Manly Aromas

Steve trudged along behind his wife into another shop. He hated these mall excursions. It was just an excuse for money to be spent on stuff they didn’t really need. At least this time he had managed to lead her into a shop he wanted to go to, and convinced her to let him buy something he wanted for a change.

Still, he was weighed down not by the one video game he had bought, but by the clothes, shoes, and makeup bags she had insisted that she couldn’t do without. Now she was dragging him into…what was this place anyway? He looked up, and around the walls was written his answer: Bath and Body Works. So that explained the cornucopia of smells he was experiencing.

“Ooh, new fragrances!” He grimaced as she led him to a wall of hand soaps, body washes, and candles, unscrewed the top of hand soap, and shoved it under his nose. “What do you think of this one?” she asked.

Determinedly not rolling his eyes at her, he inhaled lightly, only just registering the name on the side. “Barbeque Grillin’,” he read aloud. Surprised, he took another sniff of it and raised his eyebrows. “That actually smells like a cookout,” he said slowly, and looked at the wall more closely. He almost laughed when he noticed the thrown-together sign above the display. “Food Heaven,” he read, and then the subtitle, “Fragrances for Men.”

Janine clicked her tongue at him impatiently. “So what do you think of it?” she asked. “Would you use it or not?”

Steve’s stomach made a small movement. They hadn’t eaten too long ago, but being by a wall of food smells was having a not small effect on his appetite. “I don’t know,” he said honestly. “I mean, it does smell good…” he trailed off as she replaced the cap and put the bottle back on the shelf, not bothering to screw it back on, and grabbed a body wash a couple rows down.

He had just enough time to register the name (Cinnabun Fun) before it was under his nose as well, and he inhaled deeply. It was as though he was in a bakery, with sticky buns fresh from the oven under his nose. If his hands hadn’t been full, he might have tried to grab one.

Janine rolled her eyes at him, and, ignoring the goofy smile on his face, put the bottle back on the shelf next to the discarded cap. “What about this one?” she said, unscrewing the top of a candle and practically hitting him in the face with it.

Steve’s nose twitched as he took a careful sniff. “Hmm. Smells like chicken. What’s it called?” Her hand was covering the label.

She looked at it. “Lemon Pepper Hangover.” She put the cap back on and set the candle back in its place. “So do you like any of these?”

His stomach was definitely grumbling now. “Sure, they’re great. Are you hungry? I’m hungry.” And without waiting for a response, he walked out of the shop in the direction of the food court, his wife trailing behind him now and yelling that she didn’t get to smell any of them.

Chuckling, the stocker at Bath and Body Works walked over to the wall the couple had just deserted, and screwed the tops back on the forgotten products. “Gets them every time,” she said under her breath. She pulled out a small roll of one dollar bills, given to her by the manager of the food court in thanks for the business, and flipped through it, holding it to her nose as she did so and inhaling deeply. “Best smell here,” she said, and pocketing the money, she went back to work.

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Thanks to Laura Egmon for the challenge with this week's challenge. I'll be sure to google the band "Lemon Pepper Hangover" now to see what they're all about.

And now, good news and bad news. The bad news is that I will not be able to update for a couple of weeks, so there will be no challenges. The good news is that you will still be getting great content, courtesy of the magic of getting other people to do stuff for you.

You will be getting two of my short stories over the course of the next two weeks while I'm gone. In the meantime, do you have a story idea? Submit it, and it could show up in a future post! Don't forget to subscribe, and as always, let me know what you think in the comments below.