Chapter Text
Tuesday evening.
The sunset comes again, and the sign magically flips on its own.
The cafe is open for business, and it awaits its precious nightly customers.
Barkeep starts cleaning the glasses, as every good bartender would do in their free time.
The doorbells ring and another regular comes in. bulky and sturdy man, his face marked by time with some wrinkles here and there, a little stubble and short gray-blonde hair. He’s been a regular for some time, his order always the same since the first day.
“A ‘builder’s will’ please. Double the whiskey”
“Yes sir, it will be done shortly.”
That drink’s special thing is in how the ice is cut and refined, the contents of the beverage per se are actually simple enough. 2 parts of whiskey and a few seconds of infusion with wood’s smoke to give it a certain depth and aroma. But the ice, it’s really important, if the temperature is too low it will melt before time and the drink will get diluted and taste awful. If it’s too low it will affect the customer’s tongue and they won’t feel the flavors at all.
But that’s not all, and the barkeep knows it, the type of ice influences the taste too. But that lesson is for another time.
And so the bartender masterfully crafts the drink, and then adds a finely sculpted ice cube, its shape really majestic, like a mountain.
The man looks at the glass like it’s his salvation, and only after staring at it for a good few seconds, he starts drinking it elegantly, sip by sip. There's no need for haste, the glass won’t grow legs, at least not today, thankfully it’s not wednesday.
“...”
“...”
The silence envelopes the room for a while, this customer isn’t one of many words, but today seems a special day, because he opens up and talks enough words to cover a year.
“It’s been rough lately.”
“If i may ask, how so?”
“My work, more and more people are causing trouble.”
“I see, I can relate to that.”
“...”
“Yesterday, an unusual customer came here to loiter around and ruined the whole counter with confetti and trinkets”
“I see.” and after that he remained silent. But it’s enough, he’ll talk about what's on his mind in due time.
After another time of silence the customer asks if he can light up a cigarette and sit on a table near the window to do some work, the barkeep agrees, somehow in this place the smell of smoke doesn’t diffuse and gets dispersed really quickly.
The doorbell rings, the door opens, and someone enters, another customer comes in.
A skinny and tall man enters the bar and comes near the counter, asking to barkeep if it’s okay to receive orders at the tables, receiving a positive response.
The man is dark skinned and wears an expensive and dark blue long coat, or at least to my eyes. He also has a nice and fluffy azure scarf with a nice “greek’s squares” texture, it seems really comfortable, there is a digital camera hanging from his neck too.
After some time the tall man orders a special drink that's not on the menu.
“Excuse me, may I order a ‘light’s reflection’? I know it’s outside the menu, but I've been told by a friend of mine that the bartender here can accommodate almost any request. And it’s been some time since the last one I had.”
“Of course, dear customer. The menu is not that strict either, it’s there only for people that don’t have anything special they need, also, making that drink will be a delight. I’ll get to it right now.”
“Thank you very much, i’ll wait for it here at this table. Oh, and how much is it?”
“Don’t worry about it, this place has a special type of payment for out-menu drinks. I’m sure you’ll be able to afford it.”
“Oh, okay then. Thank you, I'll try my best.”
‘ light’s reflection’ it’s a really particular drink, heavy in alcohol content and sweet sugar, but somehow still light and not sickly nor syrupy. The secret lies in more aspects of its preparation.
It’s a drink made from a colored sugar crystal immersed in a two layer drink. They’re made of a thin layer of blue and alcoholic syrup. On top of it there’s a way bigger layer of a light alcoholic that, when mixed with the one below, tastes surprisingly strong yet does not burn the mouth.
The other thing is, temperature & time of exposition. If the drink is too cold the sugar crystal won't melt, and the drink will be undrinkable, the alcoholic content too strong to be savored or poured. And if the temperature is too high, the opposite happens and too much sugar will melt, making the drink seem like sickly honey made from a drunk queen bee.
The time of exposition does the same, so it has to be well controlled too, measuring and predicting the time that the customer will need to consume the liquid.
Point being that barkeep knows all of this more than enough, making a perfectly balanced drink even though the customer had never visited before.
The man in a coat, now without it since it's too hot for that, was engrossed in his work, moving images on his laptop and editing them. It seems he has a strong passion for photography, the model of his camera is quite the expensive one, also a limited edition.
Somehow the bartender has a broad knowledge of cameras, gifted by an old friend who gave him lessons about them during his drunken rambles.
“Here’s your order sir. I hope you’ll find it adequate to your taste.”
The customer didn't seem impressed at first, since not many bartenders could make it in the proper way, either being too sweet or an alcoholic napalm.
He was wrong though, the drink was so amazing that it left him almost with his mouth agape.
But he's an elegant man, and he won't lose composure over this, also, he can't start drinking it greedily. The correct way to consume it is sip by sip, enjoying the slow increase in sugar.
By the way, the sugar crystal was so pure yet amazingly coloured, that light really reflected and refracted through it, creating an amazing view of blue, white and azure lights.
It was mesmerizing.
Just as the scarfed man wanted to congratulate the bartender with a silent nod, he didn't find him, but moving his head he saw him, cleaning glasses calmly with his eyes closed, impassible and elegant as always.
And so he resumed working on his photos.
The bulky man finally finished sorting out his files and his work and got up from the table he claimed, he nodded slightly to barkeep, which reciprocated. And stared for a few seconds at the skinny customer. What he didn’t notice though were two simple things. First, he un-furrowed his brow for the first time since he stepped in while watching the man, secondly, the tall man noticed the glare and averted his eyes, only to watch the big man leave.
It seems new and interesting stories are, again, to form, isn’t this the best type of payment?
As the sun is gone, and the moon takes over the earthly reign, the last customer leaves the place after thanking the bartender, and the place remains empty.
“It seems this time i won't have to keep it open until late night.”
And so the clock ticks for the last time, the lights and the machines are turned off, the bartender swipes the counter for the last time and switches the sign. The bar is closed and more stories will come.