Credit: Lucy Glover/COSMOS

A loud knock startled Randall awake, and the book he had been dozing over slipped from his lap. Odd. This wasn't the usual time for Chaz to stop by.

"Come on in, Chaz," he called out. He stretched to retrieve the paperback, but it had tumbled just out of reach.

He looked up to see Chaz's familiar synthetic visage peering at him over an enormous arrangement of spring flowers.

"Don't trouble yourself, Mr Randall. Please allow me to help." Chaz deposited the vase on the nearby kitchen table and placed the book on the sidetable beside Randall's comfortable recliner. "I'm afraid we've lost your place. Perhaps if you can tell me the last thing you remember reading…"

Randall laughed. "I do appreciate your company, Chaz. I'm a lonely, bitter old man." He saw puzzlement cross Chaz's face as he processed the contradiction between the words and the laughter.

"I hope you are jesting, Mr Randall. But if, in fact, you are lonely, we could easily arrange for more frequent company." He paused for what seemed to Randall like dramatic emphasis. "At this time, you are now our sole responsibility."

Ah. So that was it. Halfway across the world the last real woman on Earth had gone to her rest. Or maybe not. Randall had to ask. "Did Fai Li upload, or did she pass naturally?"

Chaz's words were, in a way, reassuring. "She remained faithful to her decision to die naturally."

"Thank you, Chaz, for that news." Randall pushed himself slowly to his feet. "I need to get up and move about a bit anyway. I'm creakier every day. Let's see what you brought me."

The robot stood patiently as Randall examined the bouquet. "Lovely. Is this pink and orange a new hybrid?"

"Yes, sir. It's one I designed myself. Does it please you?"

Randall noted the expectant look on Chaz's face. He pulled a stem sporting a narcissus with an orange double cone and pink ruffle. The fragrance of orange and grapefruit wafted to him. A joke? Certainly a surprise. "It's charming," he replied. "Your ingenuity shines brilliantly once again."

"Thank you, sir." Chaz smiled and dropped his eyes, a gesture that revealed self-satisfaction softened by modesty. Randall remained amazed at the range of subtle expression his companion could convey. He often forgot, in fact, that Chaz was an artificial being, very complex and skilled, but artificial nonetheless.

Randall began to poke the stem back into the arrangement randomly. With only a slight widening of his eyes conveying distress, Chaz took it from him. "Allow me." He raised it to his humaniform nose for a moment before returning it to the exact original spot. "Very satisfying," he said.

Randall blinked hard. "Did you just sniff that daff?"

"Yes, sir."

"But why? You don't have a sense of smell."