“Oh, real? World famous? That just means you put in milk instead of water.”

“Milk and water? Girl, let me put you up on game!” he says proudly as he works his way to behind the counter and into the kitchen. I follow, but he stops me. “Nah, you can’t be here while the chef is doing his thing. You handle the music. Pick a Spotify playlist. Remote is behind the counter. Don’t pick anything wack.”

“Excuse you, my playlist game is strong.”

“We’ll see,” he says, disappearing into the kitchen.

I go over to the radio and choose a fierce playlist that features Summer Walker, SZA, Khalid, and H.E.R. I can’t help but peek at Devonte though the window of the kitchen door. He assembles the ingredients for the hot chocolate like a mad scientist. He’s so into it that he does a two-step as he gathers everything.

He’s chopping something, but I can’t make out what it is. He’s pouring brown sugar into the cup and taking this very seriously. I don’t know if it will taste good, but it sure smells good. The scent of chocolate fills the air and makes my stomach growl. When he comes back to the front of the café, he has two big mugs of steaming hot chocolate. He places them on the counter and motions for me to try it.

“OhmyGod!” I whisper as the strong, sweet, creamy taste fills my mouth.

He beams.

“Devonte, this is really good!”

“Yeah, what you know about that Parisian chocolate?” he asks with a smug look on his face.

“Okay, not bad. Not bad,” I admit.

“My grandma showed me how to make it like this. We’d make a big pot and watch old TV shows on weekdays, and on the weekends, we’d watch The Last Dragon. It’s about—”

“I love that movie!”

“You know it?” he asks, taken aback.

I jump up off the stool and take a tough karate-like stance. I say in the deep baritone voice of the villain in the movie, “Who’s the master?”

He replies like the villain’s followers do, “Sho’nuff!”

“I said who’s the master?”

And once again, he says, “Sho’nuff!”

I go to sit back down, and he says, “One more thing.” He steps closer to me, takes a dramatic beat, and says the quintessential The Last Dragon line: “Kiss my Converse.”

We laugh until my side hurts; Devonte delivers that line just as silly and over the top as the actor in the movie.

“Who did you used to watch it with?” he asks.

“My mom. She likes silly stuff like that too.”

“Wow, I thought Ma Dukes was always serious. I’ve seen her press conferences. She ain’t no joke.”

“Yeah, she can be pretty serious.”

“So that’s where you get it from?”