“Lincoln was founded in 1427,” Rob said, and she laughed, because it was a strange thing to say.
“Yes, it was.”
They walked on, but Rob tripped on an uneven paving stone. Chloe reached out to steady him. She had never seen him stumble before. As she shot him a questioning look, a voice called her name.
“Chloe? Chloe Fairway? Is that you?” Chloe turned to see a pregnant Katie Delafield, waving to her, then start bustling across the quad toward them. She was a petite redhead with freckles. She hadn’t changed a bit, bar the bump.
“Hi, Katie,” Chloe called back, feeling an unwelcome prickle of nerves. Katie ran a chain of award-winning hotels, had more than one child, and still found time to work as a trustee for two international charities. She was the epitome of a high-achieving Lincoln girl, and as such, someone who triggered in Chloe the feeling that she’d turned up to the marathon of life wearing flip-flops.
“I’m so glad you came.” Katie beamed, her face lighting up as she pulled Chloe into a bouncy hug. Chloe smiled, her nerves starting to dissipate. Katie wasn’t here to judge her. She knew it was her own voice doing that.
Katie looked expectantly at Rob, waiting to be introduced.
“This is my friend—my boyfriend—Rob,” Chloe said. “Rob, this is Katie. We studied English together.”
“Wow, nice to meet you,” Katie said, her eyes wide as she took Rob in. Rob reached for her hand and shook it up and down, a little too enthusiastically.
“I’ve brought a plus-one too this weekend,” Katie said, pulling her hand back and patting her bump. “So boring I can’t drink though, right?”
Rob blinked. “Because it is not recommended to consume alcohol when you have a fetus inside your uterus.”
Chloe looked at him askance. Why was he being weird? Then she clocked Katie’s small pert nose wrinkling in confusion, so she quickly laughed as though Rob had made a great joke.
“Sorry, Katie, we’ve got to run, I’m desperate for the loo, long journey—”
“The bus took one hour and thirty-eight minutes,” Rob said, his voice now a steady monotone.
“Really,” Katie said slowly, drawing back slightly, her eyes wide with consternation.
Chloe tried to laugh it off. “We’ll catch up with you later, yeah?” Then she grabbed Rob’s arm and tugged him away as fast as she could.
Katie stood, dumbfounded, watching them go. Chloe hurried through the stone doorway into college before turning to Rob.
“What was that? Why did you say that about Katie?” she asked sharply, her voice a hushed whisper.
“She was pregnant, wasn’t she?” Rob asked. But now he looked mortified.
“No, she was, but why were you talking about her fetus like that, about the bus journey being an hour and thirty-eight minutes?”
Rob looked confused. “It was not a normal thing to say?”
“No, it was not a normal thing to say,” she said, feeling a rising panic. Was he broken? Had she broken him when she kissed him?
“Sorry,” he said, blinking several times. “My social battery is low. My conversational cues start to suffer when I have insufficient charge.”
“Right,” she said warily. This was the first time anything like this had happened.
“Being out all day, talking to so many people on the bus, it was more draining than I appreciated. I must apologize.”
He looked so repentant, Chloe couldn’t be cross with him, but at the same time, she knew she couldn’t have him talking to anyone else like that. What would people think?
“Well, how do we fix you?” she asked, her voice coming out higher than usual. “Is it going to happen again?”
“I just need to recharge at the first opportunity, then I’ll be fine.”
Chloe hurried along the corridor, searching for their room, praying they wouldn’t run into anyone else on the way. When they found the right door, Chloe fumbled with the key.
“Did I embarrass you?” Rob asked quietly.
