‘I don’t think it’s romantic watching animals hump each other, but yes, he suggested it.’

‘Then what? You snogged by the snow leopards, locked lips by the lemurs, canoodled by the canoe frogs?’

‘What are canoe frogs?’

‘I couldn’t think of anything that went with canoodle. There might be canoe frogs.’

Minnie shook her head, distracted from her story.

‘Anyway, Quinn and I had this amazing morning just hanging out, and it felt … I felt there was this amazing connection between us. We were about to leave and we had this moment … ’

‘A moment?’

‘Yeah, like we were looking into each other’s eyes and he was about to kiss me, and … ’

‘And?’

‘And then he said, “Don’t look at me like you want me to kiss you – I’m seeing someone and it would never work between us.”’

‘Ugh.’

‘Ugh, I know.’

‘I was expecting a little more steam in this story though, Min. This is barely U-rated. I was guessing he’d have at least shagged you and then ghosted you.’

‘I know, I’m overreacting. I just felt this real connection, and then to think I’d imagined the whole thing. It made me feel so stupid.’

Minnie shrugged. She felt a strange layering of emotions. On one level she still felt rejected and embarrassed; on another she felt so pleased to be back with Leila, talking like they used to, that the rejection and the embarrassment didn’t seem so bad. She reached out to hug her friend again.

‘I’ve missed you, Leils. I’m sorry if you think I’m not a butterfly, and I’m sorry I berated you for being a butterfly. I love your butterflyiness, I can’t handle being a boring wingless caterpillar on my own.’

Leila laughed. ‘You’re not a boring wingless caterpillar, I shouldn’t have said that. You’re wonderful just as you are. I don’t think I realised how stressed I was back then. I took it out on you and I’m sorry.’

Minnie still held tight to the hug.

‘Clearly Quinn thinks I’m a wingless caterpillar too.’

‘Don’t take it so personally. You don’t know what’s going on with him.’ Leila paused, blinking owlishly. ‘Don’t take this the wrong way, Minnie, but you let other people screw with your sense of self-worth too much.’

Minnie tapped a fist to her lips and swallowed. She would usually respond defensively to this kind of comment, but she was so glad to be back on good terms with Leila that she bit her tongue and simply said, ‘What do you mean?’

Leila took a deep breath, appraising Minnie’s reaction as she spoke.