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man was better than an aerobics class at the gym. Her heart raced like she had been doing circuit training for an hour.
    “How about you go on a date with me as payment?”
    She slid onto the wooden stool near the register. Her legs had turned into jelly. It didn’t matter how dreamy he was, she had made a pact with herself and she was going to keep it. She blurted out an answer before her resolve evaporated. “I’m taking a break from dating right now. I just went through a bad break-up.”
    He backed up a step and held his arms up in surrender. “No problem. I understand. It takes some time to recover from something like that.” He slid his hands into the back pockets of his jeans. “If you change your mind, I put my business card in the bag. The number is for my cell phone.”
    Emma dug through the pens, notebooks and lip balm tubes in her purse until a crumpled, five dollar bill surfaced in the mess. “Since your payment method won’t work, will five dollars do for now? I left my wallet in my studio, but I can get the rest of it to you tomorrow.”
    “Don’t worry about it.” The string of bells on the front door jingled again as a customer walked in. Brad glanced at the newcomer in a fancy business suit and then walked backward toward the door. “It’s on the house.”
    Out of the corner of her eye she could see the new customer make a beeline toward the rack filled with Daisy’s scarves as she watched Brad disappear into the crowd outside. The man snatched up an intricate, white lace one and hurried toward Emma. “I forgot my anniversary. Do you think my wife would like this?” he asked as he pulled his wallet out from his back pocket.
    “I’m sure she will. It’s a lovely scarf.” Emma folded the soft, knitted fabric into a square and wrapped it in tissue paper. She chose an iridescent blue gift bag from the stash the gallery kept under the counter for packaging gifts. “Is this gift bag okay?”
    “Yes, yes it’s fine. Just hurry up. Here.” He shoved his credit card at her. As she ran it through the register he said, “I’m sorry for being so rude. I’m running late and I can’t believe I forgot it was our anniversary.”
    “I’m sure your wife will love this.” She presented him with the ribbon-adorned bag, the receipt and his credit card. At least he had remembered before it was too late. The gift really was lovely. She would be happy to receive something like that as a present. “Have a nice day.”
    Her cell phone began ringing when the door banged shut behind the impatient customer. She fished it out of her purse and answered, “Hello.”
    The voice that answered back was unmistakable, low and raspy from years of smoking and drinking. It was her mother. “Hi, Emma. I haven’t heard from you in awhile and wanted to see how you’re doing.” What a line of crap. Her mother didn’t care about other people, even her own daughter. She wanted to talk about herself.
    Emma’s throat constricted. “I’m fine, but I’m working in the gallery right now. I don’t really have time to talk.”
    “Oh, well, I can call again some other time. I just wanted to tell you about Darrell. He’s my new man and I think he might be the one.”
    She was lucky her mother didn’t have a phone that could video chat or she’d see her rolling her eyes. Every man that stayed with her mother for more than a week was in the running to be “The One.” The woman didn’t have many standards, but she had some kind of ephemeral ranking system for her boyfriends. Was Darrell special because he bought her an expensive drink, with a little paper umbrella, or did he compliment her mother’s choice in hoochie clothing? “That’s nice, mom. Why is he so special?” Finding out what criteria her mother had used to determine a guy’s worth was like gawking at a traffic accident. She didn’t want to do it, but some sick part of her couldn’t resist.
    “We went to the flea market last weekend and he bought