The man was holding the coffee shop door while she juggled her keys and a cup with the lid not quite snapped on. “You look nice today,” he said.

It was not slick. That was the annoying part. He said it plainly, before she had time to put on the proper married-woman face.

Her smile got there first. Bright, quick, impossible to pass off as manners. Then she caught herself and trimmed it down into a normal thank-you. Too late. That half-second had already happened. She walked away with her shoulders a little straighter and hated that the window showed it back to her.