Leanne winced as she heard the voice outside her studio, loud enough that probably didn’t need the phone she was speaking into. Geraldine was coming to keep her company while she worked, again.

What that actually meant was that Geraldine would harass her with questions and opinions from the moment she opened the door to the instant she left to make new and valuable connections for whatever her latest get-rich-quick business was.

The door slammed open. “Darling! You really need to get a bigger studio. Your projects are taking up so much space, there’s barely room for me to visit.”

There was no room for her to visit, but that never seemed to stop her.

Geraldine reached for the half-dried painting on one of the wooden chairs by the window.

“Not that, it’s still wet! You’ll smudge it.”

“Oh, well, where can I sit?”

In another room? Preferably in another building? Maybe several cities away?

Leanne plopped her paint brush into a cup on her work table and carefully lifted a painting of a person paddling across a green lake off a chair in the corner. “Here.”

“Can I at least move it into the sun?”

“Of course, just don’t jostle anything.”

Geraldine sighed theatrically. “I know. Saints forfend your only sister should have a place in your life more important than your watercolours.”

Her sister did have an important place in her life, outside the studio. Leanne returned to her current landscape.

“Ohhhh, that’s a pretty one. Is it a commission?”

“No.”

“Well I’m sure it’ll sell. What do you think you’ll get for it?”

“I don’t know.”

“You need a better representative than that Zara person. She’s too shallow.”

As if Geraldine was deeper than a roadside rain puddle.

“Where did you get the idea?”

“A book.”

“Ohhh, which one? Maybe I should read it. Then I could post about it, and someone will ask me, and then I’ll be able to sell it instead. What commission does Zara charge?”

Because that wasn’t a sore point. “Nothing as yet, she hasn’t sold anything.”

“Well there you go. You should at least let me try.” Geraldine moved to where Leanne stood, trying to paint, and put a hand on her shoulder. “Give me a job that helps you and maybe I’ll stop with the harassment.”

Other 10 minute sprints