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her face – too many facelifts.
    She approached slowly. ‘Hello,’ she said, and smiled.
    Timothy had no time for the soft sell. ‘Okay,’ he said quickly. ‘Let’s cut to the chase. My wife is waiting for me in a restaurant up the hill, and by now she’s mad as hell that I left her alone. It’s our twentieth wedding anniversary, and I don’t have a gift. I need something big and expensive, something that will make up for all the terrible mistakes I’ve made, and all the mistakes I don’t even know about. You’re a woman. Tell me what to buy.’ He pulled his wallet from his back pocket. He removed his Black American Express Card and placed it on the glass counter in front of him. ‘I have fifteen thousand dollars to spend. And about sixty seconds to spend it.’
    The woman smiled and raised an eyebrow. ‘That’s twenty seconds more than you’ll need,’ she said. She took his charge card before he could change his mind, and led him to another glass counter. She leaned over, pulled a key from her pocket, and unlocked the case. She removed a necklace, mounted on black felt, and placed it on the counter before him. Diamonds were mounted along its entire length, gradually increasing in size toward the bottom, where a pendant – sapphire and diamond and gold – dangled. It glittered electrically, blue and white, under the point spotlight.
    â€˜Eighteen carat white gold,’ she said. ‘One hundred and five near-colorless diamonds. The pendant is one carat diamond and one carat sapphire. Total diamond weight is nine point five carats. And, luckily, it’s fifteen thousand dollars exactly.’
    â€˜What a coincidence,’ Timothy said. ‘I’ll take it.’
    She smiled, flicked his charge card through the magnetic reader mounted on the wall behind her and keyed in a number. From the speaker came the brief sound of computerized phone dialing, and then silence. After a moment, the display said ‘APPROVED.’ What a country! Timothy thought. The entire annual GDP of some godforsaken province in Bangladesh has just changed hands between two strangers, and no one saw coin or cash.
    â€˜I assume you don’t have time for gift wrapping,’ the woman said. ‘So here’s a pretty box.’
    Back at the restaurant, Katherine had ordered a glass of wine, and had finished half of it. He sat down across from her.
    â€˜You’re sweating,’ she said. ‘Are you hot?’
    â€˜I was hurrying to get back.’
    â€˜Is everything okay at work?’
    â€˜Everything is fine,’ Timothy said. ‘Jay says hello.’
    â€˜And what does Tricia say?’
    â€˜She says hello, too.’ Timothy kept his voice neutral.
    â€˜I’m a little jealous of her,’ Katherine admitted.
    Timothy was surprised. ‘Have you even met her?’
    â€˜No,’ Katherine said quickly. ‘Which is why I’m jealous. I’ve talked to her on the phone quite a few times. What does she look like?’
    â€˜She’s very plain,’ Timothy said.
    â€˜Is she younger than me?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    Timothy looked at Katherine’s arms, exposed in her sleeveless blouse, as she leaned forward with her elbows on the table. The skin below her triceps was losing its firmness. This was new, something he hadn’t noticed before, and it brought a small rush of tenderness.
    â€˜Prettier?’ she asked.
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Liar.’ But she smiled.
    Timothy said: ‘Is it your intention to sabotage our anniversary weekend?’
    â€˜No,’ she said.
    In their twenty years of marriage, Timothy had cheated on Katherine three times, but Katherine knew about only one incident with certainty. Timothy treated his affairs the way he treated his business relationships, and the way he treated the pool boy at the club: at all times he tried to be a gentleman.
    So: he confined his