‘Well, obviously those things are far better if the robot was making Christmas better on a global scale, but the question was on an individual level.’

‘Oka-a-ay… so how about doing that vile homework Mr Bennet set?’

‘How do I benefit from a robot hijacking my education?’

I tipped my face into his chest and groaned. ‘Well, even if you couldn’t bear to let a machine steal your homework fun, surely there are way bigger things than wrapping presents. That’s hardly a major life hassle.’

‘Speak for yourself,’ Henry huffed. ‘I wasted the whole afternoon wrestling with Sellotape, when I could have been researching the essay. Plus I now have a paper cut right on my pen finger, which makes writing it a lot harder.’

‘Well, that’s settled, then. What more could you want?’

‘You can judge, but I don’t hear you coming up with anything better.’

Right. That was a challenge I had to accept.

‘And you can’t say anything about homework. We’ve already covered that.’

‘Well, that’s totally what it would be. But if you’re insisting on a different answer, then… um… a robot that could take my designs and convert them into actual clothes, so I could have some decent Christmas outfits for once.’

‘Really?’ Henry sounded bewildered. ‘That’s going to make your Christmas better? As long as they are functional and comfortable, who cares what clothes look like?’

‘Well, clearly not you!’ I retorted. ‘Clothes are an expression of who you are as a person. They tell people what you’re like, how you see yourself.’

Henry snorted. ‘Mine don’t.’

‘For example,’ I went on, speaking over him, ‘yours say that you don’t care what anyone thinks about you.’

Henry was quiet for a moment. ‘You think I don’t care about that?’

I shifted underneath the sleeping bag, not sure how to respond to hearing Henry sound almost human. ‘You don’t exactly try to fit in with the crowd.’

‘Refusing to change who I am for the sake of being popular doesn’t mean I don’t care what anyone thinks.’

Wow. I genuinely would not have guessed that.

‘But this is your robot, not mine. If you want to design some snazzy Christmas outfits, then go for it.’ His voice dropped as he went on. ‘Personally, I think it’s great how you always look different.’

‘Not that my appearance matters, of course.’

‘Of course.’ Henry coughed again. ‘So, that’s Christmas sorted. What about a summer-holiday robot, what would they do?’

As we carried on talking, the pain of the argument with Adam slipped away into the shadows, and I gradually stopped feeling so uncomfortable, simply because Henry was as matter-of-fact and as calm and composed as he always was.