Ch 4. Earl Grey Martini

• Earl Grey infused Gin
• Lemon Juice
• Lavender Simple Syrup

     The weather during fall break was perfect for taking long walks and avoiding my Macroeconomics homework. I walked all the way from my dorm room in Warren Hall through Audubon Park, and finally down Magazine Street. I thought maybe I’d walk down to District Donuts and take the streetcar back up to Tulane University (that should eat up a chunk of my day). Instead though, I ended up stopping at a place labeled Mon Astre, much closer to the school.

      I don’t know what it was that caught my attention, but I entered on a whim.

     When I walked in, the first thing that struck me was the lighting. It wasn’t poorly lit, but the lamps were warm and dim, almost like candles. Some kind of haze floated through the room.  It smelled like tobacco and juniper berries.

      I walked around the room for a bit before deciding to sit at the most shadowed part of the bar.

     A man with silver and blue hair walked in from another room. His blue eyes widened when he saw me.  I smiled awkwardly at him.

     “Hi,” I said. “Do you know where the bartender is?”

     “I am…the bartender” the man said, pensive for a moment.

     Then he relaxed and said, “My name is Wonho. Welcome to Mon Astre.”

     “My Star. Nice name choice,” I chuckled.

     We sat in silence for a bit. Wonho started making a drink.  The haze got thicker. It looked almost bluish.

     “What is that?” I asked when Wonho pulled out a pitcher of something with little flowers floating in it.

     “Lavender simple syrup. It’s sweet and floral,” he answered.

     “Why is that gin such a dark color?” I asked next.

     “It’s infused with Earl Grey tea.” This answer was shorter.

     I thought for a moment.

     “If it were regular simple syrup, and you rimmed the glass with sugar, it would be an Earl Grey martini,” I said, leaning forward to get a closer look.

     “It is an Earl Grey martini.” He looked up from his work. He stared directly into my eyes and said “Hyungwon Chae, I’ve never met someone quite like you.”

     I pulled back at that, side-eyeing him, ready to bolt.

     “How -- How do you know my name?” I asked.

     He set the drink in front of me. The glass was not rimmed with sugar, but a sprinkling of lavender flowers floated on the top. It was unmistakably the drink I was known all over campus for making.

     “It was inevitable. You had to walk into my bar during fall break. I had to make your signature drink,” he said.

     I stood up and started walking backwards toward the door.

     “You have a wish, don’t you, Hyungwon?” He said it sweetly as he stepped around the bar.

     “Not really,” I replied. I tripped over a chair, landing on the floor.

     “Nonsense,” Wonho said, laughter in his eyes as he looked down at me. “You could not have found my shop otherwise.”

     I thought about it as I slowly crawled back.

     “I suppose some validation would be nice,” I quipped. As a legacy student at Tulane, everyone expected great things from me. I was, to put it bluntly, disappointingly average.

     “I can grant that wish.” Wonho stepped back. “For a price.”

     “What is the price?” I asked. I had stopped crawling toward the door.

     “Work for me,” Wonho said.

      My shock must have shown on my face, because his next statement explained more.

     “I am in need of an assistant, someone who can mix drinks,” he said. “Your wish for validation will take some time to grant, and it is too expensive to pay for all at once.”

     I stood up, thinking. It might be kind of nice to get off campus more often, and my friends kept telling me that I needed to do more than classes and sleep.

     However, this entire experience was disturbingly similar to the time I met a girl in period cosplay in the Josephine-Louise Hall ballroom. Everyone else acted like she wasn’t there.  Now, Wonho was staring at me with a similar expectant look to the girl’s.

     Still… it was better to take the shot and maybe become something.

     “I’ll do it,” I finally said. “I’ll work for you, but I should warn you, I’m hopelessly average.”

     I walked back to the bar, picked up the martini, and drank it in one go.

     “I’ll see you Monday, as soon as I can get here,” I said as I walked out the door. 

     “See you then,” Wonho replied.

     I swear I heard him mutter something as the door closed.

“You are far less average than you think, Hyungwon Chae.”