Morning everyone. I hope you had a fantastic weekend. I think this may have been the first weekend in a really long time that we didn’t need to do loads of yard and garden work. Woo hoo lets hear it for reaching Monday with no sore muscles. And into the morning writing prompt we go. Timers set and let’s see what arrives.
I did not quite expect that. I had a conversation with one friend about the fact that one of our friends would never hear any even minor criticism ( a teacher once gave him a C on a paper and she went ballistic because he is a GENIUS and the teacher just didn’t understand) of her son (he is the Golden Child) and how now that he is in his first years of adult hood he is having a bit of a hard time. I think that conversation sort of bled into this. Oh well, there are worse things.
Monday, September 8th: I smelled his cologne on the air well after he had gone.
I smelled his cologne in the air well after he had gone. It was, I assumed some sort of many, masculine scent meant to drive the ladies wild. All it did for me was make my eyes water. I walked over to the window and opened it. I then walked to the other side of the house opening another window in the hopes of a cross breeze. I then turned on the ceiling fan hoping the spinning blades would encourage the scent to aim for the open windows rather than dissipate throughout the house.
Once I was on the way towards airing out the scent I decided that warning Mara might not be a bad idea. I called my cousin. The phone rang and was answered before the second ring finished.
“Hey,” she said. “A call not a text? Something wrong?”
“No I just figured this might not be something left in a text. Stephen is on his way over.”
“Yeah Charles said they were meeting up and going to a …thing of some sort. I’m not sure if he was trying to avoid the word party or if it is really some sort of amorphous gathering that dare not be named.”
“Well as a warning Stephen fairly marinated in that cologne Uncle Mike gave him.”
“Oh no,” Mara said. “Not the one with the buff cowboy on the label?”
“That’s the one. Gina said I wasn’t to mention it. Apparently telling him he is wearing too much cologne is considered rude.”
“But you thought to warn me, appreciate it.”
“Well you can be rude all you want, Gina won’t threaten you if her son is told he put on too much cologne.”
“Of course she would,” Mara said. “Anyone who dares criticize her precious will be destroyed. But it doesn’t really matter. He wouldn’t believe me anyway.”
“Of course not. You can’t go your whole life being told you can do no wrong only to realize that you have done wrong.”
“True. And he is an adult and so marinating in that scent Uncle Mike decreed to be the manliest of scents is his call.” In the background I heard the ding of the door bell and Mara went to answer it,, keeping me on the line. I heard Stephen arrive, Charles get called for and the two young men disappear back into the night.
“Good god,” Mara said when they were gone. “Thanks for the warning. Who did Uncle Mike say that would entice?”
“No clue,” I replied. “I’m airing the house out now. Gina really needs to either tell him something or let one of us do it.”
“Oh no. I once corrected him when he got a date wrong and still haven’t heard the end of it. I am not touching anything personal.”
“Well I suppose that someone else who doesn’t fear Gina’s wrath might tell him. I just feel bad that as family we couldn’t stop the nasal assault before it started.”
Ten til Midnight 