Bitter Sweet

"It's not flat enough. That could be affecting the taste."

Gus was desperate to find the recipe that his grandmother took to her grave. She made them nearly once a week when he was a child. A strong contender for the source of his round physique he now carries with him. Gus was often sick as a child and found comfort in his grandmother's cooking. She always served it with a smile and a glass of sweet milk.

"3 years and 16 days!" he shouted from the living room. A weekly reminder to his wife of how long it's been since he'd tasted one. Each weekend his wife went back in the kitchen to try a modification to the previous recipe. Julia always served them fresh and, more recently, with a side of scornful agitation. Gus had started Julia on this quest the moment his grandmother fell too ill to cook. At first Julia thought her passing was good for Gus. However, his new found energy quickly turned toward obsession.

So Julia toiled away. Sunday after Sunday she'd hand Gus a new batch of cookies and each Sunday Gus would toss them in the bin while mumbling critiques:

"A smidge too nutty"

"Not sweet enough"

"Worse than the last batch"

That was until one night. Seemingly without cause Julia sprang out of bed and rushed toward the pantry. Metallic clangs and sugary puffs sang through the halls. Eventually smells began to stir Gus from his slumber.

*Bang *Bang

Julia slammed the cookie sheet into the marble countertop. The chef's kiss of a perfect cookie. The ring of the pan shot Gus fully awake and the smell ripped him out of the room.

"Here" Julia raised the cookie sheet to his face. Exhaustion covered her body. A smile hung from her cheeks.

"That smell.. you sure this is it?!" He lunged toward the pan.

Gus snatched a cookie knocking a few to the floor. Julia, stoic, leans back on the counter like a swimmer coming up for air. The years of tension melt from her body as the spatula falls to the floor.

"This.. this is it! The sweetness!! How?"

"The recipe.. of course" Her gaze lowers.

"YES WOMAN!"

"Cane sugar."

"I should'f known! Nowway thats the ownly thing we'f mift?! What elsf?!" Gus mumbles through the crumbs of a fourth cookie.

"Unsalted butter, and.." She says while pulling the gloves off her hands.

"And what?" Gus begins to sway

"And.. that sweet sweet antifreeze."