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“What, the two times a year I make the trip? Yeah, he’s totally going to wait for me.”
“He might. He looked pretty keen.”
I inhale until my lungs are full, exhale until they’re empty, then smile. “No. It’s over. But that’s okay. We had a great time. I’m not going to make more of it than it was.” I take the handle of my case. “Come on. I’ll check out, and then we can get going. I vote we stop for breakfast soon, what do you think?”
*
As we set off on the state highway, I ask her about the party last night, and we chat for a while about other things until I finally pull over at a café for breakfast. We both order eggs and bacon and coffee, and take a seat near the window. It’s a warm morning, and the sun streams through across our table. Mariah Carey is declaring that all she wants for Christmas is you, and the air is filled with the scent of coffee, cooked food, and warm croissants.
Charlie nurses her coffee when it comes, and then says, “Okay, so I can’t keep quiet any longer. I need to talk about him.”
I sigh and stare into my latte. “I thought it was too good to be true.”
“Sweetie, you had sex. Amazing sex, by the sound of it.” She looks at me for confirmation. Grudgingly, I roll my eyes and nod. “Come on,” she says. “Tell me all about him.”
“I don’t know that much. He was twenty-nine yesterday. He’s six foot one. He has a twin brother called Saxon, and a younger brother called Damon. They run a company that does some kind of research into robotics and prostheses. And he plays the guitar. That’s about it.”
“Have you Googled him?”
“No.”
“Right.” She pulls out her phone.
“Charlie…”
“Don’t tell me you’re not curious.”
I hesitate. Then, after a few seconds, I give in and nod. I am curious. I’m so curious I would definitely kill a cat if there was one around. “His surname is Chevalier.”
She grins and types it in, then waits for the results. After a few seconds, her eyes widen. Her gaze slowly rises to mine.
“What?” I say, heart racing.
“He’s right at the top of the search results. Jesus, he has a Wikipedia page!”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I’ll read it out. ‘Kristopher Alan Chevalier, known as Kip, born 21 December 1993, is the joint CEO of Kingpinz Robotics, based in Wellington, New Zealand, along with his twin brother, Saxon Mark Chevalier, and his younger brother, Damon Stuart Chevalier.’ There’s a detailed section on the company. Oh shit, his cousin is Lawrence Oates. Did you read the article on him on Stuff the other day?”
“No.”
“His nickname is Titus. He’s a leading Kiwi expert on AI. It says here that Saxon is currently running the company here because Titus is in the UK. They’ve made a huge breakthrough in IVF by using AI to predict successful embryos.”
“I met Saxon. I didn’t know he did all that!”
“They sound like quite the family, don’t they?”
“So what does Kip do at the company?” I’m intrigued now in spite of myself.
She continues to read. “‘Kip is an innovative computer engineer with a Master’s Degree in Software Development. He has an interest in maxillofacial prostheses. These can replace anatomy inside the mouth, which are called intra-oral, or a part of the face like the ear, nose, eye, or cheek, which are known as extra-oral prostheses. Some of them are worn daily like a pair of dentures, and others are permanently implanted into the body, like cranial plates. He is also currently working on an augmentative and alternative communication device or AAC that experts are saying will be revolutionary in the field.” She looks up and gives me a look that says,Oooh!
“He told me about that,” I say. “He said it was his baby.”
“He must be pretty smart.” She scrolls down. “Let’s look at the personal section.”
Suddenly, I don’t want to know more in case I don’t like what I hear, but she’s already started reading. “‘In 1999, Kip’s father, Neal Chevalier, invented the Chev-X 490 Gaming Pro 3D—the world’s first graphics processing unit—which offered a notably large leap in 3D PC gaming performance. This was followed five years later by the Chev-X 520 Elite, which again saw a significant rise in gaming performance and outshone all other GPUs at that time.’”
Her jaw drops. “‘The Chevalier family’s net worth is estimated at 7.2 billion dollars.’” She lifts her gaze to me.
