She Was Not Special for Him

She wiped the sweat from her forehead and looked at the clock. It was already past eight o'clock, at this time the dean of the nursing home should have woken up. She went back to the bedroom and made a phone call the dean of the nursing home.

As Ava thought, Mrs. Gorge was already awake when she answered the phone. She was sitting at the dining table having breakfast with her husband.

"Ava, what's the matter?" She wondered why Ava would call her at this time.

Ava told her about the blockage of her community and said that she could not go to work for 48 hours or longer.

"Oh, it's okay, it's okay. You can work from home, don't rush to work, safety comes first."

Mrs. Gorge was 48 years old. She managed a nursing home with more than 300 beds, and she had served in the industry for more than 20 years. Attentiveness and cautiousness had deeply become her professional habits. Recently, the Covid 19 was on the rise, and there were infected patients in almost all districts. She dared not relax her vigilance. The elderly once got affected, they easily developed into severe patients.

Nursing homes have three finances employees, one was Ava and the other two were older finances staff. Ava's main duty was to do the payroll and insurance for employees, beside taat she assisted another accountant to manage some work at computer. Her work was not busy. So even if she worked from home, it didn't really matter.

"Even if your community is unblocked after 48 hours, don't rush to go to work. Wait at home for two more days for observation." Mrs. Gorge was not at ease. For safety reason, she gave Ava two more days off.

"Okay."

"Take good care of yourself, you live alone. If you meet some difficulties, ask someone for help. Okay?" Mrs. Gorge knew Ava's life experience, and was very sympathetic to this quiet and obedient girl. Life was unfair, some people were born with thousands of people's love, and some people could only lose the little treasure they only have as life went on. She had a daughter, not a son, otherwise she would be very happy to be Ava's mother-in-law.

"Yes, I will. Please be more careful yourself as well." Ava's lips tips lifted slightly, giving a shy smile.

After hanging up the phone, Ava saw Blake was still sleeping in the living room. She turned her face back and opened her laptop. Then she solemnly typed the following search terms in the search bar - "how to cook", "Tips for cooking homemade delicious", " Top 10 Home Cooking Dishes".

Ava did not live alone until three years ago when her grandpa passed away. Before that, she was still taken care of by her grandmother. Grandma was a quick-witted old lady, didn't give Ava too many opportunities to do homework. Even when Ava washed dishes at home, Grandma would think that her granddaughter's wash was a waste of water because Ava was too slow in doing everything.

After grandmother's passing away, Ava started to live alone herself, but didn't pay much attention to cooking and food. She often combined strange things together in a dish. She simply made sure food were cooked, but the taste didn't matter much to her. In other words, she didn't know how to cook.

After a hard study on the cook books for a long time, she had a preliminary confidence. She suddenly stood up, feeling that she had accomplished a skill, opened the door and rushed straight into the kitchen.

Fortunately, before the blockage she had purchased some shelf-stable vegetables and meat. At this time, she had enough food in the refrigerator. Otherwise, even if she wanted to show her cooking skills, that would be a dream.

She peeled the potatoes, shred them, and put a pot of oil on the fire.

Feeling the oil was hot enough, Ava poured all the potatoes chips into the hot oil at once, with a sting sound, some smoke rose from the oil. She seemed to have overheated the oil.

At this point, she didn't panic. She calmly added some oil into the pot and tried to quickly stirred it.

She didn't know how to cook it just right. Seeing that the potatoes chips were almost dried up, turned off the fire and add some pepper.

The fumes became particularly choking. She was coughing and cooking, and her tears were choked out.

With red eyes, she put potatoes chips on a plate. Then she suddenly remembered she forgot to prepare tomato sauces and salt.

There should be no difference between prepare it before or after, right? Thinking like this, she added a little salt to the fried potatoes chips and mixed well. But when she was about to pour the tomato sauce, an accident happened.

"What are you doing?"

The male voice suddenly appeared behind startled her to shake. With this shake, she almost poured half a bottle of tomato sauce into it. Even though she had quickly straightened the bottle, the "bloody" sauce that was almost about to overflow the plate showed that the situation was not good.

Ava was stunned for two seconds, then closed her eyes in despair. She put back the lid of the tomato sauce bottle, forced out the "soup" in the plate, and did the rescue work better than nothing.

"You're awake." She turned her head to Blake with a diffident smile, "I'm cooking, you... Would you like to go to sleep for a while? It will probably take a while for dinner."

She hold the plate of potatoes chips with unknown taste before Blake and put it on the dining table.

"Cooking?" The air was full of choking oil smoke, Blake turned his face away and sneezed uncontrollably. He strode into the kitchen, looked at the buttons above the old-fashioned cooker hood, and pressed the on-off key accurately.

The cooker hood started running immediately with a loud noise. The pungent cooking smell in the kitchen also subsided a lot.

"Does anyone cook without turning on the cooker hood?" He looked at Ava.

It was only now that Ava realized that she was wrong from the beginning and forgot an important step.

She lowered her eyes and stood there a little bewildered, even not knowing what to do with her hands.

"I...I..."

Blake looked at the girl standing nervously in front of him. She wore an apron over her clothes and made a strange braid on her forehead. A pair of black-rimmed glasses covered almost half of her pale face with the same pale lips, looking like a malnourished child. As long as the sound outside was louder, she started to panic. For no reason, she reminded him of the Chihuahua of his cousin.

The Chihuahua had big eyes, a round head, and a small body. It was often carried around by his cousin in her arms. Even though they meet every New Year and he has no harmful intentions, as long as it sees him, it trembled with fear.

His cousin said that this kind of dog was just like this, afraid of anybody except its owner.

"I didn't scold you, why are you shaking?" Blake said, suddenly realizing that his tone had become stern. He adjusted his tone in time, "I'm sorry, I may had a little bad mood after getting up in the morning. Please go on, I'll go and wash up."

After hearing the bathroom door closing, Ava slowly raised his head and took a long sigh of relief at the empty aisle.

After that, she used two pots, one was for frying shrimp, and the other one for stewing soup.

When Blake came out of the bathroom again, the shrimp had already been served on the table, and only the soup was simmering on the stove.

"Did you see the clothes I put off yesterday? I put them in the bathroom." Yesterday it was too late when he took the shower, and Blake didn't find the hairdryer, so he didn't wash his hair. This morning he washed the hair and was about to wash his clothes, but he couldn't find the dirty clothes.

"I see..." Ava turned her head, and was almost blinded by Blake's handsome.

Blake was wearing a grey loose T-shirt. Because his hair was just washed, water was dripping wetly, and his facial features seemed to be dripping with water, which made him less of an impeccable elite, and more of a young teenager.

"So, where are the clothes?" Blake asked patiently, wiping her hair.

Ava regained her mind and glanced behind him: "I've washed them and dried them."

Blake stopped rubbing his hair against towel. If he remembered correctly, in his pile of clothes, there were his underwear and socks.

"All washed?"

"Um yes."

Blake put down the towel, feeling powerless and speechless. He surely knew about Ava's affection for him, from the moment they two met outside the gate of the banquet hall last night. In his growing up, he has encountered too many eyes like that, and she was not special for him.

In their relations, Ava was still the girl of seven years ago, and Blake was still the same Blake seven years ago. Back then, after discovering Ava's feelings for him, he refused without any hesitation; now, he had no intention of accepting her either.

"Thank you." Blake said with a polite and alienated tone, "But next time please you don't have to wash it for me, I can do it myself."

Hearing the obviously cold tone of Blake, Ava realized she had done something nasty again.

"...Okay." She turned around and turned her back to Blake, preventing him from seeing her depressed expression.

Blake tried a potato chip, but his brows frowned to the over salty taste.

He instantly took a big mouthful of bread, then turned to the shrimps. The moment the shrimp entered his mouth, his facial features twisted uncontrollably. He hurriedly picked up the spoon and took a sip of soup, but instead of diluting the salty taste in his mouth, he was irritated by the strong smell of wine, causing his mind dizzy with gold stars. He couldn't hold back any longer, rushed into the kitchen and threw up all of it into the sink.

Ava saw his big reaction confused. She took a sip of soup, finding the taste of the wine was a bit strong, but it's okay for her. She didn't feel it terrible. The shrimps and potato chips were heavy too, could only be swallowed with much bread.

After Blake finished rinsing his mouth, he wiped the lips and returned to the dining table. Seeing that Ava was eating the unpalatable food with an easy expression, he felt incredible.

"Do you have any sense of taste?"

Ava glanced at his plate that almost was full, she stopped eating and said, "There are pasta in the kitchen. How about I cook pasta for you?"

Blake dared not enjoy her cook, and hurriedly said, "No need. Can I have some hot tea?"

Ava nodded hurriedly, turned around and brought him a freshly brewed green tea in the morning.

Blake poured the tea onto the potato chips and shrimps, and rolled some of them with a big piece of bread. With the tea, the food tastes less heavy, he closed his eyes and swallowed all of them.

After finishing the food, he put down his forks and announced in a slightly heavy tone, "I'll cook the supper."

Ava raised her face in surprise: "Will you?"

"I've been living alone abroad for many years, and I can cook some simple dishes. Don't worry, they won't be worse than this."

Ava lowered her face again.

"Oh, okay."

In the afternoon, in order not to disturb each other, Ava left the living room to Blake, and went back to her bedroom.

This old house had a bad soundproofing. In the afternoon, Ava heard Blake calling someone for a couple of times. They didn't seem to understand what each other meant and talked repeat.

Ava was watching the TV series and listening to Blake's voice, and she gradually became a little sleepy. She tucked into the quilt, took off her glasses, and planned to take a nap.