“Sorry, I’m late.” Anita entered the meeting room, five-minutes late, on Tuesday morning.
“We have just started. You didn’t miss anything.” John, Anita’s boss said.
And the weekly meeting continued.
“Anita, how are you doing? Are you okay?” Megan who joined Anita for lunch, asked. They walked to the restaurant downstairs.
“I’m good. Thanks. Just… my bad habit somewhat made me late at work, again. I had to step out from the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) half-way.” Anita let out a deep breath.
“Again? Smelly ride?” Megan understood what Anita meant, right away.
These two, has been colleagues in the same company for more than four years now.
“Whoo!! Don’t remind me that. It was terrible!” Anita frowned, not only her eye brows but her whole face muscles.
“Oh my gosh…” Megan felt her. “Man or woman or kids, this time?” She asked.
“I don’t know and I don’t want to know… The smell was so strong to the point of I couldn’t bring myself to turn around to find who was the ‘source’. I was just dying to get out of that carriage immediately. I nearly puke, you know.” Anita explained.
“I understand… I had those moments too. Urghh!” Megan annoyed by the glimpse of those memories.
They queued to place their lunch order. They then took the seat near the window – that has been their usual seats, if no one occupied it.
Both of them preferred to have their tea and coffee served first.
“I don’t know. I was brought up with ‘make sure you brush your teeth and have your shower before starting the day’ in our daily practise. I know this might not be a family culture that all other people might hold but can’t they understand that if they don’t shower, their body might carry the scent of their bed?” Anita posted her doubts.
“My family doesn’t have this practise, but I’d make sure I smell great with my favourite perfume~ I have a collection of perfume.” Megan proudly said.
“That’s fine. Just like for men, the nice scent of the cologne they use could, literally, make the whole space smells great.” Anita added.
“I read somewhere that human does sweat at night, during their sleeping hours. Their sweat might really wet their bed sheet or even their bed mattress. To top it off, many people not changing their bed sheet frequently. Since those are their body scent and it is on their favourite bed, they won’t know that it, in fact, is not a pleasant smell to others.” Megan shared.
“Yeah, it stinks! My goodness!” Again, Anita frowned.
“The thing was that the person in the subject of discussion doesn’t realize this himself or herself. Because, that’s their scent! And, that’s the luring scent from their own bed.” Megan’s illustration made Anita chuckled a little.
“I do like the scent of my bed though. So soothing. Whenever I changed bed sheet, that scent lost a little. Some nights, hard to fall into sleep.” Anita added.
“I don’t want to know. Ha-ha… We all do, I guess. As long as we shower or do something to that scent that ‘covered’ us 360 degrees.” Megan cracked a joke.
“The worst scenario was that they even wear their pyjamas or sleeping clothes to work or outside of their house!! I want to cry.” Anita covered her face with both her palms.
“That’s terrible! Their ‘bed-scent’ surely reeks tenfold.” Megan’s voice definitely heighten-up by a tone or two.
“I guess that was the version that nearly choke me this morning.” Anita gave a side-eye stare to the window.
“I don’t want to experience that. Eew…” Megan quickly said her prayer.
“Let’s enjoy our yummy lunch. No more stinky smell topic for now.” Anita was about to dive into her fragrance seafood spicy pasta.
“Yupe! Body odour topic, you’d better get lost.” Megan said after took a spoonful of her ‘Mapo Tofu’ Rice set.
“Megan, don’t start that!” Anita stared at Megan, this time.
“Yes, Ma’am.” Megan didn’t mind her stare. “The Tofu tastes so good. You want to try some?”
“Yes, please. I’d order that next time.”
Both colleagues lost in their perfectly-prepared meals during that lunch break; put aside the unpleasant memory of the terrible-scent MRT rides.
