"Why do you always watch the door?"

Tian Hengci's gaze moves to the woman seated before him. He lifts the cocktail shaker, and the vigorous clatter of ice cubes against the shiny steel follows.

"It's almost as though you're waiting for someone," she continues, her dulcet tone causing stirrings deep within him. Of what exactly he isn't certain but what he does know is that he enjoys hearing her speak.

There is a calmness and control to the flow of her speech, in its pauses and breathiness that keeps him in her presence. 

To her inquiry, all he gives in response is a distracted smile as he tilts the shaker, and strains the cocktail into a chilled glass, her third of the night.

The spicy notes of cognac, rum, and orange fill the air and waft along to join the melodious tunes from the bar's live band. 

He slides the glass across the counter, two fingers beside the stem, and hers rests upon his to receive it.

They stare into each other's eyes, but it is only for a few seconds before Hengci's once again goes to the bar's entrance, and then sweeps across the romantically lit room. A quaint habit he is unapologetic for and has no intention to shake.

"Are you waiting for someone?" she asks, and another hint of a smile curves the corners of his lips.

"Maybe I am."

Skepticism glistens in her eyes.

"All the time? Every night?"

He leans down, and this brings their faces even closer.

"Maybe I'm doomed to wait forever?"

"Doomed?" she breathes.

Hengci's gaze lowers to her lips, plump and rosy.

He gives a nod.

"Taste it," she says, and his eyes lift back to hers. Mischief is now what glimmers in them. "My drink, I mean."

He is amused as he straightens.

Another patron calls out to him and he attends to it.

He knows her gaze is on him as he pours out the ordered aged whiskey on the rocks, but it doesn't deter the repeat of his habit. Eyes to the door for a few seconds, and then a sweep across the room.

What she doesn’t know is that he does this all the time, and everywhere.

"Are you wary?" she asks when he returns to her company. "Have you done something... or hurt someone in the past that keeps you on guard?"

At this conjecture and the subsequent recollection of certain memories that ensues, Hengci's mood immediately sours. Without a word, he grabs a napkin and begins to wipe the counter.

"I'm going to take that as a yes," she takes a sip of her drink.

He still doesn't speak. 

"You know... I think I can read you quite well," she says. "But what I just can't figure out is why you won't give in to me, but yet you’ve never told me off?" 

Once again he is amused, and when she sees this, she beams, bright and striking. Beyond the allure of her elegant presence, he doesn’t quite know why this is the case either. It is the norm for him to be hit on constantly and even persistently in this bar and almost everywhere else, but as an exception, he has for some reason never been put off by this woman's advances.

Perhaps it is due to her subtlety, and charming wit which altogether makes her presence unthreatening and enjoyable. 

It makes his otherwise humdrum nights bartending here just a tad bit bearable, so he is always receptive to her companionship whenever she visits.

"I enjoy the attention," he says simply.

"No you don't," she counters. "You blatantly reject it from everyone else. You only tolerate it from me."

His gaze returns to the door again and then scans the room.

"All I'm asking for is one night," she says. "And then I'll disappear."

He pauses his cleaning and stops before her.

"Maybe I don't want you to disappear," he says.

"But you don't want me either," comes her question and statement.

His gaze returns to her lips.

"Do you have someone?" she asks.

"My heart is sick," he replies. "It can't accommodate anyone."

This sends her into a long, startled silence.

"Someone broke your heart? In the past?"

"Life broke my heart," he replies.

Her voice is faint. "What?"

"It refused to give me the only thing I've ever wanted."

"And what is that?"

His eyes slowly return to hers.

And then he stares.

He then smiles and she waits, until it becomes clear that he is teasing her. Offended, she gives him a stern look and takes another sip of her drink.

Hengci's gaze once again returns to the door.

This time around however, it doesn't move away. 

He has experienced shock before, several times, and in devastating ways, but nothing he is certain, will compare to this moment.

A man walks in, tall and stately, and Hengci's heart stops.

The band begins a new song and this one Hengci knows all the words to. It's in English but it resounds in his heart, the words clear, and its meaning numbing him all over. 

"Maybe its cause I got a little bit older... Maybe its all that I've been through. I'd like to think it's how you lean on my shoulder, And how I see myself with you."

He straightens, slowly, his soul decrepit but yet his attention rapt on this man that he has hoped and waited the past seven years for even a glimpse of.

Reality seems to muddle within him, inducing the consideration that he might be hallucinating.

But the man is in motion, his eyes scanning the room as he weaves his way through the filled tables, low chatter, and clinking glasses.

He is searching, but Hengci knows that it is not for him.

The man stops, hand lifting to glance at the watch on his wrist, and then he turns and begins to head in a different direction.

Hengci's heart finally restarts with a vicious slam against his chest, his sharp inhale alarming the woman before him.

"Hengci."

He looks at her.

"Are you alright?"

The truth spills out before he can stop it. "I'm numb."

"Why?"

He turns away and heads to the counter behind, his gaze on the row of liquor bottles lining the shelf.

"Wen Wen!" he hears the loud and excited call across the room, piercing the otherwise tranquil room. The quivering of his limbs register, but then almost as though he cannot believe that Xu Laoshi is right here in this bar, he pulls his eyes open to check and meets that indeed, his hands are shaking. He tightens them into fists, shuts his eyes, and takes a deep breath.

"Tian Hengci," the woman calls again, and it is only then that he realizes that he doesn’t even know her name. She's been coming here for the past two years... and yet he doesn’t know her name.

There is a sudden rap against the counter. "Hengci, I need a bottle of Roederer Brut."

Two seconds pass before he responds. He grabs the bottle and brings it over.

"What table?" he asks the waiter before him, dressed just as Hengci is in a dark waistcoat, white dress shirt, and bow tie.

"Um…" he seems surprised by this question but looks behind regardless. "Seven? No, Eight. The party of Five."

Hengci looks as well and corrects him. "Six."

"Mn?" the boy looks again. "Oh yeah, one more person just joined them. They're quite loud."

Hengci looks at the striking yet gentle face that has occupied his mind and heart for the better part of his youth, and draws in a haggard breath. He thinks of what to do, but comes up with nothing.

"Please pass me a glass for him," his colleague says, but Hengci shakes his head.

"No need."

"What? Why?"

"He'll come over by himself to pick it up."

Hengci receives a frown in response.

"No, he's going to send me back here to get it."

"He won't."

"And if he does?"

"Then come back to get it," annoyance flashes in his eyes.

With a scowl, Yin Qi goes on his way and Hengci is called to the side to take a new patron's order. He attends to it, and then returns to the woman who has been closely watching him.

"You seem disturbed," she says

Hengci's attention is now back on the man across the room, in the midst of his friends and with the softest smile plastered on his face. Yin Qi is nowhere in sight.

He is still so beautiful, is all he can think to himself. The woman turns and traces the line of vision.

"Who is he?" she asks.

It takes a long time before Hengci makes the decision to respond.

"My teacher."

Her eyes widen. "Your teacher? University?"

He shakes his head. "High School."

"Ah," she lifts her glass to her lips. "You're worried he's going to see that you work here?"

Hengci's heart wrings, drenched with anguish.

"I'm worried that he's going to pretend that he didn’t see me."

Silence.

"Has he seen you?"

Hengci keeps despondently watching the man that is gently nodding, smiling, and responding.

He has always been somewhat shy, and it seems now that this hasn’t changed.

"What's the story?" the woman asks, but Hengci barely hears her. Not till she raps her now empty glass against the counter.

Hengci's gaze is sharp as it returns to her.

Her tone lowers. "I need a refill."

He takes the glass and does as is needed.

After he sets it down she repeats her question. "What's the story?"

Hengci looks towards the table once again, but this time around his eyes meet the man's.

The entire world comes to a halt.

Xu Wen looks at him... and everything else becomes inconsequential.

His expression however remains blank, void of recognition... and then he looks away.

And just like that, Hengci feels as though he is suddenly dunk underwater, the lights and people around the room, a blur, and all of the sounds... muffled.

"What's the story," the woman inquires for the third time, and her voice breaks through his stupor. He comes up for air, but it takes a few more seconds to recall who she is.

"What?"

She sighs.

Hengci takes another look at the man. "He got married here... in this hotel."

His heart keels over as the rest of the sentence completes in his mind.

That’s why I work here.

"And?" she asks, her gaze moving between his clenched fists and the despair in his eyes.

Hengci turns... and walks away.