Banter

I smelled somebody today and it reminded me of you.

A pause.

What?

You know.  I was walking and I stopped and somebody walked by and they smelled like you and it reminded me.

I'm a little confused on if this is a compliment or an indictment on my hygiene.

He heard her breath come out fast, almost as a tiny laugh.

It was, I guess, a compliment.  I'm near people daily...and they don't remind me of you.

Just the ones that smell.

Just the ones that smell nice.  

I don't think I get close enough...at least to females...to determine if they remind me of you.  He said it as if he was next to her, because sometimes words are physical and best said in proximity.

Well what would that smell like?

He paused again.  I am not sure if I remember.

Well, she said, this person reminded me of you.

And is that reassuring?  or is it disturbing?

Hmmm.  I guess it was just a memory...it was like a comfort.  

A comfort?  Like a blanket?

Well...I don't know about that...it just was a brief scent.

They say the most powerful sense is that of smell.

Is that what they say?

It's what they say.

So why can't you remember if you know how I smell?

Again, he paused.  Because...

Because why?

Because your impact was beyond just one sense.  

One?

Yes.   

It was again the quiet.  Her brain was processing...his was looking up words in a dictionary.  So he started to tell her....

You can never be duplicated.  Nobody could walk by me and cause me to think 'Oh, she reminds me of her, she smells like her, from the back she looks like her...' because there really isn't any way somebody could fit that...or at least come close to that.  At least...it hasn't happened.

More dead air.

Somehow I like that.

Well.  I sometimes wish I could be reminded...because then I could find it when perhaps you're not around.

Reminders aren't too bad.

Reminders suck.  They're alarm clocks.  They awaken memories.  They put a bandage back on a newly opened scab.  

Well when you put it that way.

So tell me...when you smelled the guy and I'm assuming it's a guy...when you smelled him, and he got into your mind and it stirred things up...what did you want to do?

What did I want to do? 

Yeah.

I didn't really want to do anything...it just, I guess as you mentioned, it stirred up things.  

But you didn't want to follow him and grab him.

Grab him?  No.  I just stayed there, but I definitely didn't want to go after him.

So you lingered.

I lingered.

That's too bad.

Why?

I don't know.  Because if scent is the strongest reminding sensation, then I would wonder if the next act is to devour.  

Devour?

Yeah, consume.  Like a pie.

A pie?

A pie.

How did we go from cologne to cooking?

We went from lust to sex.

We did?

Well not actually.  But we went from a disturbance in our mind to a taste to a consumption.  

I don't think we did.

Well otherwise this whole conversation is a lie.

And why is that?

Because you admitted a scent had an impact...that went in through your nose, perhaps was a taste on your tongue but then registered in your brain as pleasing.

I never said pleasing.

You didn't have to.  

I just said it reminded me of you.

Was it a "hey, I could fuck you in this moment" or was it a "hey I could tolerate you on a 3 hour bus ride?"

Wow. 

I know.  Vulgar.  But taste and consumption are primal.  And I guess that's just what I was wondering.

A bit more dead air.

A guy walked by me.  He smelled of a cologne that reminded me of you.  And you've turned this into some sort of Truth or Dare.

He smiled at her conclusion.

When you tell somebody they smell nice it is a benign thing...but when you tell them that somewhere, somehow down the line that another person reminds them of you because of a scent it is a different animal.

It is?

It is.  

And why again?

Because it is now a muscle memory.  Unclaimed.  Unopened and unrealized until something triggers it.

So how does that devolve into the sex thing?

Because it is an attraction.

An attraction?

Yes.  A one time thing then it's that benign thing.  A memory?  A remembrance?  It is an attraction.  An attention.  And that, my friend, is the first awkward step towards intimacy.

It was quiet again...intimate, ironically.  Both just breathing, the connection via miles and ether was crystalline despite the distance.

I like the way you smell...was all she offered.  It doesn't mean anything else.

I hear you...but perhaps...in the future, if so fortunate, let's put all the senses together and see what happens.

Together?

Yeah.  Sight.  Touch.  Scent.  And maybe I will kiss you and taste will join and we'll see what happens.  

What do you expect to happen?

I expect the unexpected.  But I'm willing to see.

Willing to see.  

Yeah.  

Okay.  By the way.  What is that cologne?

Come find me.  I will show you.