It was almost a month before she saw Zadie again. December had arrived, with all its usual trappings, trees in the lecture buildings, kindly academics wearing Santa hats for their final tutorials of the year. Chloe found herself homesick, which was an enormous surprise to her. But the string in her chest seemed to tug when she thought about how the previous year she and her mother had brought the tree down from the loft, opened the boxes of decorations, laughed about all the silly ornaments she had made as a child and listened to a cheesy jazz album while they put it all together. Her mother loved Christmas. There would be a nativity scene on the windowsill of the living room, tinsel on the banisters, presents under the tree wrapped with military precision, almost impossible to open. These weren’t things she had ever really relished or enjoyed at the time. The memories felt like burns, raw to the touch. The university had made all the right noises, of course. Put a Christmas tree in the entrance to each college. Carol services and parties.

The Thursday evening before the end of term, Lissy knocked on Chloe’s door wearing Christmas-tree deely-boppers and a pair of jeans so low slung they were almost indecent. ‘Come out,’ she instructed. ‘We’re going to the pub and then, when we’re drunk enough not to realize what we’re doing, we’ll go to Koolerz.’

For a moment Chloe reached for an excuse. But really, what was there? Another evening sitting here on her own, working on an essay which was already perfectly fine? Lissy had knocked on her door once a week for an entire term and had almost always been told to go away. Why not say yes this time?

‘Okay,’ she said. ‘Give me a sec to get changed.’

The disbelief from Lissy was palpable. ‘Really?’ she shrieked. ‘Really?’

‘Yes, really,’ laughed Chloe. ‘Give me a minute.’ She pulled Zadie’s black dress from the cupboard, peeled off her jeans and shoved her feet into a pair of heels. She thought about the dress for a moment. She had meant to give it back. Really she had. But it was the most flattering garment she’d ever worn in her life, and while she’d rather shave her head than admit it to anyone, wearing the dress made her feel like a little bit of Zadie was rubbing off on her.

‘You’re going to freeze,’ said Lissy as she reappeared at the door.

‘I don’t care. Can I borrow a lip gloss?’