“I think I was surprised at how loud it was,” she said, “and I guess I freaked out a little bit. More than I should have, I mean.” Oliver pushed against her hand, and she tipped her head a little to let him sniff her chin.

“More than you think you should have,” corrected Maggie gently. “There isn’t an actual international standard for freaking out.”

Laura looked at the clock. Still time before she needed to go to Nina’s. Then she said, “I guess you’re right. I feel like I should be recovered from the accident, and I thought I was.” She shrugged. “It’s fine.”

Maggie poured the hot water into the mugs. “So you keep saying.” She carried the tea over to the table and nudged Ollie out of the way to put down the mugs. She settled herself at the table, then got up again to go fetch cookies from the cupboard, shaking the sleeve out onto the table and helping herself to a couple. She sat in a chair and curled her feet around the legs comfortably.

Then she looked at Laura and said, “Tell me about it.”

One of Laura’s plans when she came to Los Angeles was to investigate seeing a therapist, but so far she had avoided it as carefully as she had avoided getting a car. She knew those two things were related; she wasn’t totally in denial. But Maggie wasn’t precisely a therapist, she was a doctor, her mother would probably approve . . . not that it mattered . . . Suddenly Laura found herself talking.

“After the accident,” she said, “I didn’t have to drive or be in a car for months, so it never occurred to me it would be a problem. Once I was out of the hospital we took the subway all the time.”

“Reasonable,” said Maggie. “New York has a largely functional transportation system.”

Laura smiled briefly. “You know, the LA buses work fine.” She frowned. “Maybe if you all got behind the system, it would work better.”

“Are you saying we have the public transportation we deserve?” asked Maggie.

Laura shrugged. “You said it, I didn’t.”

Maggie laughed, and took another cookie. “Fair enough. Well, carry on with the story. Presumably you eventually needed to get in a car.”

Laura nodded. “Yes, my parents and I were driving to visit a family friend who lived upstate.” She cleared her throat. “It wasn’t far.”

Maggie’s face remained neutral, and everything about the position of her body expressed still and focused listening. It made Laura want to continue.

“Anyway, as soon as we crossed the George Washington Bridge and got on the parkway, I started to flip out.”

Maggie leaned forward and said, “I’m sorry if this is hard to talk about, but can you define flipping out?”