Share a meal

Soon enough Maria had whipped up a meal with the few ingredients Steve had in his kitchen and Laila helped her bring the dishes out. When Maria came out of the kitchen with her dishes, she scolded Steve for the state of his kitchen. "I am surprised you still managed to stay alive before this incident. How do you have such a large and beautiful kitchen and yet have no proper ingredients to cook with. I did my best with what I managed to find and with what I still deemed edible, but this is no way to live. I have seen homeless people with better food."

While Noah chuckled at the rapid insults Maria was serving to his injured friend, being glad he wasn't on the receiving end of her words, Steve seemed completely unbothered. He had apparently ignored everything Maria had said after the words 'beautiful kitchen' or perhaps had only heard those two words as he said, with a smug smile "Ah so the kitchen was to your liking, eh? Does that mean that you see yourself cooking together with me in the future after we start living together?"

Maria became flustered and with a red face and stammering words she said, "T-that is beside the point! Did you not hear anything else I said?!" Of course Laila and Noah where thoroughly amused from witnessing this interaction and kept their mouths shut to see what Steve would come back with. He did not disappoint in his reaction as he said, "I heard all I needed to hear. Just like I did with your words just now. Since you tend to not be honest and hide behind harsh words, I need to listen to that small voice behind it to hear what you actually mean. I heard that small voice loud and clear, and I can say that your words made me quite happy."

Maria seemed fully beaten and was at a loss of words. Hearing Steve say that her words had made him happy, despite her saying nothing that could remotely be seen as nice, she found herself stuck. If she said anything mean in response to his sweet words, she would be cruel. If she said anything nice, she would only confirm his theory and she wouldn't hear the end of it, making herself feel even more embarrassed in the process. So, in the end, she gave up and admitted her defeat by saying with a flushed face, "Ugh, w-whatever. Hear whatever you want to hear."

At this point Noah and Laila burst out laughing and Steve just grinned happily as he said, "Thanks! I will.", again ignoring the actual words and hearing just what he thought Maria meant. Maria just shook her head and placed the fishes down before leaving the room to get some plates and silver wear for them to eat with. By the time she had returned, everyone seemed to have returned to normal and had decided to show her some mercy.

While Noah and Laila took their seat at the table and Maria was filling up plates, intending to do the same, she realized that Steve wouldn't be able to join them. She said, "Oh, right. I almost forgot. Steve can't sit at the table. The chairs are too straight and would create pressure on his stitches. He needs to be seated in a 45 degree angle." In a brainstorm like fashion, Maria began to mumble the different possible solutions and dismissed them one by one in the same breath, before she said, "Well, I guess I'll just sit on the couch with him and you two can share your meal up here. I just need to find something to create a makeshift table for Steve to eat from before he uses the lack of one as a reason for me to feed him."

In a disappointed tone Steve said, "Taw, was I that easy to see through? Just when I thought I had a fool proof plan, you manage to one up me. I guess I'll have to think of something else. Fortunately, I have plenty of days with you to find a plan that works. Perhaps if I ask it often enough, I will manage to tire you down." Of course both remarks caused Noah and Laila to chuckle again, with Noah hiding himself behind his arm as he placed his forehead on closed hand. Once they were done laughing, Laila said, "How about we all just hold our plates on our laps or on one of the couch pillows and eat at the salon table together. If we had wanted to eat at a table by ourselves, we could have just stayed at home. We came to share a meal with you guys and our patient not being able to sit with us at the dining table, isn't something that will hold us back." Maria smiled and nodded before she said, "Very well. In that case lets bring all of this over to the other table and eat together over there."