Queen of Love

“Oi, you on your time of the month or something?”

No, but I’m about to be. Lucky Toumo could get the full brunt of Aya’s PMS if that’s what he wanted. “Point is, Toumo, I’d watch your damn mouth if I were you. Now, you’re lucky I’m not the vengeful, spiteful kind of harpy. Although it does boggle the mind that you thought it was perfectly okay to talk shit about my girlfriend because you and I are from the same place. Do you think that trumps my love for her? Maybe the reason you’re single and bitter, Asada-san, is because your prejudices are on full display to everyone you date who is a bit different from you. God. Sounds lonely.”

“That’s… hey, let’s drop it, huh?”

”As I said, I’m not spiteful. Treat us upstairs with respect, and you’ll have no problems with me. As far as Genevieve Liu is concerned, success for you is success for her. If you want to talk pure capitalism… well, I was the agent that sold this whole building to her. She wasn’t the first to look at it. Hell, we’ve had plenty of business developers, both from abroad and from Japan, who were mostly interested in converting the whole building into language schools and insurance offices. Not that I would have stopped them from doing that. It wasn’t any of my business. My job was to sell the building, after all.”

“What are you getting at?”

“You’re hopeless. I’m telling you Genevieve was the best person in a long time to come by and look at this place. She’ll leave you the hell alone! Honestly, I’m fired up now.” Aya turned her back on him. “I’m tired of all the crap she’s been taking. Why do I have to be the one to hear it? Have a good day. I’ll make sure she knows about your damn water.” The man could have left it there!

Aya slammed the sliding door shut behind her. As she inhaled the outdoor air, she noted it smelled like warm rain. It’s that time of year. The humidity was pumping up, and so was the sheen of sweat on her brow.

“Hey.” Nyla sat on the steps leading up to the second floor. “Come up here. I will show you something.”

Aya followed her back into the half-decorated bar now known as Mango’s. As she closed the door, Nyla dipped behind the bar and pulled two bottles of liquor out of a box. Some of the bottles she had brought in that day were for the applicants to test with, but now Aya realized that Nyla had been fiddling with her own concoctions when she wasn’t busy with other people.

“Genevieve told me to make a new drink. For Mango’s.” She placed an old-fashioned glass on the bar and grabbed a bag of frozen mangos from a cooler by her feet. Until the refrigeration went in, it would have to do. “Signature drink, I think you call it.”

“So you make up your own drink? Like that?”

Nyla went to work slapping something together. “I’m good. I know most of the special drinks out there.” As a tired Aya listened to the splashes and blending of a drink coming to life, she wondered if Genevieve could afford a bartender like Nyla for this place. If the clientele is anything like Toumo downstairs, they’d roast Nyla alive. “Mangos are already popular for cocktails. So, I put a spin on something I think Japanese people like.” She presented Aya with a frothy orange drink in an old-fashioned glass. “You know pisco sour? From Peru.”

“Can’t say I’ve heard of it before.” Aya picked up the glass and sniffed. She definitely smelled the mangos. Something else, too. “Brandy?”

“Good nose. Yes, mango and brandy. Egg white and lime, too. Sometimes they use jalapeno pepper, but I try something else. Go on. Taste it. How is it?”

Aya took a sip. The brandy was the first thing she tasted, followed by the festive notes of the lime and mango. “It’s nice,” she said. “I expected it to be more intense, though.”

“Yes, pisco sour is not this smooth, usually, but for a signature drink in Japan, it has to… ah…” Nyla snapped her fingers, looking for a word. “Make everyone like it.”

“Appeal?”

Nyla nodded. “So? You know what I put in it?”

Aya was flummoxed.

“Vanilla. It goes great with pisco. Now mango, too.”

“It’s delicious.”

“You like it? I will make it for Genevieve later. Try it on customers in Paradise like a summer special. If they like it, we make it the signature drink here. But… have to find people who can make it right.”

Aya laughed.

“Hey,” Nyla said again. “I heard you and that man downstairs. Maybe I don’t understand the language, but he was talking about Genevieve. You both were angry. I think he doesn’t like her. Because she’s Chinese or something?”

“You understood that?”

“I understand ′chuugoku.′ It means China, right?”

“Yes.”

“When you are an outsider, you learn the important words. I want to know if people say bad things. So I learn chuugoku. Already I hear people talking about me.” Nyla cleaned up her mess with a smooth shake of her head. “You are good for Genevieve. She needs someone good.”

Aya drank more of the pisco sour with vanilla. “Big coming from her ex-girlfriend who sends me postcards.”

Nyla laughed. “I practice my English on you!”