“To tell you the truth, I don’t care,” Nadine said, with a wry smile.
“Why not?” asked a rather surprised Stephen.
“Well, I just don’t and … I am too tired to argue right now. I am going home.”
“Wait,” he said, reaching out.
“What?”
“Are you OK?”
“Yeah, why shouldn’t I be?”
“I don’t mean … It’s just that you seem different.”
“I’m older. I just had a birthday.” She laughed.
“That’s not it. You seem a lot different from what I remember at Eldridge.”
“Stephen, we had that vacation placement at Eldridge more than a year ago. Of course, I’ve changed a bit since then.”
“Did something bad happen?”
“How do you mean?”
“That’s the only thing that makes sense. You’re more reserved and don’t laugh quite as much.”
“I don’t know about you, Stephen, but at times; I find the Legal Practice Course quite hard. And we haven’t dealt with any funny topics. Some of the cases … the Family Law ones at least, are quite harrowing, and to think that they happened to real people … it’s a bit tough to handle. ”
“It seems to be more than that,” he insisted, much to her embarrassment.
“I have no idea what you’re on about. Although it might be down to me wondering whether I will actually have a job to go to, after putting myself through this hell that is the LPC.”
“Nadine …”
“In case you hadn’t noticed, the UK is in the middle of a recession. Law firms are withdrawing their employment offers, and some of them can’t afford trainees.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I got a general email saying that they’d call me later to let me know if I still have a training contract. You got yours?”
“I … err …”
“Of course you did. And you still have your training contract.”
“I’m sorry I bothered you. Is there anything I can do?”
Nadine laughed mirthlessly. “I doubt it. I’m going to go home, order some food, plonk myself in front of the television and when I wake up, it’ll be 9am tomorrow morning.”
“Wow! That is some plan.”
“I know. There are no classes at all tomorrow, so I’m fine.”
“OK.”
There was a pause.
“Are you sure you’re alright getting home?” asked Stephen.
“Oh, you offering …?”
“Only as a concerned friend.”
“I’m sure I can manage. Thank you,” she smiled.
“OK, I’ll see you around?”
“Yeah, see you around,” she said, making to walk away.
“Nadine?”
They had been on the Legal Practice Course for two months now, and Stephen did not know how the remaining academic year would go. He was glad that Nadine was on the course, but like he said, she seemed really different. For some reason Stephen could not lay his finger on, she seemed a bit more reserved … even unhappy. It made him uneasy because he hated to see her like that. He had started to like her and although he was yet to admit it, a desire to protect her had begun to creep up on him.