With only Zoise to think about, her passions had taken on a certain clarity, her energies focused in a single direction.

“So, are you going to ask her for a coffee after tomorrow’s seminar?” Daisy interjected as Esther drew breath.

From the reaction, Daisy might as well have suggested Esther locate Vectra’s room, try on all her clothes, and sit at the end of her bed, braiding loose hairs plucked from Vectra’s brush while watching her sleep. Once Esther had recovered from all the theatrical gasping, she replied, “I don’t want to look too keen.”

“But if someone wants to be your friend, then . . . keen is? Not good?” Did Daisy have this all wrong? Was that not how to be friends?

Esther soothed her, standing on tiptoe so she could pat the top of Daisy’s head, hand bouncing on her curls. Pat, pat, pat. Usually Daisy liked being fussed at by Esther. It made her feel safe and loved. Today, though, she felt patronized.

“You innocent little homeschooled flower. The path to true friendship is fraught with tests. Herculean tasks of logic overcoming emotion, a chessboard of moves to baffle your opponent.”

Which bore no resemblance to how Daisy and Susan and Esther had come to be friends. Emerging from the depths came the thought that maybe this had all been too easy: One did not make friends for life by accident of university accommodation allocation.

Daisy was just a temporary associate, not a friend to whom Esther had to prove herself.

At least Daisy could be consoled that if the worst happened and Esther moved on, she had somewhere else to go. She knew exactly where she stood with the Brethren of Zoise. Or rather, where she sat, or lay, which was how everyone spent most of the time in the basement.

There was, however, the small issue of the Ceremony of Sharing. Unlike everyone else, Daisy didn’t have an inexhaustible supply of worldly possessions. Daisy had never found her life with Granny tarnished by a lack of wealth, but the two of them had always been frugal. It had required some adapting for Daisy to take Esther’s extravagant spending habits in her stride, but looking around, Daisy saw that university life was rife with fiscal exuberance.

There was always the option of introducing someone else to the joys of Zoise yoga, but who? Susan’s skepticism was insurmountable, and Esther was even less likely to give yoga a go now that she had Vectra to obsess over.

Daisy needed to come up with some ideas of what to share, or she wouldn’t belong with the Brethren, either.

As Esther and Daisy passed the reception area for the hospital and made for the doors marked MEDICAL SCHOOL, Esther’s phone blooped in her pocket.

Over the road.

Esther looked up, and another message came in.

Around the corner from the cash machine.