiltrate her red haze, but she had already hit maximum rage.

‘What in the actual hell are you doing???’ She screeched at the face before her, not really taking in the jet-black hair, tanned skin or intense grey eyes belonging to the tall stranger. Ordinarily this kind of sexy would have put Rose in a slump of panting hormones but Rose just saw red!

‘You could have killed me!!! Are you aware that road is a sixty? You pulled out into traffic on a god damn sixty!’ She pulled herself out of her seat, releasing her belt to square her small five feet four to the huge six-foot frame before her. Anger searing her every nerve at the sheer stupidity of the man. He quickly stood back, looking almost shocked as she continued to yell at him about his idiotic driving manoeuvre with hands firmly on her hips and letting fiery Rose loose.

‘Whoa there Penelope!’ Splaying his hands in defence as he tried to calm her rant. ‘Look, I’m sorry! I’m sure I got as much of a shock as you! Most folks know how bad the view is for me coming out and cross to the other side to pass the manor opening!’ He was defensively moving away from Rose as she continued to wave her hands about, cursing at him about recklessness and moronic men with stupidly fast and flashy cars, Rose was on a roll. She stopped suddenly, realising something he had said.

‘Who the hell is Penelope?’ She blinked in confused fury, but he only laughed at her sudden change in persona, then tried to smother it with a cough.

Smooth move mister! Asshole. God, You’re Hot!

Rose had only just seemed to notice this little fact, now that she was inches from him.

His whole shocked manner seemed to do a sudden flip into smiling, good humoured, if not a little embarrassed, but Rose was beyond oblivious in her mental state.

‘You!... Sorry, it’s just... Pink car... Pink dress... Fiery little lady who comes out like a bat out of hell, like she’s about to rip my head off...’ The handsome stranger stood with hands up defensively, smiling at her like it was the most obvious thing in the world to everyone except her. Rose stood motionless. Cluelessness and confusion all over her face, which only added to her internal irritation at his far too good-looking smugness.

‘Penelope Pitstop from wacky races?’ He tried again to get her brain to connect to whatever the hell he was talking about. ‘Look never mind. It’s just, that’s what I thought when I opened your door.’ He was laughing now, in a rather deep and husky way which only enraged her more and brought out another bought of fury.

‘Screw you and your stupid wacky whatever’s! Next time watch where you’re going, asshole! Or next time I won’t swerve!’ She turned and threw herself back into her car in the most unladylike manner, attempting to grab her door, so she could dramatically slam it. All previous ounces of rage reconnected with her inner diva, but he grabbed it first.

‘Allow me.’ He slammed it shut with the force of a guy who had reconnected with anger. The humour absent from his face and replaced with ‘I’m pissed off, lady.’ Their eyes glinted at one another angrily, fire meeting fire. Sparks igniting in the air around them and almost crackling with the collision.

Rose didn’t wait for any further conversation, putting metal to the floor she sped off without any hesitation, almost taking him out with her wing mirror in the process and giving zero cares about it.

Rose wasn’t sure why this guy had invoked such a furious response, but all she wanted was to put a huge sea of distance between her and that smug laugh and get rid of the ball of internal anger writhing inside of her. She could see the arrogant sod in her mirror, shaking his head after her, watching her drive off before walking back to his flashy black car and sliding back in with the grace of a cougar.

‘Asshole!’ She screeched loudly, angered at the sheer effortless grace the idiot was displaying.

Muffin was looking at her with his wide, wise eyes, almost telling her she had simply lost the plot.

‘Well, he is! Mr, I’m so good looking with my big muscles and sports car and expensive clothes. So Mr smooth that I think I can give you a cute pet name and you forget I almost killed you!’ She slapped her wheel, eyes darting from the road to rear view mirror manically as she tried not to cause further accident with stupid driving.

‘Fuck you! ...Ow, that actually hurt.’ She lifted her fingers to her mouth and blew them gently in a bid to soothe the burning self-inflicted pain, releasing some of her tension as she did so. That ‘almost’ crash had given her a massive fright and her reactions since had been some sort of delayed mental breakdown, brought on by a near death experience. Being confronted by a guy who was far too handsome for an early morning rural drive had just added to her extreme reaction.

I mean who the hell was he? Wearing designer clothes and a flashy car and looking a little too suave for the highlands. Men like him were normally arrogant Londoners, and she had met enough of them to last a lifetime.

Pushing that irritatingly flawless face out of her mind’s eye, she suddenly felt remorseful for swearing angrily in front of Muffin and sat back in her chair, trying to release the tightness of her muscles. Flexing her shoulders and tilting her head from side to side to flex her neck. Slow steady and calming breaths and internal chanting to cool her jets.

The black sports car appeared in her rear-view mirror, coming up behind her fast and she instantly tensed back up, teeth gritting and eyes narrowing angrily. Putting the foot down, she sped away from him before reaching the sign for the town and slowing back down again as she passed it. Completely pointless, but satisfying to say the least, riled by the way this man made her feel. Throwing daggers from her eyes in the mirror, she slowed to thirty and meandered through town looking for a car park as the car behind her turned off at the huge museum; she sighed with relief at his departure.

Hot or not, I don’t need you behind me today!

‘Asshole.’ She muttered to no one in particular and hit the indicator to turn into a big half empty car park. Within minutes Rose found a space easily and expertly deposited her car, latching Muffins lead on and exiting gracefully with a much sunnier disposition.

Although the town was bustling with pedestrians, it seemed most came via a little free bus from surrounding areas and not many drove. The streets were quiet from traffic and felt peaceful, despite the people milling around. Wandering about, she soon managed to navigate her surroundings, quaint little shops ranging from the normal grocery stores to little cute boutiques, home decor, crafts and tourist shops. Several cafes and a huge bakery shop that sat very close to the car park she had used.

It was a pretty and picturesque little town, lots of barrels filled with flowers and park benches to pretty it up and lots of potted trees and quaint old-fashioned street lamps. It was more beautiful than even her memories and she could see the appeal for tourists. This was proper highland charm right here.

She decided to browse the shops first, before going in pursuit of the church she had yet to see, buying the odd necessity and really getting a feel for the place. Rose was happy to find, that although it wasn’t exactly the small town of her childhood memories, it was enough unchanged that she got a familiar tug of emotion deep in the pit of her stomach; just the same. This had been Olivia’s favourite place, she would have loved to see that it was thriving but still held all the same charm as before, as though caught in a time warp.

After successfully not finding the church in the small town and seeing a lack of mulling locals Rose decided to head to the coffee shop, situated in the bakery to rest her weary feet. It wasn’t sign posted and there were no obvious roofs rising above the rest to indicate where the church would be. She had put Muffin back in the car with a bowl of water, a new bone, the windows opened and the radio on, before coming to get something to eat and ask for directions.

She was sure that in this little place, her car and the dog, would be safe from a break in. Besides, her alarm was loud and immobilised her car easily and although Muffin wasn’t much of a guard dog, he did have this incredibly scary toothy face he pulled when he was frightened and tried his version of a broken growl. If nothing more, it would scare away any lingerers; It did make him look a little rabid and possibly mentally unhinged.

As soon as she opened the door, the smell of newly baked bread and fancies hit her like a warm hug. She wanted to fall into that smell, it was so heavenly and had memories flooding back and filling her up with so much warmth, chasing away the last ounces of anger. She could almost feel herself transported back to her childhood and eagerly swept in to see if they still stocked her favourite cakes.

The tables were almost all empty with the odd couple or group, sitting far apart, quietly chatting and oblivious to her entrance. There was a relaxed, friendly atmosphere, despite being a complete stranger here and she felt better that no one was openly staring and pointing as she had feared.

The girl behind the counter, dressed in a green uniform reminiscent of school dinner ladies smiled at Rose as she approached, with no expression other than friendly.

‘Hi there, what can ah get for yeh today?’ The girl asked in a polite, yet very heavily accented brogue that suggested she had grown up in the farms surrounding the town.