The night he planned to give it to her, the radio in the shop was blaring the new hit: “Can’t Buy Me Love.” Paul McCartney’s voice soared over the frantic beat, shouting about how diamond rings didn't mean a thing if they weren't backed by the real deal.

Arthur felt the weight of the small box in his pocket. He looked at the sapphire—beautiful, but objectively "cheap" compared to the world Clara dreamed of. He realized then that he couldn't buy her the life she wanted. He couldn't buy her the silk, the pearls, or the status.

"The song is right, Clara," he whispered into her hair. "I may not have a lot to give, but I've got a lot to give to you. I can’t buy you that dress tonight. But I can promise you a life where you're never bored and always loved."

Clara stopped dancing. She looked at his worn coat and his calloused fingers—the hands of a man who played for the love of the music, not the paycheck. She looked at the shop door, then back at him.

Clara was humming along, her hips swaying as she closed the register. "Listen to that," she laughed. "Easy for them to say, isn't it? They've got all the money in the world now."

"You know," she said, leaning her head on his shoulder as the song reached its final 'No, no, no, noooo!' , "I think I’d look better in cotton anyway, as long as I'm with you."

He walked up to the counter, took her hand, and didn't pull out the ring. Instead, he pulled her into a clumsy, swinging dance right there between the bins of jazz and pop. "Artie, what are you doing?" she giggled, breathless.

Arthur was a jazz man in a rock-and-roll world. He played the upright bass at The Blue Note, a basement club where the floor was always sticky and the applause was polite but thin. Across the street, the cavernous clubs were packed with kids screaming for four lads with mop-tops.