What is the importance of Portland, Maine in the collection, Five Tuesdays in Winter?

Portland, Maine is the setting for "Five Tuesdays in Winter." Mitchell lives here with his young daughter, Paula. He also owns and runs a bookstore in town. Mitchell's life in Portland is defined by the predictable and the mundane, until he hires an attractive, thirty-something woman named Kate to work for him. He soon develops a hopeless crush. When Kate starts tutoring Paula in Spanish, Mitchell wonders if something might happen between him and Kate.