Chapter - 9

"Tri, you came!" Cindy exclaimed as she watched Trinity place a basket at the center of the coffee table. Running towards her at breakneck speed, she wrapped her tiny arms around Trinity's legs.

Laughing, Trinity picked up the little girl who looked adorable dressed in a light pink frock. "Of course I came." She replied and Dmitri watched in a trance like state as more children came rushing into the living room, all eager to get a hug from her.

He couldn't help but grin as he watched Trinity twirl a girl around, making her giggle. There were almost more than half a dozen of them. Nine, he counted.

Not long after, a slightly plump looking woman entered the room, her eyes lighting up as she saw Trinity.

"Trinity darling! It's so good to see you." She exclaimed, moving in for a hug.

"Hey, how's it going?" She grinned down at the old woman.

"All's well. Just that the donations haven't been much these past few months but we'll live." The lady explained, her expression falling just a little.

Trinity frowned and was just about to open her mouth to say something when the lady noticed him standing quietly at the other side of the table.

"And who is this?" She asked, pointing at him.

Eleven heads turned towards him, never one to shy away from attention, Dmitri beamed at them,"Hello everyone, I'm Dmitri, Trinity's friend."

There was a slight murmur of Hello's as the little girls looked at him. "Hello Dmitri, welcome to our little place." The old lady said.

"What, just a hello? I don't get a hug?" He said, feigning hurt.

"Of course you do." The old lady laughed, moving to give the man a hug. "I'm Patricia by the way, you can call me Patty."

"Well, I must say Patty, you're a beautiful woman." He said, taking her hand and placing a kiss at the back of it.

Much to Trinity's amusement, the old lady blushed. "That's so sweet of you to say." She cooed, pinching his cheeks lightly. "He's a nice one, where did you find him Tri?" Patty questioned.

"Well, more like he found me." She replied, smiling.

"Tri, come, come! We have something for you!" Cindy, who was watching the whole exchange with her curious blue eyes said, pulling at her hand to get her attention.

The other girls cheered along with her as Cindy began pulling her in the direction of the backyard.

"What is it, Cindy?" Trinity asked, but all she got in response were giggles of the girls as they followed behind them.

Curious as to what was happening, Dmitri too followed them outside with Patty hot on his heels.

"What's happening?" He murmured.

"Oh, she's going to love this. Just you wait." Patty said excitedly from behind Dmitri.

"Happy birthday Trinity!" A loud cheer went up just as Dmitri entered the backyard which was decorated with a combination of artfully placed white and purple balloons. In the center of the yard stood Trinity, in front of what looked like a table with her back to him as she took in the scene around her. The stiffness of her shoulders told him she was as shocked as he felt.

It was her birthday today? Why hadn't she told him anything? 

Thinking that maybe he had heard wrong, he turned to the lady standing next to him. She had a big grin on her face as she watched the scene unfold, her eyes shining.

"Is it her birthday today?" He asked.

"It was yesterday. But she had said she would come today so they all planned out the party for today. Cindy said that Trinity would detect something was going on if we insisted she come see us on her birthday. We didn't want to ruin the surprise so we all agreed." Patty explained over the sound of the kids singing the traditional happy birthday song as they circled around Trinity.

"Oh." Was all he could say. She could have told him it was her birthday yesterday, he would've brought her a gift. Girls liked that sort of stuff, didn't they? But why hadn't she told him?

Dmitri was still mulling over the question in his mind when he heard Patty sigh from beside him. He looked at her only to find her eyes trained onto something in front of her. Following her line of vision, he saw Trinity standing there with tears in her eyes as she looked at Patty.

"You didn't have to do this." Trinity mouthed, gesturing to everything around her with her hands.

Patty merely shook her head at her and mouthed back,"You deserve this, my darling." 

Shaking her head with a small smile, Trinity beckoned them over with one hand while wiping her eyes with the other. Both Dmitri and Patricia moved over to where the kids were chorusing she cut the cake. 

It was a small one peppered with chocolate chips. Cutting a small slice with the plastic knife, she picked up the small piece and turned to her side, pushing more than half of it into Patty's mouth, laughing as she did so. Swiftly cutting off another small slice, she did the same to Dmitri, who although surprised, didn't hesitate in taking a hearty bite. Another slice went into Cindy's mouth who, up until now, was busy clapping enthusiastically and the charade went on, until only one slice was left which Trinity promptly picked up. 

"This one's mine." She said with a cheeky grin, her eyes twinkling as she took a rather huge bite. 

"Real ladylike behavior right there." Dmitri teased.

Trinity simply shooed him off with her hands, taking an especially large bite just to show him how 'ladylike' she could really be. Dmitri chuckled at her child like antics while she continued eating, not caring if she looked like an idiot with chocolate smeared over half her face. 

Wiping her face with her hand once she was done, she licked her fingers clean not caring if Dmitri was staring at her with his eyes filled with amusement and something else she couldn't quite place. Deciding to ignore that for the time being, she clapped her hands loudly, gaining the attention of all the kids who were either playing with the balloons or chasing after each other around the backyard. 

"I've got cookies for you guys and they're kept there inside the kitchen!" She exclaimed, pointing at the house behind them. The children hooted and cheered, instantly running off in the direction of the kitchen with Patty hot on their heels.

As Trinity watched them go with a content smile on her face, she couldn't help but feel Dmitri's stare burning holes into the side of her face. Turning around, she took one look at his face and knew that he was just about dying to ask her something so she waited for him to speak. When he didn't, she raised an eyebrow at him. Her action caused him to break out of whatever stupor he was in but what he asked wasn't something she had expected.

"Why didn't you tell me it was your birthday yesterday?"

"I didn't think it was all that important." She shrugged, quickly getting over the initial shock of him asking that out of all things.

"You didn't think it was all that important?" He repeated incredulously.

"Yeah, well I'm not one for celebrations. All I did on my birthday was go to that bar and then I spent the rest of the day watching movies with Casey, nothing much. Besides, we had just met and I didn't want you to feel obligated to get me something on the very day you had met me." She explained.

"Well, that's just too bad because I'm going to buy you a present now anyway." He replied, trying to get his head around it all.

"You don't have to!" She denied quickly.

"Well, I want to." He shot back but one look at her face and he knew she was going to argue with him, stopping only once she got her point across. But before she could do that, he quickly changed the topic, "You know, girls are usually so enthusiastic about celebrating their birthdays that this just seems sort of weird to me. "

Trinity laughed lightly at his words. "Its not that I don't like to celebrate birthdays. Its just that ever since I was little, we never really had all that much money to actually celebrate birthdays so we never did and I guess it has sort of become a habit now." She explained, shrugging slightly.

"Okay. So on your next birthday, we're going to throw a grand party and invite all your friends." He promised.

Trinity simply shook her head at him with a small smile and he beamed back at her, offering her his arm. She quickly looped her arm through his and together they walked inside the house. Trinity quickly said her goodbyes to all the kids, promising to come see them as soon as she could. Dmitri felt pleasantly surprised when they all asked the same of him but he promptly agreed once he had gotten over the initial shock of it.