‘And you are?’ John asked harsh, looking at her as he soon would going to strangle her. Trisha was looking for help at Chris, he was looking at Marie and Marie was looking at John. Wow, he seemed to have his family quiet under control. Already one point off the score, Trish thought. But she had handled worth she said to herself to encourage her. ‘I am Trisha Walker, and you are?’ Trish asked back nicley. She heard how the others at the table hold their breath. Apparently nobody else had done this ever before. Probably it was common that you just had to know this guy, but Trisha didn’t think of giving in and crawl in front of him as apparently everybody else does. ‘I am John Michael Griffin the Second’, he said, ‘and what are you doing here?’ If she had not known better Trish had thought that he really was surprised to see her here, but that was simply impossible. Still in a nice manner she replied, ‘I am going to enjoy this party that is going on here, Mr Griffin.’ She noticed how he pulled up his right eyebrow and she earned a disapproving glance by Chris brother. He just stood there, looking at her. Somehow she had the strange feeling he knew her somehow but that was impossible, she had for sure remembered meeting a man like him before. She felt her defiance grow. Who does he think he is? ‘As the host of this party I cannot remember having invited you, Ms Walker.’ ‘That is completely correct Mr Griffin, I have been invited by your brother Chris.’ Suddenly all the attention was heading towards Chris.
‘I, aehm, John, may I introduce you to my girlfriend’, he said finally finding his voice again. Another x-ray glare went toward Trisha. ‘Then I would like to welcome you in my house and on my party’, John said, suddenly through and through gentlemen like as if he would have refound his behaviour. ‘It is all my pleasure to finally meet Chris family and doing so in this lovely atmosphere’, her voice full of charme, smiling at him with the best she had to offer which earned her another icy shot from his eyes and made the others hold their breath again. John and Trisha looked into each others eyes. Trish could physically feel now that somehow she must have crossed something but she did not know what. John left them without another word and welcomed some more guest.
The other three on the table started to breath again. ‘Wow’, Marc said, ‘I have never seen him so rude to somebody he doesn’t know before.’ Chris was slowly getting color in his face again. ‘Nor did I’, Chris supported Marc’s comment, ‘and believe me, I have experienced many of this franticness.’ And Marie said, ‘I don’t know what has just happened, but was that really our brother? I mean, he seemed normal until he spotted you Trish.’ Everybody was nodding and Trisha felt how her heart started slowly to recover and started to beat normaly again. ‘But your answers! I mean, I was scared silly. I thought I would die in your position and you, you just answered his questions as easy as that!’ Marie continued. ‘Yeah, I mean, wow! He wasn’t as rude as he was to you when Marie introduced me to him and he really loves his little sister and believe me, it was not easy back then. But this here? It nearly seemed that he was shocked to see you here. Did you know him before?’ Marc wanted to know.
Trish shook her head though it was funny and calming her that somebody else had that feeling too. She took a large sip of her Champaign. She felt as run over by a train. After Chris explanation of his brother she had thought that it was going to be tough, but like that?
‘Trish?’ Chris was looking at her. ‘Are you ok?’ ‘Yes, hon, thanks, again. I guess my heart is still beating then. But a bit fresh air wouldnt be bad.’ ‘Sure, lets go outside. Will you excuse us,’ he said, helping Trish to stand up and leading her to the park. Finally outside, Trish took a deep breath and felt how her body was still shaking. ‘Trish, you were marvelous. If I had known that he would react like this I would have never brought you into this situation. I am really sorry for that.’ Trish could see in his face that he meant what he was saying. ‘Well, you could not know his reaction in advance. And now it is too late to go back. So I guess we just have to play our game until the end.’ She took another deep breath. Chris put his arm around her and just hold her. ‘You are shaking,’ he said, shocked. ‘I am going to be fine. I mean, you know, it looked that easy but actually it wasnt at all. I just said to myself that nobody earns such respectless behaviour from anybody, even from your brother. But....’. ‘Shhh. It is ok. Don’t worry about it. I am really sorry that I havent been a bigger help to you and let you all by yourself back then. I dont know what came over me. I guess I was just stonished by Johns reaction.’ He kept on holding her.