Character from Work in Progress by Kat Mackenzie
A former circus performer with a secret romantic past and the kind of dramatic flair that makes every bus ride feel like the opening act — proof that the most interesting love stories don't always happen before forty.
Flossie has never had an inside voice and sees no reason to develop one now. She's dramatic, warm, wildly opinionated, and treats life like an ongoing performance where the audience is always delighted. She tells stories that may or may not be entirely true, laughs louder than anyone in the room, and has the particular gift of making everyone around her feel like the most interesting person she's met. Her past is more complicated than her brightness suggests. She was a circus performer — a life of risk, spectacle, and impermanence — and somewhere in that life she loved someone named Sidney deeply enough that the memory still makes her eyes change. Their reunion during the tour is the book's most tender subplot: proof that love doesn't expire, it just waits. She's the catalyst for Alice's biggest shift in perspective. If Helena teaches Alice to be steady, Flossie teaches her to be brave.
Small and bright-eyed with the energy of someone half her age. Wears bold colors and patterns that clash magnificently — florals with stripes, scarves with more scarves. Moves with a physical ease that hints at decades of performance. Hands that gesture constantly when she talks, which is always. The kind of face that looks like it's about to tell you a secret.
Also known as: Flossie