Tina had been moving through her morning in a fog, doing tasks automatically, greeting customers no more or less enthusiastically than usual. She had hoped that keeping busy would keep painful thoughts at bay. It wasn’t working, but she knew that if she’d stayed at home today she would be feeling worse.

Tina was straightening up some bargain books on a table when the bell above the door rang. The sound made her freeze where she stood as it had all morning. She waited for Grant’s voice and when she didn’t hear it or sense he was behind her, she relaxed enough to turn around from the table where she had been working with a forced smile.

“Hello. I’m Tina. How can I help you today?”

There was a woman Tina didn’t recognize standing there looking uncomfortable. She stood there looking at Tina a moment too long, until Tina’s smile faltered and fell and the woman averted her eyes. “Hello,” she said. “I think I’ll just look around.”

Tina rubbed her arm with one hand and took a closer look at the woman as she moved to a bookshelf. She had curly black hair and was dressed in a frilly lace looking dress with a paint splattered shirt on top and a pair of heavy-looking work boots. Tina was sure she’d never seen the woman before but she seemed vaguely familiar somehow.

“The books on art -” Tina said, and the woman looked over her shoulder at Tina with a raised eyebrow, “they’re to your left. That shelf there on the wall,” Tina gestured to the shelf she was referring to and moved closer to the woman. “If you’re interested.”

“What makes you think I’m interested?” the woman asked in a wry tone, looking at Tina with the same curiosity she’d shown when she’d first entered the shop.

“Lucky guess. That, and you have some paint on your cheek.”

The woman smiled and made no move to wipe her cheeks off. “I’ve never been here before. If I had known you took a personal interest in your customers’ likes and dislikes, I would have stopped in before.”