Page 28 of December Wishes
MEADOW & HESPER
It may not have been Christmas, but Hesper took what she could get.
“Now hold up your stocking so we can see what you got!” Her camera was ready when son Kevin triumphantly held up a giant stocking filled with candy, toys, and lottery scratch-its. One of his prized gifts that fine Sunday morning was a stack of baseball cards Hesper found at the antique shop down the street. She had no idea what they were really worth, but the look on her son’s face when he unearthed them from his stocking was enough to make her smile.
“Finally got those cookies ready,” came a voice from the kitchen. “Someone wanna come do a taste test?”
“Me!” Kevin dumped his stocking on the living room floor and ran into the kitchen, where Meadow scooped cookies off the baking sheet and onto a festive plate. The red apron on her lithe frame had to be tied twice to keep it from falling off. After all, it was Hesper’s apron, and she was a little thicker around the middle than her drop-dead gorgeous girlfriend. “Me, me!”
“All right. One fresh chocolate chip cooking coming right up.”
Hesper cleaned up the spilled contents of the stocking before gently placing it on the couch for Kevin to sort through later. She pocketed her phone and followed the scent of freshly baked cookies into the kitchen. Kevin chomped through half a cookie before looking up at his mother with chocolate smeared on the corner of his mouth.
“Good, huh?” Hesper asked.
He nodded, one enthusiastic thumb up in the air.
“Outdoing yourself, huh?” she then asked her girlfriend, who finished plating the cookies and dumped the sheet in the sink. Mixing bowls of leftover batter and spatulas covered in flour littered the small patch of available countertop in Hesper’s meager cottage kitchen.
“Hey, it may have been a while since I baked some cookies…” Meadow brushed her dirty hands against the front of the red apron, “but I think the results speak for themselves.” She gestured to Kevin, who already went for a second cookie.
“Okay, but that’s the last one, buddy. Save some room for dinner.” Hesper placed her hand on her son’s head before he took off with another cookie. The sugar spike was good enough that he did a cartwheel and almost slammed into the Christmas tree by the front window. “I think it’s safe to say that my son loves your baking.”
A cookie appeared before Hesper’s face. “And you? What do you think of my baking?”
This felt like a trap. Of course, Meadow made good cookies. Didn’t most people? Cookies weren’t rocket science. Although word on the street was the house-made cookies at Tea & Thyme were “the best in town.” Hesper hadn’t tried one yet. Like she hadn’t tried one of her girlfriend’s cookies yet.
No time like the present…
Meadow enjoyed the show while Hesper took one bite, then another. At first, all she tasted were the crispy burnt edges of that particular cookie, but as soon as she hit the center softness, her mouth was overwhelmed with sugar, eggs, milk, and flour – all mixed together and heated at 375 degrees, of course.
“Wow.” Hesper waited until she swallowed before saying anything. “These are really good! What recipe is this? Is it your mom’s or something?”
Meadow snorted. “I don’t think my mom baked cookies ever in her life. Nope. I had to turn to another old lady to get these cookies done.”
Hesper cocked her head. When her eyes followed Meadow’s finger and lingered on the trashcan, she saw the words “Betty” and “Crocker.”
“Yup. Betty helped me out today. What a great ol’ gal,” Meadow said.
“That’s like… cheating.”
“Well, it ain’t my taxes, so who are you gonna tell? You got a problem with my cookies made from a bag?”
“Nope.” Like her son had, Hesper grabbed another cookie.
Meadow removed the apron and draped it on the back of a chair. “Would you hate me if I left the dishes for a bit? I really need to go phone somebody and soothe my nerves about those flowers coming in for tonight’s Christmas tree lightning.” She glanced at the clock. “Shoot. My flowers, I mean wreaths, of course.”
Meadow was always so adorable when she got flustered about flower stuff. Hesper still barely knew the difference between daisies and daffodils. She was especially hopeless with rhodies and azaleas, which had been a bane of her summer every time she went on a light hike with her girlfriend and saw both out in the wild.
“No worries. How about I do the dishes for you? You took the time to make the cookies.”
“You’d do that? Thanks.” Meadow left a kiss on Hesper’s cheek before grabbing her phone from the table and stepping into the back hallway to make her call. Hesper checked in on Kevin, currently rooting through the goodies in his stocking and inhaling his cookie through clenched teeth, before returning to the kitchen.
Doing the dishes may not have been glamorous, but Hesper was in such a good mood that she didn’t mind getting her hands wet and gooey with leftover cookie batter and the water splashing into dirty pots and pans. The dishwasher quickly filled to the brim after their dinner last night. Hesper would need to run it before dinnerthatnight, which shaped up to be a suitable pot roast with all the trimmings.
This was her big holiday dinner, a whopping four days before Christmas.This is my time to spend with Kevin and give him the lead-up he deserves.The boy had such an eventful year, between hurting himself playing Little League and going to Disneyland for the first time that past August. When Katie called Hesper earlier that month and asked if she might like to have Kevin the weekend before Christmas, Hesper had been ecstatic. Then she found out that her ex and the new wife were off to a romantic ski trip at Timberline Lodge. Whatever. The fact she thought to ask Hesper first said enough.
It’s been an eventful year for me as well.Her renewed relationship with her young son barely eclipsed the new relationship that started that same month. Since May, Hesper and Meadow had gradually grown more serious with their romance, not that either of them saw it coming from a mile away.All I did was help her with her taxes! Next thing I know, I have my first girlfriend since Katie.Hesper never anticipated such luck in 2019 when the year started, but now she looked back and realized she was one of the most fortunate women she knew.
