It was pretty simple: ice, lime, forty-five milliliters of rum, then top it up with cola.
He cleared his throat, looked around the bar, and discovered a second problem.
Where were the glasses?
There were liquor bottles, bottle openers, lemons, and an ice bucket on the bar, but no glasses for mixing drinks.
He rummaged through two drawers, felt around under the bar, and finally pulled a large steel cup out of a corner.
There was even some rust around the rim. He gave it a careless wipe with a white cloth and set it down on the bar with a clang.
Fine, this one would do.
Qingxiao sat watching him rummage around behind the bar like a hamster, crouching down one moment and poking his head up the next, always holding something strange.
He said nothing and offered no reminders, just leaned back in his chair and watched, a trace of a smile lingering on his lips.
Takaba finally got to work.
He picked a few ice cubes out of the bucket and tossed them in, sending a few chips of ice flying out.
Then he cut a lemon into two halves with appalling knife skills. Two lemon seeds fell in, but he ignored them, gave the lemon a squeeze, and tossed it in.
Next, he picked up the cola and poured in a little, roughly half a cup, before finally picking up the rum and glugging it in until the cup was full.
The liquor sloshed around in the steel cup, faintly brown, with two mangled pieces of lemon and two lemon seeds floating on top.
Takaba confidently brought it over to Qingxiao, not forgetting to wipe the bottom with the white cloth, looking every bit the professional. "Enjoy!"
Qingxiao looked at the cup of stuff.
Steel cup,