Tuesday, February 07, 2006

You Smell Good


The other day, one of the guys here at work told me, “You smell good.” Ordinarily, that’s a nice thing to hear but it can also be the catalyst for a freak out.

Many summers ago, I was at the Gulf Coast Market at Crystal Beach with my sisters and sister-in-law buying groceries for our weekend stay at a rented beach cabin. As I was unloading my Zima (it was that long ago) and munchies and lunchmeat onto the checkout conveyor belt, someone came up behind me and whispered in my ear, “Yew schmell goooooood.”

I turned around expecting to see someone I knew and instead saw a guy with sporadically spaced teeth and skin the color and texture of a dried up creek bed. Unlike me, he didn’t smell good. In fact, he smelled just like Crystal Beach on a really hot day after the tide’s been out a while and the dead fish and seaweed are really starting to funk up the place.

I looked into his eyes which were somehow simultaneously red and yellow and said, “Thanks.”

My sisters and sister-in-law had already checked out and were on their way to the car so they didn’t know what had happened. After I finished checking out my items, I hurriedly left the store and caught up with them in the parking lot and whispered, “Hurry, hurry, hurry. Walk, walk, walk. Faster, faster, faster….”

They turned and said, “What?”

I said, “Just get in the car. We’ve been in town twenty minutes and I’ve already begun my usual collection of scary weird ass men.”

Thankfully, I didn’t encounter that guy again that weekend. However, we still recite his sadly inept pick-up line in the same slow, scary, stalkerish Texas drawl whenever we happen upon someone who schmells exceptionally goooooooooooood. Oddly enough, it isn’t working for us either...and we still have most of our teeth.

7 comments:

Renee said...

LMAO I now have an image of what the guy looks like in my head...and how he smells!lol

Mommy said...

That's! the "you smell good" story! You have said that phrase so many times and I always wondered why you said it that way! Haha! :)

Laurie said...

Renee - It wasn't purty.

Jen - I can't believe I never told you that story. It's a classic.

Unknown said...

Never tried that line when I was single - sounds way to much like it should be followes by the pretty mouth line,lol

Anonymous said...

It never fails. When I am out anywhere, I always encounter smelly people. I've never had one tell me "you smell good." They just stand near me and stink. Do you think that they think that I stink??? Poodles

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm... I've known some "scary weird ass men" in my time, too, but never one with eyes that managed to be both red and yellow at the same time. Ewwwww.

Laurie said...

Al - Are you saying that I don't actually have a pretty mouth. It's all been lies?! Well, that's just great.

Poodles - Nah, you don't stink. I think the problem arises because you are armpit height.

Sophmom - He was a strange bird.