My Funny Valentine

Wendy really likes candy apples, so I went to a store near the Pike Place Market to buy her a $12 dollar one (it also weighs about 5 pounds and is bigger than a softball).
On the bus down 1st to the ferry terminal, I overheard a conversation between two associates who, each in their own way, seem to have suffered long-term chemical dependency problems. That was the most sensitive way I could describe their status. The shorter, insensitive way would have been to say he was a wino in his 50s and she was a tweaker in her 30s. Those ages are adjusted--she seemed to be in her 50s and he seemed to be in his 80s, but her stringy hair and bad skin and his puffy, blotched face made me believe that their lifestyles would preclude them from ever living that long. They noticed all of the people walking on with flowers in their hands; men on their way home to present them, women bringing them home from the office. Anyway, the dialog:

Al: If a man was going to give you flowers for Valentine's Day, would you want flowers more or a plan?
Crystal: No, I think that's stupid. A big bouquet of flowers costs $60 bucks!
Al: Yeah, but if you...
Crystal (ignoring him): I don't want to $60 dollar bunch of flowers, see, because flowers die. And I told my man that. He knows. He knows that if he did bring me a big bouquet of flowers that I would be mad, that I don't want them...
Al (interjecting): So you would be mad if a man bought you flowers but if a man...
Crystal: 'Cause $60 dollars is a lot. If my man has $60 it means he has smokes, it means we got everything that makes us happy. That's more important.
Al: ...but if he just wanted to give you a present for Valentine's Day...
Crystal: Well, if someone just gave me flowers, then I guess it's the thought that counts, right?
Al: Would you want a plant or...
Crystal: But I'm not at that level, see, where I can enjoy things like that. It would be better just to get a card with the 60 bucks in it that said, "These are the flowers you would have got," see?
Al: But if you were just getting a living plant or dead flowers, what would you want?
Crystal (after a slightly stunned pause): Oh. I don't know.
Al: You know, the flowers are going to die anyway, but with a living plant that has flowers, you know, some people, they have flowers for years.