Tastes Like Yellow

The summer sunshine flooding Liam Lambert’s bright yellow kitchen perfectly suited the fragrance of his special lemon-infused cookies, fresh out of the oven. Even so, Liam was feeling anything but sunny that particular afternoon; the darkness in the young man’s face would have rivaled any stormcloud. “I don’t understand it,” he grumbled to himself as he laid out the newest batch of soft, crumbly cookies on a little cooling rack by his open window. “How’s the kitchen supposed to be the ideal place for a woman but the wrong place for a man?”

He shook his head and sighed heavily before turning to his little blue bowl of lemon glaze on the next counter. He had already measured out the powdered sugar and lemon juice, and he very much preferred the kind of juice squeezed straight from the fruit to the pre-bottled kind. A fine mesh strainer sitting at the top of the bowl held the coarse bits of pulp, and he gave those bits one final push with the back of a spoon, pushing down a little harder than usual. “Where does Leslie think male cooks and bakers come from, anyway?” he went on brusquely. “Just because she doesn’t know how to cook anything you can’t chuck straight into the microwave, and she’s too cheap for anything more than a burger and fries…”

A lively bark from behind made him jump off the floor, along with a livelier female voice. “Mmm-mmmm, something’s smelling real good over here!”

Then Liam managed to smile and relax somewhat before he turned around. “Hey, Luna.”

At his window stood Luna Lawson, his new neighbor, with her guide dog Leo. She hadn’t lived in the area for long but it took no time at all for Liam to strike up a genuine friendship with her. Given that one of his aunts and his best friend from high school were also blind, he’d always felt at total ease around such people, whereas Leslie was as likely to shoot the breeze with such people as she would with a tree.

Although Liam had always been short for his age, Luna was even shorter; her head just barely passed his windowsill. Even so, the smile on the young lady’s face outshone the summer sun while the warmth in her voice made him feel like a batch of cookies still coming together in the oven. “Is that lemon I smell, Liam?”

“Lemon cookies, to be exact,” he told her as he edged closer to the window.

“Cookies, you say?” she asked with genuine interest. “The homemade kind?”

“From pure, unadulterated scratch.”

“How nice,” Luna said while Leo sat quietly at her feet and wagged his thick tail against her leg. “Cookies rank among my most favorite desserts and I’ve always deemed the homemade ones a hundred times superior to the store-bought ones.”

“Me too,” Liam said, leaning as close to the window as the marble countertop would allow. “I can’t even remember the last time I bought any cookies, bread, or cake from a store.”

“Are you okay, Liam?” she asked, furrowing her brow somewhat. “You don’t sound particularly happy today. Is something wrong?”

He sighed again but didn’t hesitate to reply, “Ah, it’s nothing apart from my now-ex-girlfriend deciding once and for all I’m not her type.”

“Leslie, huh?” Luna remarked with quiet understanding. “Can’t say I’m too surprised to hear that, though I’m so sorry just the same, dude. Care to share another detail or two with me? I promise to keep it between us.”

“Suffice it to say Leslie Lowland believes my lifelong passion for baking makes me too unmanly for her comfort, and she also thinks I’m too cheap to shop for the premade stuff like everyone else. On our last date together, just two nights ago, she threw the most incredible tantrum because I went to all the time and trouble to fix us a nice home-cooked dinner instead of burning my wallet at some crazy expensive restaurant.”

Luna slowly shook her head and murmured, “Well, that sucks worse than a bad lemon, dude. Pretty dumb reason for breaking up with you, too. I’m sorry.”

A wry smile played on Liam’s mouth. “Actually, I broke up with her and that infuriated her even more, believe it or not. I’m surprised the other neighbors didn’t call the cops on us—or an ambulance. I’m lucky my face is still in one piece.”

Then Luna laughed out loud, a truly hearty and melodious sound, and Liam couldn’t help laughing along with her. “So now Leslie Lowland’s the dump-ee instead of the dump-er,” she chuckled. “Man, what a burn that must have been!”

“Like a cookie reduced to a piece of charcoal,” he said, recalling with mixed amusement and chagrin his very first baking experiment at age five. He was still amazed his parents let him set foot in their kitchen in the present day.

When Luna spoke again, she was a bit more serious this time and as gentle as the breeze fluttering through Liam’s pale yellow curtains. “Well, in my opinion, Liam, I think it’s pretty neat that a guy would go to the time and trouble to make something delicious from scratch.”

“You really think so?” He felt his heart lift a little more.

“As my grandma always said, those who love you feed you, and those who really love you put it all together with their own hands. If Leslie’s got a problem with that, that’s her problem. So try not to let her get you down, dude, or let anyone else discourage you from doing something you honestly enjoy.”

For the first time in several days, a genuine smile lit up Liam’s entire face like the sun breaking through the clouds at the end of the storm. “Thanks, Luna. That means so much more to me than I can say. Hey, would you care for a free sample before you head for home?”

“Ooooh, may I?”

“Be my guest.” He took one of the bigger cookies from the rack, added a generous dollop of glaze on top, and wrapped the whole thing in a clean paper towel before placing it into her waiting hand. “Be careful, it’s pretty sticky.”

“Don’t you know the stickiness is all part of the fun?” Luna chuckled before taking a big bite.

When her dog reared up on his haunches and whined in protest, Liam asked her, “Is it okay if I give Leo a Milk Bone? I know dogs can safely eat most cookies but they should stay as far away from lemons as chocolate.”

Since Luna’s mouth was too full to talk at the moment, she merely hummed her consent. Liam then retrieved a little box of Milk Bones from a lower cupboard and tossed one of them to Leo, who caught it neatly in his own mouth and gobbled it straight down. Then, unable to resist the opportunity, Liam glazed another lemon cookie for himself and took his time to eat it then and there. While he’d never baked an inedible batch before, this particular cookie somehow tasted far better than he would have expected or believed possible.

As soon as Luna’s mouth was clear, she quietly raved, “Mmmm…that is good! Definitely one of the nicest cookies I’ve had in recent times. It tastes like—”

“Like yellow,” Liam said when he could also speak again.

“Excuse me?”

“That’s what we told my Aunt Lacey a while back when she tried these cookies at a family party. She’s blind, too, though she can still remember colors from when she was very little. So we’d say stuff like, ‘This tastes like yellow because it’s a sweet, strong flavor that leaves you with a happy feeling.’”

“Well,” said Luna thoughtfully, “this cookie contains a sweet, strong flavor that’s leaving me with a happy feeling. So if this is what yellow is supposed to taste like, then I like it a lot!”

“Me too, Luna. Me too.”

“Hey, if it’s not too much trouble, would you mind dropping off some of these cookies at my house later? I can pay you for them.”

“I’ll do you one better,” he said before he could stop himself. “What do you say to a free dinner at my house with a free batch of these cookies for dessert?”

“Well, I can’t very well say no to free food, can I?” she laughed again. “Can you make spaghetti, dude?”

He grinned. “Dude, I make a killer batch of lemon ricotta spaghetti. It’s light and fresh, and it’s the perfect summertime dish.”

“In that case, I’m free tomorrow night. How’s six o’ clock sound?”

“Sounds perfect. It’s now an official date.”

“Only if you keep an extra plate of those yummy yellow cookies handy and serve them up on a regular basis from now on. Come on, Leo, time to go home and do something today we’d otherwise have to do tomorrow. Bye for now, Liam.”

“Bye, Luna. Bye, Leo.” Even after he was alone again, Liam lingered at his window for a long time, basking in the sunshine that somehow felt warmer and the breeze that felt all the more invigorating. As he took a savory nibble from another cookie, he whispered to himself, “Yellow’s always been one of my most favorite colors. And now it’s become one of my most favorite flavors.”