Flora smiled. Every night she went to bed, popped in her earphones, and watched a few videos to relax and fall sleep. She didn’t like the silence of being alone, and it covered up the noise from the two students upstairs.

“Yes, I love ASMR. I’ll look you up tonight.”

“Let me know what you think. My email is on the channel information,” Mack said.

Flora was nearly bursting with excitement. She’d never had such an easy-going conversation with someone before. She hardly knew a thing about Mack, and yet this was so easy.

“I will.”

“I better get this little man his walk. See you later, Flora.”

As Mack walked away, Flora blurted out, “Flo, call me Flo.”

Mack turned her head back and gave her that devastating smile that melted Flora from the inside.

“See you later, Flo.”

Why someone like Mack wanted to talk to her, she had no idea. She wasn’t beautiful, well-dressed, or sophisticated, like the people she was sure Mack was used to. But Mack was kind—that had been clear to see since the first night they met.

Friends had never been something Flora kept. Her anxieties had always made it more comfortable to be a solitary animal, but maybe she could be friendly with Mack. They were neighbours, after all.

Yes, that’s what she would do. Try to at least have a neighbourly friendship. It wasn’t as if she would have the pressure of seeing her any other time. This was her challenge—be friendly with Mack.

“Was that Mack?” Sandra said behind her.

“Yes, she was just going a walk with her little dog, Dexter.”

Sandra put the boxes she was carrying on the counter. “You know, I was wondering if she was any relation to the famous Sharkey family.”

“Famous?” Flora said.

“Well, maybe infamous is a better word to use. They were a criminal gang that ran most of Glasgow but went straight in the eighties. They still have a big influence on the streets and own a lot of property across the country.”

“All I know is that she is kind.”

Sandra smiled. “You seem to be comfortable with her now. Where was it you had met before? Because you were panicked the first time she came into the shop.”

Flora did not want to talk about this. “She just helped me out one time when I was having a panic attack.”

It wasn’t a lie. She had been having a panic attack—she just had a group of men around her at the time.

* * *

That evening Mack was having dinner with Nikki and Isla at Nikki’s apartment in the Merchant City neighbourhood of Glasgow, where nineteenth-century buildings that had been converted into luxury apartments.