A tale of perfumes

I was excited about going to the Saturday meetup today. I had not been to the meetup in a long time and was looking forward to it. As a result, I got up early, freshened up, packed up my stuff, and was all ready to go out instead of sleeping in and having a dull start to  the weekend. I hurried down to the entrance of the apartment building as I had only 1 minute before my cab arrived.

Luckily, the car just pulled over right in front of the gate I just came out of the building. Talk about perfect timing! I opened the cab door while feeling happy about the timing. And Bam! My nose was flooded with a strong sweet scent of a kind. It was nice though. I complimented the driver, "Your cab smells nice, what scent is it?" expecting him to tell some flower's name. But he said, "Oh, it is the perfume of the passenger I dropped off right before picking you up!" We both laughed. That was unexpected!

I wondered, "Did he tell what perfume it was?" The driver said, "Yes, he said it was Chanel. And I was like, damn.... I just finished my bottle a few days ago, and why didn't mine smell so good! I only recently changed into Giorgio Armani." Then he showed me a tiny perfume bottle and asked me to smell it. I sprayed a little on my wrist. The smell was too strong, and I immediately pulled my face away from my wrist. As I handed the bottle back to him I said, "It is pretty strong!" Then he joked, "Don't go home with this, otherwise your husband will suspect you , why you are wearing a male perfume!" and laughed. I was amused thinking to myself, "Oh! interesting. I never thought like that. I can't believe I am having this weird conversation!". I told him, "Oh, so I need to wipe it off before I go home?" He was concerned, "When will you be back home?" I said, "Don't worry. I won't be back till late in the day." He seemed to relax a little bit. 

He perked up immediately though and told me, "Well, you should wear perfume every now and then, you know, to feel ..." and jiggled up to imply "to feel nice/cool/sexy". "...but not these ones, they are male perfumes, and pretty strong." I asked, "Do you recommend any to me?" He said something like "Chloe" (confirmed after further research). I thought, "Point noted, Sir."

Then I went on saying how I don't like perfumes because of the loud smell, and he went on how perfumes should smell, and how they should make you feel, and did the jiggling again. The dude surely was really really passionate about perfumes. He mentioned different price ranges, and kinds of perfumes. He also mentioned how some perfumes like Burberry give him headache and he does not like them.

Soon, my destination came. My driver told me, "See you again" as I left the perfumed car out into ordinary mundane world. I giggled and smiled at myself for having this weird and amusing experience. I can't believe I learned so much about perfumes in mere 15 minutes than I had learned in my entire life.

I am still smiling ear to ear and I will always remember this experience every time I talk about perfume, buy a perfume, or walk through an isle of perfume in any shop.

Well,

Dear Cab Driver,

thanks for perfuming up my morning. I am up for a happy long weekend for sure.