“But I don’t want to be different. It’s taken over my life. OCD is my life.” Flora covered her face with her hands. “I’ve never said that out loud before.”

Mack wished she could wrap her arms around Flora and protect her from the world. “You can say anything to me. Can you tell me about it? I’d like to learn.”

Flora let her hands fall from her face. “I don’t know if I can explain.”

Mack tried to coax her into talking. “The thing I think of when you say OCD is washing hands over and over.”

This seemed to break Flora’s embarrassment. “Yes, a lot of people think that, but it’s less about the act and more about the compulsion to take part in a ritual that soothes your fear. It’s meant to calm you, but it ends up taking over.”

“It’s because you feel anxious or nervous, but doing your ritual—”

“Sometimes they’re called stims, a stimulation to calm yourself, but then it becomes the fear, and you think, if I don’t do it, something bad might happen. Then it’s embarrassing, and you try to hide it,” Flora explained.

All Mack could feel was sorrow that Flora had been on her own and fearful for so long. “You know, you don’t have to hide in front of me.”

Flora took a sip of her drink. “It’ll be hard to shake off the shame of it.”

“Did you mind me calling you little mouse?” Mack asked.

But Flora smiled. “No, it’s nice, because you saw it and instead of making me feel foolish, you turned it into a sweet thing.”

Mack cleared her throat and spun her glass of Coke around on the table. “You know, one of Isla’s counsellors said she thought Isla had OCD, amongst other things, but Isy refused to go back to see her. Maybe you could talk to her about it sometime.”

“Of course I will. I did get that idea when we talked at the shop. I see a lot of problems we share. I’d be happy to help. It’s hard to find a therapist who you click with. If you don’t, it’s a waste of time really. I’ve seen two. When I was a teenager, I was put on medication, and I didn’t go back. I couldn’t talk to them, couldn’t admit to things that I find easy with you.”

That did make Mack happy, like the difference in Flora when she was talking to Jay and to how she was talking to her.

“That’s because we’re good friends.”

Flora looked at her silently. “I don’t have friends—what I mean is I’ve never had friends, I don’t know how to, but you—”