Amidst The Stars

Revelation

  It was in the middle of kneading dough when Madeline called. Vicente's phone was blaring an ear-shredding pop song (he never figured out how to change the ringtone) so loudly that his apron couldn't muffle it. Across the kitchen, Yao dropped his bowl with a shriek. "Aiyah, Jia Lin, answer it before I go deaf!"

  He brushed his hands clean of the sticky dough the best he could and grabbed his phone. "Hello?"

  "Hi." Madeline's voice was muffled slightly by crackling static and sounded flatter than it usually was. Vicente found himself wanting to hear her speak in person, not that getting the chance to talk to her wasn't already a nice thing.

  "Oh, hi." He leaned against his bench, careful not to squash the half-kneaded dough. "Uh, how are you?"

  "All right. Still working on that essay that's due this Friday, though." Lucien — or was that Matthieu? — appeared to be saying something in the background. "Sorry for calling so suddenly. In hindsight, I should have just texted."

  "It's all right," he said quickly. "Did you want to talk to me about something?"

  "I just wanted to ask you if you wanted to come over to the Boulangerie tomorrow," Madeline said. "I promised I'd make you some crêpes, and I think I've practised enough to show you."

  Practice? Vicente thought. Knowing her, Madeline could probably throw anything together and give it to him and it would be good; she was just that talented. He replied, "sure. Am I allowed to ask what you made, or is it a secret?"

  Madeline let out a breathy laugh, and the sound of that made him smile. "You'll know tomorrow. It'll be a mystery until then."

  "All right, I'll try to guess."

  "Have fun," Madeline said. "See you tomorrow morning."

  "See you."

  She hung up, and Vicente put his phone back in the pocket of his apron. At the stove, Yao tipped his wok over, pouring the fried rice inside it onto a plate. "What were you talking about?"

  "Oh, she just wanted me to go over to the Boulangerie tomorrow." He went back to kneading the dough, sprinkling another pinch of flour over the countertop. "She made something special."

  Leon popped his head into the kitchen from the window. "Maybe she'll surprise you with a candlelit dinner and a bottle of champagne, then after you're done with your romantic meal she'll bring you up to her apartment and the two of you can watch some hot steamy romance movie while squeezed on her couch."

  "I'll be going during the afternoon, there's no way we'll be having dinner together." He began to separate the dough into pieces, rolling each one around the cold metal surface until it turned round. "And Madeline doesn't like watching movies."

  His brother grabbed the plate of tea eggs from the countertop and asked, "why? Does she think they're cheesy or something?"

  Vicente grabbed the bowl of custard filling and scooped up a handful of it, saying, "she says she starts spacing out after a while." He flattened a piece of snow-white dough next, then dropped the custard filling onto it. "And the loud noises can get overwhelming for her at times."

  "Oh. Then you two can listen to steamy romantic songs instead."

  He shooed Leon away from the window. "Nothing romantic of any sort will happen tomorrow. And there isn't going to be anything 'steamy', either."

  "That's what you say now," Leon said over his shoulder as he walked away. Vicente went back to his bench and began making another custard bun.

  "Jia Long has clearly been reading too many romance novels," Yao said. He was shaking a dollop of salty, pungent shrimp paste into his wok as he spoke. "All those crazy, unrealistic love stories have made him forget that a boy and a girl can just be friends."