Kay strolled slowly through the antique shop. She and Barry had met in such a store. She gently lifted a nautical barometer.
“My, aren’t you handsome,” she said. “So manly and wise and helpful. Barry would have enjoyed you so much.” But she set it down again, a bit wistfully. Barry had broken off their relationship three years earlier and she had to visit antique stores alone.
Walking on, she saw a magazine rack that had been both well used and well cared for. She touched a corner. “Sam would have liked you, even though he wasn’t particularly fond of antiques. You would have looked good in his home.” But again she moved on; Sam had dated her, briefly, before Barry had.
Kay came around a corner in the shop and froze. There, at the end of the aisle, two little boys were engaged in a very serious tug-of-war with a china figurine. She strode down the aisle quickly.