Ava blinked in awkwardness as she sat at the table in silence and David, Mason and Alexander sat on the opposite side with their raised eyebrows.
They had been sitting and staring at her for 15 minutes during the dinner time, and it started to get on her nerves.
"What?" Ava finally snapped and all three of them shook their heads, elbowing and nudging each other before rushing inside the kitchen to grab dishes and plates. David was opening and closing the fridge to get the salad palate and Mason was checking soup on the stove, grabbing a bowl to pour into it. The doorbell rang, and Alex ran to answer the door and got pizza and food bags from the delivery boy. David nearly burned his hand while pulling out tray from the gas oven, and ran to get the knife bumping into Alex who yelled at his dad to get aside. Mason was moving around to grab dishes and stubbed his toe into the corner of the kitchen's counter cursing at himself and they all hurried to put everything before the girl and settled on the chairs with crossed hands on the table.
"Ava, I have made chicken skillet just like how you like with lemon and cream sauce." Mason picked skillet from the dish for Ava, but David stopped him.
"No, Ava you should try the eggplant lassagna..." David looked eagerly at the girl and cut her a piece of the lassagna, pulling it out from the dish when Mason spoke.
"She doesn't like eggplant." David huffed at his boyfriend and then leaned back into the chair.
"You didn't tell me when I was making one." And Mason could only smirk at his boyfriend and David wet his mouth before speaking again.
"Why don't you try chicken Cobb salad? I have made it at home."
"Dad, do you think she'd eat salad? No one likes salad." Alex whined ripping open the food bags and pizza box. "Ava, I got us fries and burger, and pepperoni pizza with soda. Here, let me get you a slice." He picked up slice of pizza and reached to put it in Ava's plate but Mason cut him.
"She shouldn't be eating this much calories. Healthy food is what she wants. Let's try some meatball soup..."
"Mason, honey she isn't sick." David chided Mason and snatched the bowl from his hand."Let her taste something good. How about, spaghetti pasta? I made it for you in olive oil..."
"But I have ordered us tacos!" Alex shouted throwing arms in the air and then turned towards Ava with a secretive smile. "It's with red chillies." He whispered for the girl, but Mason who was leaning forward suspicious of the two also got the ear of it.
"Chillies? No! How many times I told you Ava not to eat too much spicy things but..."
"That's why I have made spaghetti in black pepper..."
"STOP IT!" Ava finally burst and slammed her hands on the table. She had been sitting here, listening to their bickering for past few minutes and got tired of their childish antics.
"Alright, let's talk about it. What's wrong with you all?" She crossed her arms and looked straight at the men who shook their heads, muttering "No, nothing, why do you ask?" and shrugged their shoulders as if nothing was going on just a few minutes ago.
"Don't No, nothing me! Why are you guys acting weird?" She asked again, massaging her temples and all three of them flinched under her stern gaze. Alex busied himself eating cheese pizza, and David dug fork in lassagna stuffing his mouth and then coughed as he swallowed mouthful of it and rubbed his chest.
"We are cool, aren't we?" He said stealing a glance towards Mason who passed him a glass of water.
"Yeah, we are totally cool." Mason faked a laugh and got a mouthful of David's spaghetti and moaned in delight.
"This is really good." He spoke through his full mouth and took another mouthful of them. Ava rolled her eyes at her father and then released a long held sigh.
"Seriously guys? Why are you acting like creepy grannies."
"I'm not that old!" David defended himself making Ava banged her forehead on the table.
"Guys, please!"
"You haven't eaten all day." Mason pointed out with a dead serious expression and Ava gulped in fear knowing that she was going to be lectured by her father.
"I ate" She took a slice of bread with Nutella in the noon. That wasn't a complete lie, was it?
"Been enclosed in your room entire day", said David.
"I came out to line ...er...my laundry and grab soda from fridge ."
"Two slice of bread are not lunch, Ava!" Mason scolded his daughter who flinched back rubbing her arm.
"Soda doesn't count as healthy drink either." David pointed out, grabbing can of soda from Alex's can and squished it open taking a gulp of it himself which made everyone narrowed their eyes at him as if to say 'seriously?'
"The thing is you are not fine." David spoke, gulping down the frizzy liquid which burned his throat.
"I am!"
"You are in love with your doctor." Alex blurted with a sly expression on his face.
"I am!" and then she paused realizing her mistake at the dead panned expression on the faces of all three of them.
"No! I am Not!"
"Got you!" Alex grinned and grabbed spaghetti from David's plate and stuffed his mouth in Victory.
"No, there's nothing..."
"You're too obvious." Mason smirked and drank his water, throwing a l knowing look at his daughter. Ava opened and closed her mouth, feeling herself at the loss of words and pinched bridge of her nose in nervousness.
"Seriously, Dad... there's nothing." Why everyone was making a big deal out of it.
"You don't like her?" David asked in his serious tone which changed the entire mood at the dining table.
"It's...er...I am not lesbian or bi you know."
"These are labels you know. We are just asking do you like her?"
"I guess I do...I mean she's a good person and all that..." Ava trailed off, feeling herself uncomfortable at the question of her fathers, and then gasped as her mind backtracked itself. When did she start considering David her father?'
"Then contact her. What's stopping you?" It's Alex who sounded more irritated than her.
"Hello, princess!" Ava taunted flubbing her arms in the air."I haven't got her number."
"So, that's the real problem?" Mason quirked his thick brow at his daughter who hid her heating face behind her hands in embarrassment.
"I want to die." She mumbled behind her hands earning chuckles from both Mason and David.
"Die later, sister. First get you in contact with her."
"How?"
"There's a thing called internet. We can always look up the hospital site?" Alex suggested and all the three of them ran to grab their laptops, as if racing each other to the sitting lounge and Alex settled next to Ava logging into his laptop.
"Dr. Katerina?" Alex spoke and rest of the others furrowed their eyes in confusion.
"It's not her." Ava pointed out, feeling herself confused. The woman whose picture and information they got from the hospital's website was a woman of round face, brunette hair with freckles dotting her cheeks and button nose, and hazel green eyes. She wasn't Katerina.
"Are you sure, you haven't got the wrong person?" Ava asked again and Alex checked the alphabetical again, going through names of doctors in K-list and clicked on the doctor's name again.
"Nope, searched the entire database. She's the only Dr. Katerina in the City Hospital." Alex answered and Ava chewed on her lip, looking at the picture again.
"Are you sure you got the right name?" David asked leaning forward and Ava nodded.
"I have seen her name plate too." Mason spoke, "but it doesn't make sense."
"Face correction? Surgery?" There were other possibilities running through the David's mind.
"It doesn't explain the eye color." Ava interrupted and David pressed finger on his mouth in a thoughtful manner.
"Contacts?" Alex tried to come up with the possible answer but it didn't make any sense.
"This woman has freckles at the base of her neck too. Katerina's skin was clean of any mark and No, there's no concealer either."
"So? That person doesn't exist? Or they have got the wrong profile." Mason questioned squinting at the screen of laptop and Ava shrugged in answer.
"There's only one way of finding this out and it's the hospital itself." Ava turned to looked at her father and David who wore expression of confusion on their faces.
"We are going to the hospital tomorrow."
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