Rosemonde heard Gwendolyn before she saw her.

"MEERKAT YOU CAME!"

A tall slender girl, who was all arms and legs came bounding up to Myrddin with the exuberance of an Irish Setter. Her "Titian" hair was cut in a bob, and her sloe eyes gave her an exotic beauty that reminded Rosemonde of Louise Brooks, an actress popular during the silent screen era. She gave Myrddin a crushing bear hug and he overbalanced.

"Of course I came! You've assured me father is not coming until tomorrow, and I'm certainly not going to miss seeing your talent finally revealed to the world. I'm so very proud of you Dolly."

Rosemonde suppressed a giggle. Meerkat? Dolly? How endearing.

Myrddin coughed when Gwendolyn squeezed him even more tightly. "Dol, you need to let me go now. I can't breathe."

Gwendolyn let go of her half-brother and turned her attention to Rosemonde. "You have GOT to be Rosie. Meerkat said you might come today. Oh my gosh! He never said how utterly GORGEOUS you are. Your hair, it's SO LONG! Have you EVER cut it? I'm SO jealous! Mine grows SO slowly." Uninvited, she began fingering Rosemonde's long dark red locks. "PLEASE say you'll model for me. I simply MUST paint you."

In her head, Rosemonde was laughing. She was tempted to tell this wonderful string bean on steroids to sit and stay as if she really were an Irish Setter. However, what went on inside Rosemonde's head didn't match her shy exterior. She said nothing and blushed furiously. She was completely overwhelmed. She realised it must have shown on her face when Myrddin gently pulled her away from Gwendolyn.

"Um, Dolly hon, turn it down a notch okay? You're scaring her. Actually, you're even scaring ME. Please, just breathe!"

Gwendolyn placed a palm on her modest chest and exhaled dramatically. She looked mortified. "Whoops! I'm SO sorry. I was too nervous and excited to get to sleep last night, and I've not eaten much today. I'm buzzed on energy drinks. In just an hour and a half, we open the doors, and I show my work to total strangers for the first time. Maybe I'm more terrified than I want to admit."

Rosemonde looked at the gangly, excitable girl who so wanted approval, her big eyes beseeching her understanding. She felt an immediate kinship.

"Thank you for making me feel so welcome," she said shyly.

"I got a bit carried away, didn't I?" Gwendolyn said.

"I just put that down to artistic temperament — oh, which I love by the way!" That made Gwendolyn laugh and Myrddin roll his eyes.

"That's one word for it," he said, his beard twitched as he tried not to smile.

Gwendolyn mock punched him in the stomach and gave Rosemonde a warm hug. She was quivering with exhaustion. Rosemonde became concerned.

"Gwendolyn! You need to eat something. You're shaking from the adrenaline and caffeine. I'm going to get you some food. What do you feel like?"

"There's not much by way of food here; and if you drive, you won't be able to get a park again, once you've come back. It's fine. It's my own stupid fault for not being more prepared. There's only the vending machine outside." Gwendolyn looked like she might collapse.

"Pizza it is then!" Rosemonde started the order in an app on her phone. "What toppings will we get?"

"Genius! Why didn't we think of that?" The other students, some of whom were exhibiting, and others who had been helping Gwendolyn with setting up, gathered around Rosemonde with their orders.

Gwendolyn took Myrddin aside and whispered, "I really like this one, please keep her."

"I like her too, Dolly," he answered.

"Good. It's time you thought about settling down. I want a niece or nephew!"

"Whoa, slow down kiddo."

"I swear, if you don't marry her, I just might."

Myrddin laughed, but he was concerned for his sister. What was going to happen to her when she came out? Shouldn't she wait a bit longer? His little Dolly was a woman now, but she was still terribly naive.

Gwendolyn had met the toffee-nosed Raluca in her first year of high school. Raluca was a few years older, but she had taken his little sister under her wing. Myrddin had thought it odd at the time, but the friendship had endured. Even after Raluca had left school, Gwendolyn and her friend continued to be joined at the hip. He was encouraged by the fact that the older girl did not appear to have outgrown his sister, but he simply could not like her.

His Dolly did everything, anything that Raluca told her to. It frightened him. He wanted to support her. He wanted to believe that Dolly was one of the lucky ones, who had met her soulmate early, but in his heart, he could not. He wanted Gwendolyn to make her own decisions, but it seemed to him, that Ralucca had been thinking for Gwendolyn since puberty. It could become messy. If it did, he knew that Dolly would be traumatised. There was really no way to prepare her. She only saw the good in people.

Then there was their father. She could never imagine the level of bigotry that their mutual parent was capable of. As much as he despised her, he hoped that Carmen, Gwendolyn's mother, would be there for her when she was ready to tell her parents her secret.

"So, how are things between you and Raluca? Is she coming?"

"She's great. She should be here soon, actually". She gasped suddenly, "OH NO! We forgot Luca." She turned her head back towards Rosemonde. "Is it too late to add another vegetarian pizza to the order? Oh, and get a bottle of Pepsi."

"Say no to the Pepsi!"

"You're not having more caffeine!"

Both Myrddin and Rosemonde answered together.

"Okay, okay, I get it." Gwendolyn put her hands up in surrender. She sighed and put her head on Myrddin's shoulder. "Is Dad going to hate me Meerkat?"

He was spared a response when Rosemonde joined them and announced that the pizza was on its way. Gwendolyn bounced back quickly and steered Rosemonde towards her artwork. She had fared better than many of the other students, in that three of her paintings had been chosen for the show.

Rosemonde knew very little about art, but she did recognise that Gwendolyn seemed to favour a surrealist style. The only surrealist painter she could name was Dali, and she found his work too dark for her taste. Alternatively, she decided that Gwendolyn's work was both clever and amusing. One painting that Gwendolyn had called Future Sight, depicted a computer screen with a giant eye in the centre. In the iris of the eye, Gwendolyn had painted a fur-clad caveman — himself painting on his "screen", the cave wall.

"That is brilliant!" Rosemonde said.

"She is rather brilliant, our Dolly," Myrddin said proudly. He gave Gwendolyn an affectionate squeeze.

The pizza arrived and with it, Gwendolyn's girlfriend. Raluca was a striking girl with a blend of European and Asian features. It came as no surprise to Rosemonde that she had been offered a modelling contract. "I thought I recognised you from somewhere," she said. "What's your next assignment?"

"I'm going to be the face of Julie Horgan's new perfume — Seven," Raluca said, proudly.

"Oh? Then we'll be working together," Myrddin announced. "I just said yes to doing all the photography for the print media campaign for Seven." He groaned internally.  "But they didn't tell me who the model would be."

Typically, Gwendolyn squealed to learn that her two favourite people would be working together.  She hadn't noticed that Myrddin's smile was more of a grimace. Rosemonde was getting used to her loud outbursts and had even stopped jumping each time Gwendolyn had gasped dramatically. Rosemonde loved her joyful personality and wished that she could be that extroverted.

They all bonded over the pizza and artwork. Rosemonde was having a wonderful time and was glad that she had kept her promise to come this afternoon. Soon it was time to officially open the exhibition to the public.

And that was when the drama began....