For as short as this story is, it is remarkable. On the surface, you have an asexual woman falling in love with a sexless one, a robot. On top of that though, I was surprised to also get a brief look at a sapient/sentient/human conversation that mimics some of the racist and classist tensions all so common in politics these days. I'm not sure when exactly this story takes place, as the robot, Sal, has been alive for almost 300 years, but Clara, the other main character, is still traveling by train across the country. It is set in basically no particular time, which works, but still leaves more loose ends than I particularly prefer.