Uwe Greven, a consultant physician in genito-urinary medicine and pretty ace cook, had lived for six-going-on-seven years with Tecwyn ap Eifion who couldn’t toss a salad unsupervised and was the only male family planning consultant working in Wales. They’d met at a Millennium Eve party, spent the first three days of the new century in bed together, and were an item by Valentine’s Day. Both were out in every aspect of their lives. At work neither had felt it an issue, but then AIDS had brought lots of gay men into GUM. In Family Planning, being gay seemed to be a real advantage as it was non-threatening to the majority of women who’d traditionally cornered the field. At home, the house they’d bought and done up together bore all the hallmarks of fine taste, made affordable by considerable investment from their ample joint income. They loved their home, and loved to share its comforts with houseguests.

In their wider family life Uwe and Tecwyn realised their good fortune too. The Grevens, despite their Catholic piety, had demonstrated their acceptance of the situation with grace and showed genuine affection for Tecwyn through Christmas and birthday gifts. Tecwyn’s mother, Arfona Lewis liked Uwe more than her two current sons-in-law, one of whom she found stupid, the other she considered pompous and English. She shared with him a love of opera, especially the Germans. In the four years since being widowed it was she, not Tecwyn, who accompanied Uwe to the Welsh National’s two seasons at the Liverpool Empire and Opera North’s at The Lowry. They’d even travelled to Bayreuth together for The Ring, leaving Tecwyn to tend his garden, feed her cats and work on the gay novel he was hoping to enter for one of the major prizes in the National Eisteddfod.

From the kitchen, Uwe asked, ‘Nia is coming tonight, isn’t she? Doesn’t she study ethics or moral philosophy?’

‘I think so,’ Tecwyn replied, ‘but she’s been invited because Judith’s a lawyer… we need some lesbian input.’

‘So Mike and Tara are the token straights, then, are they?’ Uwe surmised, totally unconvinced by the whole idea.

Coming back into the kitchen Tecwyn threw the tea towel he’d been using to wipe stray fingerprints from the silver at Uwe.

‘Of course!’ he exclaimed. ‘And before you ask any more stupid questions, Richard and Penri are coming because they’re the gay men we’ve been friends with longest. And Arfona is my mother!’