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160words
When Lucas tapped my shoulder and said we'd arrived I woke to him handing me a tube of ointment.
"For chilblains—you get them a lot, right?"
I ducked my sleeve, hid my hands, handed the tube back to him, then walked straight into campus.
He padded after me.
"You don't have to be embarrassed—you know, I once forgot my gloves on a ski trip and froze my hands too."
I kept my head down and kept walking. He didn't stop me, just sighed: "You could have just said thanks."
Maybe I'd been scattered by everything; I left my company access card at home and ran into Nathaniel at security.
In the elevator he asked, "I heard you found a batch defect in the R&D product yesterday—nice work."
"Lucky timing," I said.
"Did you see Ethan's social posts?" he asked out of nowhere.
I pulled up Ethan's feed. A nightlife video. "Yep, saw it."
