I found them in the kitchen at La Casita de Mila at eleven in the morning, which was too early for lunch and too late for breakfast, which meant they'd been there since before the restaurant opened, which meant this was planned.
Li Bai was teaching Mila how to make dumplings. Or Mila was teaching Li Bai. It was hard to tell.
They stood side by side at the steel prep counter, flour on their hands, and their movements had the synchronized rhythm of two people who understood kitchens the way soldiers understood formations — not as a place but as a system, every tool in its position, every motion economical, nothing wasted.
