Again Flora covered her apparent embarrassment by turning her attention to Dexter. “Just because…because I think I might be gay.”

Yes. Mack knew it. “Oh, okay. Me too, in case you haven’t guessed.”

Flora chuckled. “Yes, I guessed. I sometimes daydreamed about coming to somewhere like this and meeting The One.”

“The one?”

“The one who would understand me. I could never see their face, but…I feel so silly telling you this.”

“No embarrassment. I’m your guardian angel, remember? What happened?”

“Well, I’d get a drink, and this person, this gay woman, would walk up to me and—”

Mack held her hand up. “Wait. Would she be butch, femme, or androgenous?”

“No, butch—I like butch women, I think.”

Perfect, Mack thought. “Okay, carry on.”

“She would take my hand, and I wouldn’t have to worry about talking because she would just understand me. Then she’d take me to the dance floor and dance with me.”

Mack was invested in Flora’s dream and wanted to make it come true. “Is it just the lights that would bother you? Not the music?”

“Yes, just the lights.”

“I’ll be back in a minute.” Mack was going to make it true.

* * *

Flora had no idea why Mack had hurried off. She looked at her watch and saw that she didn’t have long left in her break. When she talked to Mack, she always seemed to get lost in conversation and forget about time.

Dexter was enjoying Flora stroking his ears. It was funny. Conversation was terrifying to her with everyone else—even sometimes with Sandra, she had to search for what to say next—but with Mack, words weren’t hard to find.

The time they’d spent together today had been perfect. Outside of the club when Mack caressed her cheek, Flora thought she might melt. She didn’t have words to articulate to herself, even, what was going between them, but it was different from friendship.

Flora felt that, but maybe Mack felt very different. Maybe it was friendship for her.

Just then some music came on. It was Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud”—she’d know that intro anywhere. Mack came striding across the dance floor, took off her jacket, and threw it into the booth.

Flora didn’t know what was happening, but Mack seemed to. Mack took Dexter from her and put him on the floor.

“Go play, Dex.”

Mack held out her hand to Flora and said, “Dance with me?”

Flora was lost for words. She opened her mouth, but nothing would come out.

“You don’t need to say anything or search for what to say. Just dance with me. You need the full nightclub experience.”

It was like her dream, and she didn’t need words with Mack. Flora gathered all her courage and stood up, took her jacket off, and was led to the dance floor.