Susan issued a noise that a vat of blood might make just as it reached boiling point and practically flung her tray in the direction of the till. Esther asked for a portion of wedges, and the man serving leaned forward, glancing fearfully to where Susan was growling at the card machine. “I give that one extra helpings because I’m frightened of the way she looks at me.” He lowered his voice further. “And you can have some extra for being so brave as to challenge her tyranny.”

Smugness emanating from her pores, Esther pushed her tray containing a triple helping of wedges toward the till.

“May I have potato wedges too, please?” Daisy asked, but the man shot her an apologetic look and gestured at the empty tray. Choosing a bagel instead, Daisy contemplated the nature of injustice—how Susan got appeasement wedges and Esther got gratitude wedges and Daisy, who only wanted her lawfully appointed volume of wedges, got none at all.

Despite an inauspicious start, lunch was pleasant enough. With Esther spending more time updating Susan on the many virtues of Vectra than eating, Daisy was able to sneak the occasional wedge from her plate.

“What’s everyone got on this afternoon?” Daisy asked.

“I’m going to get these notes for Vectra,” Esther said, not looking up from her phone, where she was relentlessly wearing down Ed Gemmell into giving them to her.

“Something called ‘Street Medicine,’” Susan said.

“Ooh, that sounds exciting. Do you have to use cool-sounding slang for all your procedures?” Esther made a complicated arrangement with her fingers and crossed her arms, pouting as she said, “Hey, doc, hit me up with some ’slin for my ’betes.”

Daisy and Susan stared at her for a full second before bursting out laughing, collapsing into each other, Susan slapping the table as Daisy doubled over, clutching her friend’s arm, barely able to draw breath, she was laughing so hard. Susan did an uncannily accurate impression of Esther’s pose, reaching around to snatch an orange from the person eating at the next table. “My girl, Daisy-Woo? How ’bout some Vit-C to boost that immuno-sys?”

Susan tossed the orange at Daisy, who could barely see it through her tears.

But something was wrong with Esther. Usually the first to laugh at herself, her expression had turned from light to dark as fast as if she were a shiny penny dropped into the mud at the bottom of a well.

“I’m sorry for not immediately understanding what you meant by ‘street’ medicine and trying to make a joke.”

“You were a joke, all right.” Susan fired a finger gun across the table and blew away the imaginary smoke, winding Esther up so much that she actually stood to leave.