Dinner with Him

In the evening, Amayah got off work and took the metro to head directly home.

***

As she walked into their room on the second floor, the first thing she looked at before she stepped into the room was if there was anything on the floor. Thankfully, this time there was nothing on the floor. As she walked in, she glanced at the center table where she had placed the tray of food in the afternoon. The food was still there on the table untouched.

At first, when she saw nothing on the floor, she thought that Nolan had already eaten the lunch this afternoon, but to her surprise, the food was still there, placed on the table. Not even the cloche had been taken off to check the food.

Nolan was resting on the bed as usual when he heard the slow sound of the door opening. He knew that Amayah was back because none of the servants would dare nor care to even open the door to his room. After all, who had the time to think about a blind man all day?

When he didn't hear her footsteps directly stepping into the room right after she opened the door, his forehead wrinkled in a slight frown. But then he realized something. Thinking about the possibility that she had done this because she remembered his previous behavior of throwing the food, he felt a prick in a corner of his heart.

Actually, it was not as if he had not thought about throwing the lunch this afternoon after she left, but just when he reached out his hand to turn over the tray, her sweet voice rang in his mind, saying that she hoped that this time he wouldn't insult the food by throwing it to the ground, and his hand suddenly stopped in action. For some reason, he didn't want to disappoint her and make her clean up the mess again.

But when he saw her little action of checking before entering the door, he somewhat felt irritated again. It would've been best if he had thrown the food on the floor just like she expected him to do.

Getting over the little surprise, she took her pair of pajamas from her suitcase and walked to the bathroom.

As she came out of the bathroom, she heard the knock on the door and understood that it must be their dinner. She walked up to the door and opened it. As she expected, a servant was standing there with a slightly bigger tray in her hand than usual. It must be because the quantity of food has increased tonight. She accepted the tray from the maid's hands and thanked her.

Closing the door behind her, Amayah walked up to the center table and placed the tray of food on the table. Nolan was sitting on one of the couches, immoved.

"Master Nolan, tonight I would like to join you for dinner in the room. I hope you don't mind." Amayah said.

Nolan was surprised as he heard her words. In the last two years, no one had accompanied him for dinner, and yet his little wife had declared tonight that she would have dinner with him. Why? Why would she stay in this dark and lonely room and not go to have dinner at the dining table where a row of servants were waiting to serve her?

Amayah heard no answer from him, so acknowledging his silence as tacit assent, she took off the cloche covering the food.

As she uncovered the food, she noticed that the food was presented very professionally, just like she saw on the television. Even the smallest details were attended to. Even a simple dish like soup had a white cream garnish spread on top in a precise circular pattern, along with a few golden cubes of perfectly stir-fried tofu in a corner.

After arranging every dish on the two plates, Amayah placed one plate in front of Nolan and the other in front of herself as she took a seat on the single couch behind her.

She waited for Nolan to start eating first, but even after a while, not seeing him pick up his utensils to start eating, she awkwardly asked, "Master Nolan, do you need assistance eating? Should I feed you?"

Remembering her earlier actions of checking the floor before entering the room, he sneered and replied, seemingly with no intention of moving, "It's my eyes that don't work, not my hands! You can go ahead without me."

Hearing those words, Amayah was speechless. She had especially decided to accompany him to dinner, thinking that he didn't eat because he felt lonely being confined in this dark room all day. But what was this? He was still not going to have his dinner even with her accompanying him.

Amayah noticed that his lips were pale and sighed unconsciously. He was starving and hurt. Of course he would be ill.

Amayah picked up her spoon and took a bit of the food, thinking that by hearing her eat he would also feel hungry. But contrary to her expectations, she choked on the food just as it went into her mouth.

Nolan was not at all surprised when he heard her cough. He was surprised at first when he learned that she planned to eat dinner in his room with him, but he assumed it was because she had another personal reason and shrugged it off. But as she uncovered the food, he was even more surprised when he didn't smell the aroma of another meal than his. Was she going to be eating the same meal as he was? Was she aware of this fact? Hearing her continue serving the food without any hesitation, he understood that she was well aware of it.

Actually, his food wasn't unhygienic at all. It was prepared by some of the best chefs in the Emerson family. It looked really appetizing from the presentation. But only he was aware of the fact that the food only looked good but tasted the total opposite.

Amayah hurriedly drank two mouthfuls of water to clean her mouth and get rid of the taste of food. She now realized why Nolan skipped meals. It was not because he wanted to throw tantrums at people, but because the food didn't taste good. It tasted really bland and unappetizing.

She was well aware of the fact that a group of highly qualified nutritionists had planned his meals in order to aid in his eye recovery. But how long can someone consume such tasteless food? Wouldn't it make them sicker?

Amayah suddenly remembered her previous blames on him and felt bad for blaming the man for being stubborn and moody. He was suffering all this time, all alone.

Everyone just cared about his recovery, but no one cared about him.