Chapter 20: 20. WRH IX: You can call me Max
After some hours, around midday, a wide variety of cookies and cupcakes were ready. They had said they were making a few cookies, but they ended up making lots of them, and cupcakes, muffins and bread of all kinds.
Maxwell would admit, Miriam was so good at what she did. Her mother only had to look and approve, and give some few instructions here and there. Looked like cooking was in her genes. If she could make these wonderful dishes at the age of eight then he could only imagine when she was twenty!
"Wow! This is a feast on its own!" Maxwell exclaimed as he held his waist and nodded as he admired the freshly baked cookies and cupcakes that were left on racks to cool down. "Are you sure I will be able to choose a favourite among these?"
"Sure. Let's start with these."
"Okay. But can we go over the names again? I forgot most of them. They're quite many."
"Okay, no problem. But you can write them down if you don't want to forget?" Miriam suggested and Maxwell nodded after much contemplation. But he couldn't wait to taste these beautiful and mouth watering cookies. He had to go all the way to the third floor to grab his dairy just to write names of cookies? To hell with names! He wanted to gobble these down.
During the preparation, Miriam had stopped him on so many occasions from tasting them. She had slapped his hands off a lot because of that, and now that it was finally time to taste, he couldn't wait a second more.
"Sure, I'll go for that later, but can we just start tasting now, please?" He pleaded. Miriam chuckled.
"I didn't say anything. You were the one who said you forgot the names so I should tell you again. And I didn't want you to forget again so I..."
"That's enough, Miriam." Maxwell cut her off. What's with this long talks? "Let's do it this way, how about you tell me the name of each one I taste? That will be way simpler."
Miriam chuckled at his impatience. She really wanted to tease him more, just like he mostly did while they were baking. But she stopped.
"Okay, so these are Chocolate chips cookies." Maxwell tasted as she mentioned, closing his eyes as the cookies melted in his mouth and savoured the heavenly taste of the cookies.
"Wow! These are actually great. I think these are my favourites." Maxwell said as he nodded in content.
"But there are over 20 items to try? How can you just jump into conclusion so soon?"
"Oh, yeah, right. I almost forgot when this touched my lips." He joked and they both laughed.
"Try these. I think you're going to love them." Miriam beamed as she pointed to what she called 'oat and coconut icebox cookies'. Maxwell was lost in taste, but he knew he wasn't done yet.
He kept tasting, and he was fascinated as well about the names she gave to the things she baked as he listened to her pointing and mentioning out loud.
"Strawberry buttermilk skillet shortcake, pecan rum bars, ginger snaps, yeast rolls, shortbread tea cakes, banana cake and bread, chocolates cream cheese bars, lemon bars, flaky butterhorn rolls, sweet potato biscuits, jelly bean cookies, cornbread, date swill cookies, nut brownies, and the cupcakes and muffins, we have..."
"How do you come up with all these fancy names, anyway?" Maxwell couldn't help but cut her off with a question.
Miriam who was left mid sentence, smiled and replied,
"My mom and my grandma used to help me with the names. But the names are mostly based on the ingredients so it's no that difficult."
"Oh, I see..." Maxwell nodded in understanding. They continued with the tasting and names whatever till they were alerted by Gerry to prepare for luch.
"You guys shouldn't stuff your bellies to much with those. Lunch is almost ready."
"Mom, I think I'm already full with the tasting." They had had as little bites of each cookie as possible, but they still felt full.
"Same here, Mrs Gerry. I think I'll pass."
Gerry glanced at them and shook her head. She should have warned them before they started tasting, that they shouldn't stuff themselves too much.
"Alright, but have some milk to go with the cookies you've already had." Saying that, she handed them each a glass of milk. They happily munched on some of the cookies as they drank their milk and talked and laughed and nudged each other from time to time.
"The cookies must have cooled down after lunch. We will pack them into the cookie jars and send them downstairs." Gerry said as she prepared the jars. Gerry wasn't the only one who prepared the meals. Okay she was the main cook, but the maids and cleaners helped in the preparation.
They all admired how Miriam could carry herself well in the kitchen and were awed by her culinary skills. Most of them praised Gerry for impacting on her daughter, but a few of them thought it was an inbuilt desire in Miriam.
They were itching to have a taste of the delicacies she baked with Maxwell, but the small girl had warned them sternly in her cute little voice to wait till the party started. They all laughed at her cuteness and agreed.
Robert had done a good job in preventing Edith from disrupting their son's fun time. He knew Maxwell was having real fun up there on the first floor, where the kitchen was, and they were down at the ground floor, in the grand hall, seeing to the readiness of the event centre. He kept distracting her till she was fully occupied. And he thanked his stars. At least, till lunch break, she wouldn't be able to go and disturb them, he thought.
It was a good thing that the mansion was built in such a way that the scent of the meals being prepared in the kitchen would not really leave the kitchen unless the door was left ajar. Else, people would be trooping in just to have a taste even before the event started. And Gerry made sure they were all set before they started, avoiding any back and forth movement in and out of the kitchen. And thankfully, "drama queen" didn't show up as she expected. It was such a relief.
They quickly arranged for lunch and surprisingly, Edith didn't come looking for Maxwell to join them for lunch. Gerry wondered what had happened. Maybe Robert was keeping her. And truthfully, Robert's intentional random conversations and the nice aroma and taste of the food had distracted her perfectly.
Maxwell and Miriam were now packing the cookies into the jars one after the other. They packed the cupcakes into containers as well. They didn't mention it, but there was a special birthday cake they made for Maxwell, but with that, Gerry had to come in. She didn't want it to get ruined at all cost. And she wanted to make sure it was well prepared. So she did everything with them and also did the icing and decoration herself.
"By the way, Maxwell, do you now have a favourite cookie?" Miriam asked when they finished with the packing.
"Hmm..." Maxwell contemplated for a while. It was hard choosing a favourite from all those delicious things they did. At the end, he threw the question back to her. "Do you have a favourite?"
"Why are you asking me? I asked you first!" Miriam said all grumpy. Why was he turning the question on her now?
"Nothing really, I'm just curious. Which one is your favourite?"
"My favourite is the double butterscotch cookies."
"Honestly..." Maxwell finally said after some few seconds of silence. "...those are very delicious, I think they're my favourites too." He said with a smile, looking deeply in her hazel eyes.
"Hey, that's cheating! You should just tell me you don't have a favourite. Why would you wait till I say and you copy it, huh?" Miriam said and giggled. This boy was just too cute.
"Well, would you rather I tell you all of them are my favourites? Because I love them all."
"Maxwell, you..."
"You can call me Max."
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