How the Glitch Stole Christmas

By Clare London

Greg and Perry's first Christmas dinner together. Cue a storm, a power cut, and rogue red cabbage in the Scottish Highlands!

This is a short story featuring the apparently mis-matched couple Greg and Perry.

Read how they first met - and the romantic rollercoaster that followed! - in the novel ROMANCING THE UGLY DUCKLING.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CLARE LONDON
• Release date: Dec 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215802304

Clare London

Clare took the pen name London from the city where she lives, loves, and writes. A lone, brave female in a frenetic, testosterone-fuelled family home, she juggles her writing with the weekly wash, waiting for the far distant day when she can afford to give up her day job as an accountant. She’s written in many genres and across many settings, with novels and short stories published both online and in print. She says she likes variety in her writing while friends say she’s just fickle, but as long as both theories spawn good fiction, she’s happy. Most of her work features male/male romance and drama with a healthy serving of physical passion, as she enjoys both reading and writing about strong, sympathetic and sexy characters.Clare currently has several novels sulking at that tricky chapter 3 stage and plenty of other projects in mind . . . she just has to find out where she left them in that frenetic, testosterone-fuelled family home.All the details and free fiction are available at her website. Visit her today and say hello!Join up for her newsletter at http://bit.ly/2WpHlyK and receive a free short story!Clare also writes as Stella Shaw and launched her Love at the Haven series of rent boy romances in 2021.Website + blog: http://www.clarelondon.com / stellashawauthor.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/clarelondonTwitter: https://twitter.com/clare_londonGoodreads: http://bit.ly/2lNSfC2Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/clarelondonBookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/clare-londonInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/clarelondon11/Quids&Quills: http://www.quidsandquills.com (accountancy for UK authors)

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Greg woke to a strange whimpering noise from downstairs.

Reaching out, he found the bed cold beside him. His eyes still muzzy from sleep, the bedside clock blinked at him in the darkness: barely five a.m. Perry must have got up early. He shifted to the edge of the mattress, still wrapped cosily in the quilt, and peered over. Rory blinked silently up at him from his basket. Okay, so it wasn’t their dog making the noise.

Rory gave a hopeful whine.

Yeah, yeah. Greg sighed. Looked like he wasn’t going to get a lie-in after all, despite it being Christmas Day. He wriggled out of the bed and grabbed his sweats, socks, and the thick Aran sweater Aileen Mackie had knitted for him as a Christmas gift—to match the much smaller one of her exclusive designs she’d made for Perry, although she’d pointedly left off the bunch of golden sparkle she’d woven into Perry’s. Greg padded out onto the landing, Rory dogging his heels. The cottage was very cold this morning and, outside, he could hear the wind whipping up across the croft. The latest storm had been threatening for weeks, and was certainly living up to its reputation.

Winter weather in the Highlands was often a challenge, but this year the storm warnings were higher than usual. Perry had suggested the escalation was something to do with the polar bears. Hm. Greg smiled to himself. He wasn’t sure Perry had a firm grasp of the global warming debate, to be honest. His boyfriend rarely got past the first few minutes of Frozen Planet before scurrying off to put on another sweater.

He peered towards the window at the end of the short hallway. Everything was in grey, misty shadow, inside and out. The rain had started overnight, and was driving down in heavy, slanted sheets against the stone walls. The window frames rattled with the gusts of strong wind. They were lucky the place was watertight, and Greg was used to the weather, but he knew he wouldn’t be venturing outdoors today. Not that he minded. A day off work, snuggled up with Perry, enjoying all the good food and drink they’d prepared for themselves... what wasn’t to love?

Merry Christmas, boy, he said to Rory, ruffling the dog’s soft hair. Rory gave one of his long-suffering get on with it, human looks, and nosed at Greg’s ankles. Okay, come on, I’ll let you out.

He wondered why Rory wasn’t hassling Perry, as the first one up. Perry liked taking the sheepdog for his daily walks—though Greg pretended he didn’t hear Perry chatting to Rory like he was one of Perry’s gossipy London mates—and even in this weather,