Episode 992: It's My Party

As if on cue, they heard a bark followed by two more.

“I’m going in to him. Sorry if you expected me to be something you could show off to your friends but I’m not cool with that and I did tell you I was only showing up for Walter, not the party. If you have a problem with that, I-”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” It wasn’t but he didn’t want to drive his granddaughter away by making a big deal of it. “If I have the urge to show you off at a party it’s because I’m a proud grandfather, it’s nothing nefarious. These occasions aren’t everyone’s cup of tea and that’s fine, really. Go on up and keep Walter company. It’s fine.”

Minutes later, Katherine, his wife approached him. “Between hiring Lila again and that dog, the party is progressing much more smoothly than I would have expected. Only now, one of the hosts has such a prominent scowl on his face and it isn’t going to do wonders for the networking he likes to do. Absolutely no one other than your wife is willing to brave that stern expression on your face, Phillip.”

“Oh, ugh, yes, sorry. I was just thinking.” Re-thinking was more like it. If Tansy refused to actually attend the party, there went his plan to observe her with a particular party guest.

“Well, your resting thinking face isn’t welcoming enough,” his wife informed him. “Whatever business has you so preoccupied set it aside for now and concentrate on helping me make this the must attend event of the season again. We’ve had too many flops in recent years, I don’t want us to fall off the social calendar.”

“Of course not, you’re right. I need to focus on the matter at hand.” And the matter at hand for Phillip involved tracking down that particular guest he’d intended to steer in Tansy’s direction and devise a new way to make it happen instead, to discover once and for all what was going on with his granddaughter.

Episode 993: The Man