"It needed the final ingredient," he smiled. "The person it was made for to finally come back and taste it."

Elena took a sip. At first, it was sharp, like the sting of a sudden goodbye. Then, it grew warm and velvety, blooming into the flavor of wild strawberries and old letters. It tasted like every "I miss you" whispered into a telephone and every dream of coming home. "It's finished," Julian whispered, watching her expression. "How?" she asked, her eyes damp.

One rainy Tuesday, a woman named Elena entered his shop. She didn't look for the label; she looked for the memory. Decades ago, she and Julian had picked these very grapes under a harvest moon before life—and a scholarship in Paris—pulled them apart.