Jake remembers what she said about Rob meeting his doppelgänger in Thailand when he was twenty-one, how he lives in fear of their paths crossing again. What happened at that first meeting? And why doesn’t Rob want to talk to Kate about it? He calls up Facebook and logs in – to Kate’s account. It feels wrong, but he tells himself he’s doing it for her benefit. As he suspected, she hasn’t changed her email or password. Nor has she posted recently. Kate always did have a love–hate relationship with Facebook. She is clearly in a hate phase. A quick scan of her friends – he was unfriended soon after she left hospital – and he finds Rob.

The articles he’s read all mentioned Rob’s young age – twenty-nine – and how he’s achieved so much before he’s even thirty. He checks Rob’s date of birth. Rob turns thirty in ten days’ time. A relatively big birthday. Jake will be thirty-five later this year, an anniversary he plans to ignore. Kate is bound to cook up something nice for Rob. She was always springing birthday surprises on Jake – in the early days, anyway. For his own thirtieth, she took him away to Paris, where thirty friends met him on the steps of Sacré- Coeur in Montmartre. She also tended to leave things late, planning them at the last minute.

Jake scans through Rob’s profile. He doesn’t seem to have many friends on Facebook and there are hardly any posts. It looks more like a token presence, a gesture. He probably prefers Instagram and some trendy messaging app of his own to communicate with his techmates.

It doesn’t take Jake long to find exactly what he’s looking for: an old Facebook friend, someone who has known Rob for a long time. Kirby looks the part. American born, he used to work for him in the early days – around the time when Rob visited Thailand. It’s worth a try. He must know Rob well and might be able to shed some light on what happened. According to his profile, he likes to travel and even mentions South-East Asia. Jake opens up the messages tab, enters his name and creates a new message. Kate’s never been in touch with him before, which makes things easier. He just hopes they haven’t met in real life yet. Taking a gamble, he begins to type:

Hey, Kate here, I’m pulling together a few ideas for a surprise birthday party for Rob. It’s his big 3-0 coming up soon! Please don’t say anything to him. Any good stories to tell? Funny anecdotes from his past?! Kx

Jake sits back, reading the message. Has he over-cooked Kate’s enthusiasm? He knows this is bad, that Kate will hate him for it, but he hits the return key and sends.

41

Silas