I had no idea you owned the shop next door to mine, or that I would ever see you again. I understand that I might remind you of a night you’d rather forget. I’d love to say hello and buy some of my favourite blue raspberry fizz bombs, and I won’t ever bring up that night unless you do. You never need to be scared of me.

Flora was quite shocked. How did Mack know meeting face to face would be difficult for her?

She felt an unusual flutter of excitement and then hurried out into the shop. Flora went straight over to a large jar on the wall filled with blue raspberry fizz bombs and touched the jar.

Flora chuckled, thinking about Mack’s choice of sweet. Blue raspberry fizz bombs left you with a blue tongue for quite a while—that was half the reason the kids liked them. Adults didn’t usually go for them. Mack must not take herself too seriously.

She lifted the jar from the wall. She’d take them to her and say hello. She froze with the jar half on, half off the shelf. Flora’s initial burst of excitement and enthusiasm was waning, and the reality of her social anxiety hit her.

“I can’t do this.”

Flora put the sweets back and hurried back to the shop to get ready for her day, anger at her own inadequacies coursing through her.

* * *

Mack’s first morning had been busy. A few of her old friends took the first appointments as soon as she was open for business. Mack opened a tub of face cream, scooped some into her hand, and worked it over the face of her customer and pal, Ewan Campbell.

He owned a gym in the town centre, in a Sharkey property. They all used the gym—Mack, Jay, Nikki, and the Sharkey staff. They were all good mates, and even before she had her own shop, Mack cut his hair, just as she did for her other friends.

“It’s good to have you back, Mack. My hair’s not been the same without you, ma man,” Ewan said.

Ewan had a short choppy hairstyle with a close-cut beard. She had shaved his beard into a good shape, cut his hair, and was now beginning a massage of his face. Mack loved the tradition in other parts of the world, like Turkey, Greece, and India, of giving a massage along with a haircut. It made the whole experience more special, pampering, and relaxing.

Above the mirror in front of them was a camera, mounted on the wall. She’d always liked to post how-to videos on YouTube, demonstrating different styles, long before she ever had a shop.