Amidst The Stars

Mont Blanc

  The next time Madeline visited Huang's was during Sunday. She'd arrived at the restaurant at six in the morning, only to find it completely empty. Apparently, Ling had wandered down to get her pencil bag while still wearing her pyjamas and found her waiting outside the door, staring right at her.

  She'd immediately raced back upstairs, face red, and yelled for Vicente. She was loud enough that he woke up immediately, sitting up so quickly that he hit his head on the ceiling and half-fell off his bunk while seeing stars.

  After grabbing some leftover winter melon soup for breakfast, Vicente ran down to the restaurant to meet with her, his head throbbing with pain.

  They sat down at a table that was right in the middle of the restaurant and also the furthest away from the kitchens and the register, where two of his siblings would be working. Vicente placed down two saucers of still-warm pineapple pastries and cups of his favourite jasmine tea, wondering how on earth Madeline looked so put-together so early in the morning. She woke up at four in the morning every day to help at the Boulangerie and still managed to look impeccable, honey-gold hair perfectly braided and looking alert as ever. No sleepiness clouded those brilliant blue eyes.

  He was snapped out of his reverie when he heard Ling shout in frustration. She'd changed from her pyjamas into a denim jacket, and the logo of some pop idol she liked was stencilled in black glitter on the T-shirt underneath. The jacket was half-falling off as she jostled the register, trying in vain to pull out the drawer.

  "Will she be all right?"

  He shrugged and pulled a saucer towards his side of the table. "She'll figure it out."

  At the cashier, Ling let loose an impressive string of curse words.

  Madeline took a sip of her tea, the steam clouding her glasses for a moment. "Sorry for showing up so early, I should've checked your opening hours beforehand. Poor Ling looked like she was about to pass out when she saw me."

  Ling kicked the register. "JUST OPEN ALREADY, YOU USELESS PIECE OF SH — "

  "It's fine," Vicente said. "You'll always be welcome here. I just hope the sight of Ling in her pyjamas wasn't enough to traumatise you."

  She laughed. "I've walked in on Lucien having a shower, and I don't think anything could be worse than that. And speaking of Lucien..." she pulled out a plastic box from her bag. "He insisted I bring something over to give you." The transparent box held an impressive Mont Blanc tart. It was slightly lopsided, but the beautiful little mountain of sweetened chestnut cream still looked okay, and the golden-brown tart shell perfectly intact. The layer of powdered sugar over the cream looked like fine snow.

  "Another chestnut dessert." Madeline placed the box on the table and opened it. "I like working with them since their flavour is so versatile. If I'd had the time, I would've tried to smoke the chestnuts before blending them, just to see how they'd taste."

  "It looks..." he could barely find the words to say. "Wow."

  "Give it a taste," she prompted. "I made them just this morning."

  He pushed his fork through the pale-brown cream, watching the mountain collapse slightly as the tines went through the crunchy meringue and exposed the creamy off-white centre of the tart. Powdered sugar scattered onto the table as he brought the fork away and tasted it.

  The tart was even better than the one he'd tasted before, the chestnut mingling with hints of vanilla and white chocolate, the meringue crisp and sweet. The cream combined all the contrasting tastes and textures together into one smooth masterpiece that went down easily, leaving nothing but a fleeting, fragrant aftertaste.