Tom shook his head. “Sometimes she’s worse.”

It had been one long and tiring evening.

The exhibition was first opened to the members of the press, with Jodi, Tom and Lucia giving them the grand tour. Then, the half-hour Q&A session; Jodi wouldn’t have minded it if the questions had focused on her art and. Instead, they seemed to be fascinated by the fact that she was deaf, and wanted to know all about what her experience as a deaf person was and how it affected her creativity. Thankfully, Lucia had coached her well, so she was able to give them answers that satisfied them while managing to keep her private life – well – private.

The guests started to arrive while she was with the press, and by the time they left the small meeting room, about 300 hundred people were busy mingling and drinking at the gallery’s main hall. Her mom and dad had been unable to fly in due to the flu, and her brother couldn’t miss court the next morning, so aside from about a dozen friends, the rest of the guests were strangers. Lucia then announced it was time for Jodi to give her speech, which the artist did. It lasted less than two minutes, something the curator had silently fumed over, but at least it was now out of the way.

The opening had started three hours ago. By now, her friends had already left; after all, they had already seen the pieces when she was working with them at her small studio. Tom was inside chatting up a prospective buyer of her Invisigoth, although she suspected it was because the buyer was cute and not because Tom had decided sales was his future. Lucia was busy doing what she did best: morphing her pieces from art into tangible financial investments. While they were both engaged in their own matters, Jodi had found herself alone on an alley, leaning tiredly against the side of the gallery while smoking her sixth cigarette of the night.

Her pager vibrated inside the pocket of her black Gucci pinstripe trouser suit. It was a message that read “I need you back inside. Important. L.” Jodi sighed, but she knew she had to comply. Her break had lasted for about 20 minutes; one more, and she might cause Lucia a heart attack. She squashed the unfinished cig with the heel of her boot and popped a mint into her mouth before stepping back inside.