[1:10] Lavender Valley

“Real quick,” you say, “Josh said me, him and one other guy were the only men living here at Lavender Valley. Surely that’s not true right?” 

“No. Of course not,” Sophie says though you wonder if perhaps you detected a moment of hesitation. “This is a big complex. Give it time and a few more will scurry out of their man caves.”

She flashes a grin as she takes a few more steps toward her apartment. 

“Yeah. No. Totally. You’re probably right. It’s just Josh was telling me that a ton of the tenants get together in the gazebo and have tea and chit chat and it was all women and except for Josh everyone I’ve seen here has been women.”

“Well, sure. But it’s not women-only. Hell Josh was invited and came a few times but then stopped. He got kind of weird, if I’m being honest. Never figured out what his deal was. What did he say about it?”

“Just that it made him feel weird.”

Sophie takes a beat then says, “huh”.

“What?” 

“Nothing. It’s just that’s kind of vague. What does "weird” mean?”

You shrug, “I’m not sure. It seemed to me like he was brought there by Andrea and probably felt out of place because the conversations were all girl-y.”

She smirks, “Oh. I see.” She glances over her shoulder, down the empty hall and then takes a step toward you so she doesn’t have to speak as loudly. “So he found himself in a situation where he was surrounded by women, who were chatting about things that interest us and because it wasn’t in his wheelhouse he got weird then did Andrea dirty by ignoring her and then ran away? He got so uncomfortable he had to run away because it wasn’t on his terms.”

“Well, I don’t know if it’s exactly that. I mean he seems like an okay guy.”

“Let me ask you this; what did you two hung out?” 

“We had some beers and watched sports.”

“Right, and are you into sports?”

"I mean, not really.”

She responded with an exaggerated knowing smirk. “His terms.”

“But it’s not like I don’t dislike those things! I just don’t make it a point to keep up with all the teams and the points and who is in the Super Bowl or whatever. We did other things too and chatted. There was pizza.

“Listen, I get what you’re saying. But if I may, let me defend Josh for a second.  It’s not easy to be a guy in a group of girls. It’s uncomfortable. Growing up all of my friends were girls and when you’re outnumbered in a platonic relationship as a guy you feel like you want to pull back and defend yourself against…girl-y stuff. It takes a while to relax and join in. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because boys are raised to fight back against anything feminine, maybe it’s some deep seated insecurity, maybe it’s biological - I don’t know. But that’s how it feels and maybe it just caught him off guard. He did just get out of a marriage too so maybe that had something to do with how he reacted.” (Trait: Just One of the Girls)

Sophie thinks for a moment then says, “I didn’t know that. When a man just gets all weird and bails and then avoids women it basically is a huge red flag for us ladies.”

“Totally understandable. I did convince him to text Andrea though. Maybe mend fences and bury axes. Seemed like he really liked her and was kind of angry with himself and how he acted.”

She smirks again. “I can’t wait to hear how that went.”

“Why do you say it like that?” 

“Andrea does not put up with shit. You know how everyone online is saying “girl boss”? Pretty sure the first person to utter that phrase was thinking about her. He’s going to have to perform a miracle to get back in her good graces. She is way out of his league.” 

“Well here’s hoping those two crazy kids can make it work?”

“To the beauty and the shlub!” she says miming making a toast. “Before I go, gimme your phone” You unlock it and hand it to her. She opens your text app and sends one. Her phone dings then she hands it back to you. 

Sophie flashes a final amused smirk before making the short walk to her door. Before she goes in she looks back at you and says, “Did I hear you right a minute ago? You’re not a dude who is afraid of his feminine side?”

You shake your head, “nope.”

“Good. Maybe you will fit in around here after all. ‘Night.”

You give your teeth another brush before bed to get the sugary canned wine off of them and settle into bed. You had a bit of whiplash from Sophie first being so rude and then becoming actually pleasant. You had fun. It was familiar. It was just chatting and a bit of gossip. You missed it after everyone went their separate ways after college - getting married and having kids and getting jobs in other states. You missed it. Josh was fun but it wasn’t ever your thing. 

As you started to drift off to sleep, feeling the distant buzz of the alcohol working its way out of your system, a low rhythmic thudding of bass suddenly began to pulse through the walls. You were suddenly awake and suddenly angry. Then it ended. Your phone dinged a second later and Sophie’s text read, “jk lol. Enjoy ur beauty sleep” .

“So it’s going to be like that, huh?” you text back. Her response a second later is just a tongue-out emoji. It is going to be like that.

You woke up earlier than usual the next morning. You felt a bit off. There were some hints of disassociation. Probably from the hangover you had almost purged from your system. You got up, stretched away the stiffness that came with sleeping on an air mattress and started your day. 

There was a pleasant gloom outside with a gentle rain beading on the windows of the breakfast nook overlooking the courtyard. Headlights of cars pulling out of the lot glinted in the droplets of the water as everyone was heading off to work. 

You sniffled away a bit of congestion and as you took your next breath smelled a faint floral scent hanging in the air. There was a surprising depth to the scent. It was complex and rich. You could sense notes of honeysuckle and night blooming lilies. Before you knew it you were totally fixated on the smell. Doing what you could to breathe in as much of it as you could not because you liked it but because it was making you feel anxious. Your heart began to beat faster, your palms grew sweatier with every long sniff you couldn’t stop yourself from taking. 

Maybe it was left over from Sophie. Was she wearing perfume? You eyed the mostly empty cans of wine in the sink. Maybe they had been bleeding off the scent all night. But they didn’t taste floral. Maybe it came under the door from a woman who passed by a few minutes ago. 

Wait, is this the smell Josh was talking about? 

Your anxiety threatened to become panic before you finally were able to muster enough control. This was absurd! Clearly this was just a smell lingering in the still air of your apartment. You marched to the sink, rinsed the cans out then cracked a window. Within a few seconds the scent grew fainter and fainter, replaced by the pleasant smell of rain and fresh soil. 

You sat down at the bar and booted up your laptop. You were shaking and struggling to calm yourself. You tried deep breathing but every few breaths you caught another whiff of that phantom scent. It was as if it were stuck in your nose. You felt lightheaded…you felt intoxicated…you felt weird…

You demanded that you stop it but whatever respite from the anxiety that the order brought you was gone within a few seconds. The moment you let your guard down the anxiety would return and so would that phantom smell. You couldn’t concentrate on the emails. No matter how many times you tried to focus you couldn’t. Words seemed to have lost meaning. Your brain was being pulled back to that scent…

1.) I Gotta Clear My Head. Go out and go for a walk and calm down. Stress. This is stress. With everything that has gone on I probably just got weirdly triggered and getting out and getting some exercise is just what the doctor ordered.

2.) I Should Call Sophie. Call and ask her about the perfume and find out maybe it was left over from her or something. Put an end to this mystery and try not to sound like a total lunatic. 

3.) I Should Call Josh. He said something about smelling this perfume. He won’t think I’m insane.