Beyond Love

Misfortune

Two pastry chefs down and a short break later, it was our turn to have our roll evaluated. I'd turned to my husband with fingers crossed behind my back before producing the bottle of sake we'd brought along to the table.

"Ah!" Mr. Yamazaki was the first to react, smiling at the sight of what I assumed was a familiar blue-frosted bottle. "You have sake?"

"It's part of the enjoyment," I laughed, filling one of the shot glasses that Xander had found in the cabinets while he was placing the cream cheese in the refrigerator to chill. Mr. Yamazaki nodded, a spark of amusement in his eyes before turning to his translator behind him and whispering. The translator nodded before whizzing off to somewhere.

With exactly three glasses filled, I presented one of each to the chefs. "Our swiss roll goes well with this particular type of sake! Um, at least I hope it does," I laughed sheepishly, preparing for the cut.

"Hold on for a sec," the photographer stopped me before I could pick up the cake cutter on my right. "Just a minute." He proceeded to snap several photos at lightning speed, camera clicking away as he hopped from angle to angle, looking fairly excited.

Chef Randy had laughed.

"Can you tell us more? What makes you say that it goes well with this?" She picked up the blue-frosted bottle, turning it to read the label at the back. "But really, it's like you two in one. An adorable-looking roll accompanied by a cup of sake—that's you and your husband on the table."

I felt my ears grow hot while the rest of the room laughed, looking on curiously. Xander shifted a little closer for some reason; I couldn't tell if it was just a coincidence or if it was him somehow reading my mind again and knowing that I was getting a tad nervous. Him being a little closer seemed to remove a portion of the butterflies in my tummy.

"Actually, um, I didn't exactly make a roulade! This is less traditional than um, it was supposed to be, I guess. I hope you don't mind—like Miss Rachel, I noticed that the roulade had a high chance of creaking so I left out the egg yolks in the recipe and used only egg whites. O-oh, wait we were talking about the cake. It's um, a cherry blossom swiss roll cake with sake-infused cream cheese as the filling!"

The three pastry chefs nodded, proceeding to take a closer look at the roll.

"Sake-infused cream cheese. I've never heard of that," laughed Mr. Huang, appearing slightly apprehensive.

"It is an interesting combination," Mr. Yamazaki nodded. "In Japan, we have sake cheesecake but I myself have not tried before. Also not with sakura flavour. But it sounds like it will work. Subtle flower flavour with strong sake cream cheese. Maybe we will see for ourselves."

Nervous, I began to cut three slices of the swiss roll, transferring one to each dessert plate while Xander helped with the handing out of dessert forks. That instant, I couldn't help but hold my breath and wait for them to finish with the tasting before waiting more for comments. Since neither Xander or I had personally tasted the roll, the possibilities of what was to come were endless.

Just then, Mr. Yamazaki's assistant returned with what looked like small porcelain cups in each hand, handing them to Shin's father who set them on the table.

"If it's sake we are drinking, we use these small cups called choko," he filled the porcelain cups with sake just like I had done for them and handed one each to Xander and I. I accepted it with two hands, thanking him rather blankly since this was all very sudden.

"Might as well. Since we are enjoying," he laughed. Then, he tipped back his shot glass and downed the liquid in a gulp—making my head spin.

Mr. Huang shook his head, smiling. "He said to drink it after eating the cake, Ryo."