She had been dating Eric about six months. He was nice-looking, had a good job with a law firm and expected to make partner. His family was nice; he had insisted that she meet them. But the longer she was around him, the more uninteresting he seemed.

That was probably why she had refused to move in with him. She sometimes stayed with him at his apartment, but had not asked him to stay at hers. At first she thought she did this because her apartment wasn’t as nice as his. But she had realized that this was not the case. If she was at his apartment, she could leave anytime, but if he was staying with her, he might stay much longer than she wanted. When Tina realized this, she wondered how she really felt about him.

At one time she had thought she loved him and hoped that she would fall in love with him. Now she doubted it.

Eric had been talking to her as they walked toward the gallery, but she had tuned him out.

“Tina.” Eric was talking to her and snapped out of her reverie. “Here we are,” he said excitedly as they approached the doors of the gallery. “I know Bette has done a wonderful job putting this together.” He was on a first name basis with Bette Porter, the gallery owner and had purchased some works from her. She knew he was really impressed with Bette and her eye for art. If Bette really liked a work of art, Eric paid attention. And sometimes he paid money.

In fact, he quoted her so often that Tina wondered if she was as boring about art as Eric. He could hardly talk about art without mentioning Bette and Tina had finally asked him if he had a “thing” for the gallery owner. Actually, she knew that he was committed to her, but wanted to tease him a little. She really wanted to move the subject away from art for a few moments.