The client leaned toward the painting, almost touching it with his nose. “It looks like the artist painted some of these wires to match the stripe color,” he said. “Isn’t that cheating?”

“Good observation!” Maja exclaimed. They’d been standing in front of the piece for ten minutes. Had he just noticed that? “I see that as a comment on assimilation,” she said. “America is a land of immigrants, but there’s always a tension between celebrating the individual and subsuming them into our culture.” Or, she thought, it was just really difficult to find objects that fit neatly into the design. But the client seemed to like her take.

She glanced sideways at him. He was close to saying yes, she could feel it.

“How much?” he asked.

“Sixteen,” she replied. She didn’t need to add the “thousand”—it was assumed.

He nodded, thinking it over. Louis would be pleased—he was ready to move this out to make space for some new works. And Maja got a cash bonus on any sale over ten thousand.

She was about to point out that a certain actor had just bought one of this artist’s pieces when Yasmine appeared at her side, holding her cell phone. “I’m sorry,” Yasmine said. “But your phone rang three times. I thought it might be an emergency.”

Maja looked down at the screen. She didn’t recognize the number, but it had a 267 area code—Pennsylvania.

“Excuse me,” she said to the client. “I’ll just be a minute.”

She stepped into the office and called the number back.

“Mrs. Jensen?” the voice on the phone asked. “This is your insurance adjuster. I’m at your house, but there’s no one here. Are you on your way?”

“On my way?” Maja asked. “No, you’re not supposed to be there until tomorrow!” She pulled her planner out of her purse and flipped to this week. There it was, written in for tomorrow.

“I’ve got you scheduled for today,” the adjuster said. “Can you come by now?”

“I’m at work,” Maja said. “In New York. Can you come back tomorrow?” She’d planned to take the bus down early in the morning, which was already going to be tight since she needed to be back at the gallery by two p.m.

“Afraid not,” the adjuster said. “I’m fully booked up until next week.”

“But we’ve already been waiting for three weeks!” Maja said.

“Sorry. You’ll need to call your agent at Belltown and reschedule.”

“Of course I will,” Maja said. She took a deep breath. They were back to square one. She’d have to deal with this after work.

She walked back out into the gallery, ready to close the deal, but Yasmine was standing alone in front of the painting. Maja looked around. “Where did he go?” she asked.

“He said he needed to think about it,” Yasmine said.