there's a brief moment , after she turns around to face him as she is going through with her story and trying to explain herself , where alexander is taken aback . not truly a rhyme or reason for the way his body reacts , other than the blonde's features are oddly familiar to him . living in cornelia , the chef is no stranger to recognizing those who's names belong next to the stars : actors , singers , sportsmen ; the street he lives in attracts an array of celebrities and distinguished people one happens to come across when going to get groceries or coming in from work . the possibility of a celebrity trying to break into his humble home is low , but never zero so he spends a minute trying to commit her features to memory , trying to find a matching name from the tabloids or a trailer or music video he's seen in the past ten years ; to no avail yet the sense of familiarity only rises with every second that passes and every word that she speaks .
when he is pointed at the other's home , he gives a nod . that must be it , the familiarity must come from them being neighbors , even if he doesn't exactly recall seeing the blonde in the apartment building before . he is good with faces , can commit people's features to memory in a span of seconds if he sets his mind to it ( which he does with his neighbors whenever he meets them ) , but he simply decides to let the circumstance explain itself for now . it's only as the other mentions her dog that his attention shifts from her to his very own chocolate labradoodle on a leash , looking up at him excitedly and waving his tail the way he usually did whenever he came home from work . he kneels down to scratch his ear , just as he can hear a desperate bark from inside his home . the story begins to make sense and although a part of him is still unsure , urgency kicks in as he senses the desperation on both the woman standing in front of him and the dog barking on the other side of the door .
" oh shit , wait . hold on " he muses , standing on his feet and taking his keys out from his pocket , opening the door as quickly as his callous hands allow him . " if that had been me , i would've tried to kick the door down so i count myself lucky you didn't try that " he says as he struggles with his doorknob before opening the door , allowing the other to enter his home before leading pollux in . " so sorry about the mix-up . they are really great most of the time but they get a lot of dogs daily and sometimes things get out of hand — one time they got me into walking like five different dogs home because they were short on staff . they truly are great with them, though . pol loves going , it's one of his favorite places in town . "
She could see the distrust in his eyes, and at some point, she could understand him. There she was, a complete stranger, nothing to do with his life, that was sitting in front of his door trying to shimmy it open with nothing but a credit card, desperation and a dream to see her dog again, so Winnie understood the face he gave her while she spun her story. Felix bark must've caught him off guard and her eyes saw in Pollux's dad that she wasn't lying.
"Oh, don't worry, I know I don't have enough strength to kick down doors, plus these aren't really great for kicking" Windsor said with a little laugh, pointing at the cowboy boots that were now almost under her butt as she sat down by his door. Shifting a little to let him open the door, she was happy to see Felix right there, the tan labradoodle running and jumping on her lap, Win quick to get on her kneels to hug him "Hi, hi baby, hi hi hi"
Standing up, she smiled when he spoke and instinctively followed him in. She'd never seen this man in her recent memory, nor had she been in his home, yet everything felt oddly familiar "Oh yeah, I moved here not too long ago, so I've been trying things out. There's a groomer not too far away and they returned him smelling just as bad as he was when he went in, I'm pretty sure they just hosed him down and charged me forty bucks for that" She said, rubbing her dog's head as she talked "This one has been great, and I mean, now knowing that you've got him and I've got Felix, we can, like, I can pick him up and bring him over, he can stay at mine until you get home, or the same like if I have press or anything... I mean, he knows your house now" She joked, realizing she'd just invited her dog over to his house and viceversa and not even introduced himself "I'm sorry, where are my manners, I was just trying to get myself into your apartment... I'm Windsor Hollings" She said, extending her hand out to the stranger.
















