Fresh Baked Temptation

She's allowed one more cookie. One more, not two or three, god forbid four- that would be the end of the world as Sharron knows it. It's a very big deal with her mom, controlling Sharron's cookie intake. Some call her big boned but really she is heavy, overweight for a young girl, what in the old days they would call husky. Sharron is completely obsessed with cookies. Peanut butter chocolate chip oatmeal raisin cookies to be exact, fresh from the oven, when they're almost too hot to eat without scorching off the roof of your mouth. Sharron peels one off the parchment and juggles it back and forth between her fingertips hand to hand, blowing on it until it's just the right temperature then she closes her eyes, inhales the nutty sweet chocolatey smell, and busts out in a grin from ear to ear. She tries to measure her bites- four is ideal but sometimes she gets greedy and inhales an entire cookie in two, or on a rare occasion, one and a half. She can't help it: the way she feels when she eats the cookie is unlike anything else. Her chest is flooded with warmth and goodness and her stomach sighs a big yawn of happiness. It's like a full body hug. She feels complete, content. It's so much better than brussel sprouts. If her mom doesn't want her to eat them then Sharron wants to know why she keeps baking them. It's some sort of torture. In her eight year old mind, this is cruel and unusual punishment. How can her mom expect her to have any self control? It's hard enough not eating the raw batter but to be restricted to 2 cookies a day is downright barbaric. Sharron's mom is always going on about her weight, and how girls like her need to start early with proper eating habits and mindful exercise, which is why her mom spends hours at the gym every day and is always looking at herself in the mirror. She bakes and bakes and bakes then forces her cookies on everyone else. Sharron thinks if her mom ate more cookies she'd be a better mom. Or at least not as unhappy.

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