The next forty-eight hours were filled with hundreds of unsuccessful crêpes, trial-and-error and nighttime practice sessions. Vicente finally managed to pull off a passable crêpe on Tuesday night while running on nothing but coffee, and Leon had been there to see him dance around the kitchen raising the plate with said crêpe to the ceiling.
It took him another two hours after that to figure out what to put in the crêpe. He came up with a good-enough filling a few moments after Leon went to sleep — sweet, crisp almond crumble, as well as a thin caramel sauce, sandwiched the soft, thin layers of the crêpe. After taste-testing and fixing the recipe a few times, Vicente went back up to the apartment at one in the morning to sleep.
The next morning, it took Ling splashing him with ice-cold water to wake him up in time for class, and he ran off the bus towards the school building right as his first lecture (he knew he shouldn't have picked an eight o'clock class) of the day was to start.
Madeline was already in her usual seat, tapping her pen against the desk. "You're later than usual," she commented.
"Nearly overslept." He gestured to his still-damp hair. "Ling had to wake me up."
"Try setting multiple alarms on your phone," she advised. "One every five minutes. By the second one, the noise should wake you up."
"Mm." Vicente pinched himself; he'd give anything for some coffee. His notebook fell off his desk and hit the floor with a slap.
He bent over to pick it up at the same time as Madeline, grabbing the same corner she did. Then a brief tug-of-war of sorts ensued as they both tried to lift the notebook and placed it back on his desk. She looked at him, amused, and he suddenly felt very awake as he saw her smile.
Vicente turned away, now fully alert, and did his best to concentrate on what the professor was saying.
…
The cream-and-periwinkle sign hanging off of the Boulangerie's door read CLOSED in bold, flowery letters. Madeline pulled at the locked door a few times, grumbling under her breath, before releasing the doorknob in defeat. "Goodness, where did Francis go? He never closes this early."
"What if you called him?"
"No, no, he's probably busy. Should we go to Wang's?"
A few minutes later, they were on the bus away from the city centre. Vicente sent a message to Ling telling her that Madeline was coming back with him to the restaurant, only for her to reply with an unintelligible "DSFLKHJGHLKSFJLKASDJ" and "HOL UP LEMME TELL YAO".
He realised what she meant when they walked into Wang's to find their usual table already set and plates of food placed down. A stalk of dandelion was floating in a glass of water in the middle of the round table, looking completely out of place.
"Hi!" Ling was standing by the table, grinning widely. "Please take a seat and enjoy the meal we have prepared; the chef is in the kitchen should you need anything — "
"How did you prepare this in ten minutes?" Vicente picked up the glass; he could see a few ants clinging to life on the dandelion stem. "More importantly, why?"
"Because we could."
Leon power-walked across the restaurant towards them, whisking the glass out of his hand and waving at Madeline. "Brother says you have five minutes to fix up that crêpe for Madeline before he has to use the stove again, so you better hurry."
"Five minutes!?" He repeated.
"Four and a half now."
He managed to throw an apologetic smile (which probably looked more like a grimace) at Madeline before racing towards the kitchens and throwing his apron on.
Yao was chopping up fish at a terrifying speed, and he shouted over the noise of his cleaver hitting the chopping board, "hurry up, I need to steam these soon! Crazy people, ordering lou siu ping on in the afternoon… " He added afterwards.
Grabbing the bowl of batter he had left over from the night before, Vicente grabbed a frying pan with the other hand and placed it on the stove, then reached over Yao to take a box of his almond crumble.
While he was melting butter on the pan, he scanned Yao's countertop. His brother was planning to make steamed tofu puffs stuffed with minced fish and silken tofu, but had forgotten to get the tofu puffs.
Yao noticed this around the same time he did and cursed out loud, abandoning his fish to race for the cupboard. Vicente went back to his pan and poured a spoonful of batter onto the sizzling-hot surface, smoothing it out with the back of the spoon. It didn't take long for the first side to be cooked. He carefully shook the pan to flip the crêpe over next.
He shook it out onto a plate and drizzled the caramel sauce that had been bubbling next to the pan onto half of the crêpe, then sprinkled the almond crumble over the sauce. With two forks, Vicente folded the crêpe in half, then into quarters, and ran outside holding the plate.
"That was fast." Madeline hadn't touched any of the food on the table. She peered appreciatively at the plate that he put down in front of her, picking up her fork. "And it looks amazing, too."
"Give it a try," he prompted.
She cut off a corner of the crêpe and brought it to her mouth. Her eyes lit up. "It's excellent."
"Really?"
"Really." Madeline cut off another small piece, and rich, brown caramel oozed out from the gaps. "It has to be the best crêpe I've ever had." She swept up a few stray crumbs with the caramel, adding, "in fact, it has to be one of the best desserts I've ever had."
Vicente occupied himself with wiping the condensation off of his glass of milk tea, occasionally glancing up to see Madeline finishing off his creation. The hours he'd spent trying to make the crêpes had paid off in the end after all.
Unexpectedly, Madeline pushed the plate towards him. Half the crêpe was still there. "Try some."
He tried to push the plate back, stammering, "b-but I made them for you, I don't need any, so you can finish it."
"A good chef always tastes their cooking." She pushed it towards him again. "And anyways, there's nothing wrong with friends sharing food."
As he picked up his fork, Vicente wondered why his hand was shaking. He cut off part of the crêpe and tasted it. The crunchy almond crumble shone through from the soft, delicate crêpe, and the bittersweet caramel kept the sweetness and fragrance of the crumble from overpowering the dessert.
Madeline cut off a part next, her fork knocking against his briefly. "Did you use vanilla in the almond crumble?" She asked.
"I did. I managed to get vanilla paste instead of essence, which is why the crumble is darker than I expected."
"No wonder the flavour is so strong." Madeline set her fork down and tugged the sleeves of her jacket back. Vicente noticed that she was wearing a thin silver bracelet on her left wrist, and the flower-shaped charm that hung from it flashed briefly.
"Nice bracelet," he blurted.
Madeline set her hand on the table so that the charm was visible. It was a carnation that was painted a bright, glossy red. "Thanks. My ex-girlfriend gave it to me."
"Oh," he said. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry."
"It's fine." She fiddled with the charm, running her thumb over the intricate petals. "I'm still friends with her and our breakup wasn't very dramatic or anything."
"That's good. And, uh, I didn't know you were a lesbian."
"I'm bi, actually." Madeline shrugged. "It's an easy mistake to make." She rubbed her arms, shivering a little despite the jacket she had on. "Anyways, it's a bit chilly in here."
"Do you feel cold?"
She nodded and moved her hand closer to him. "Feel my hand."
Vicente did so, ignoring the irrational, impulsive part of him that wanted to keep his hand over hers for far longer than just a few seconds. "Do you want some tea? Or I could lend you a jacket."
"I'll be leaving soon, so you don't have to." Madeline slid her hand out from beneath his reluctantly. "I'm sure my brothers will be back in a few moments."
He couldn't help feeling disappointed, but he nodded and stood up. "I can walk you to the bus station."
His glasses fogged over when he stepped into the stuffy afternoon air, and Madeline wiped her glasses clean as well. They made their way to the bus station, Madeline busy texting someone. They stopped at the bus station, watching other cars zip past on the black tar road.
Vicente spoke up after a rickety bicycle wobbled past them. "I'm glad you liked the crêpe."
"I'll make you one the next time we go to the Boulangerie," Madeline replied. "And thank you for making it."
The bus was a few meters away. Madeline slipped her phone in her pocket and hugged him goodbye. "See you tomorrow."
The sun was beginning to set, and it was never good to be out in the streets when everything was dark, at least not in this part of Trofilos. Vicente watched the bus disappear down the road and made his way home.
...
A/N: Lou siu ping on (in Chinese, 老少平安) is a dish that consists of minced fish and tofu that is then steamed, and in this chapter Yao has decided to stuff the mixture in tofu puffs (which is not a common thing to do in most households). The dish name literally means "peace for the old and young", and is named such because it is very soft and easy to swallow without choking hazards, thus both the elderly and young children can eat it without difficulty.