Chapter 7
Danessa decided she was prepared to play tour guide.
Seeing how I was perpetually down on this city, I was game to have my perspective shifted.
I know I just got here but the results were already in.
Vegas was hot and there was nothing interesting to look at, just desert landscaping and various shades of browns and orange, Turkish coffee, coriander seed, rustic pottery, and the nightlife was a bit too balls to the wall for me.
Once my recreational use switched to a morning bump, my life started to circle the drain.
I was fucking up at work, avoiding my mother’s calls for fear she’d be able to hear the desperation and need for a hit in my voice.
Anger was my new default temperament. I’d forget things, appointments, birthdays.
It was easier to push my old friends away while replacing them with new ones who shared my destructive hobbies.
I knew better, I lived through this shit with my dad. And yet, I let it happen anyway.
“First stop.” Danessa pointed to a fragrance store called The Scent Lounge.
“Really?” My lips pressed together as I fanned my face. Why the fuck was it so hot?
“Yes.”
Holding the door open, I then followed her inside. The cool breeze helped but not by much. How did people live in warm weather cities like this? I just wanted to be inside a dark room with nothing but my boxers on and an insulated tumbler filled with ice and crisp water.
The clerk welcomed us in with a wave. “Let me know if I can help you with anything.”
“Hello, I think you can. We’re interested in making our own fragrances.”
“What?” I thought we were here to sniff. I wasn’t expecting to be put to work.
“Of course, let me get you set up with trays.” The clerk walked over to a shelf, returning with two wooden trays topped with an index card and baby pencil.
“You’ll find all our fragrances along these walls.
I always encourage visitors to walk around and get a feel for the scents they like, and then I can help you hone your preference.
” She handed us the trays. “My name is Clara if you need anything.”
When the clerk walked away, I leaned in and whispered. “I don’t know how to make cologne.”
“Neither do I but Clara’s here to help us.” Danessa dipped a test strip into the nearest glass bottle.
“When you said you were going to show me the neighborhood, I thought you meant another coffee shop.”
“We can do that too.” She brought the strip to her nose and frowned. “Smell this?”
“No, it clearly smells disgusting. I saw you turn up your nose.”
“But your reaction could be different.”
“I’ll pass.”
“When did you become a party pooper?”
“Party pooper? I’m the life of the party. I walk into the event and people cheer and shout, “Aldridge is here.”
“That’s never happened.”
I grabbed the strip from her hand and took a whiff. “It smells like a wet dog and not in a good way.”
She giggled. “I know right.” Danessa lingered over the display, sniffing every bottle, her reaction to each varying greatly. If I closed my right eye and squinted, I’d confuse this for a date.
“So do all your clients get this level of attention?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” She said it so matter-of-factly, it made my head jerk back.
“And here I thought I was special.” One hundred percent I was fishing for a compliment or some indication that being with me meant something.
I wasn’t looking for declarations of love because that would be crazy.
But a hint she was also finding it difficult to breathe and her palms were humid due to our proximity would be nice.
Danessa moved on to the next bottle.
“Hold up. You’re really not going to acknowledge that. The least you could do is affirm my uniqueness.”
“I’m your realtor, Aldridge. I’m not treating you differently. I’m just doing my job.”
Fuck this perfume shop, fuck this neighborhood, and fuck her.
Aldi, chill don’t ruin this vibe. You’re right …
but I absolutely have to. I wasn’t a random dude looking to purchase a house.
We had history so I should be treated differently.
She wasn’t dealing with just anybody. I used to belong to her.
And since I was now uncomfortable, every motherfucker in this shop was fittin’ to be too.
Danessa, Clara the fragrance guru, and the unsuspecting mother and daughter on the other side of the shop perusing atomizers.
“You’re telling me you take every fucking client to the fragrance shop? ”
“Sometimes it’s Pilates, other times a brewery. My goal is to help you envision yourself as part of the community.” She was talking to me like a fucking realtor. Her voice was even different. It was polished, less casual, one thousand percent fake.
“So we could have been eating hot wings right now but instead we’re here?”
“Don’t act like you don’t like to smell good. And you hate wearing the same cologne as everybody else.”
“I discovered Light Water Intense before any of those other motherfuckers at college, and a few months later everybody and their uncle was wearing it.” I bit down on the inside of my cheek. Shit she was right, a fragrance shop was very on brand for me. Why hadn’t I gone to a place like this before?
“Are you done Christopher Columbus?”
“No, no amount of fragrance shops or hand-pressed coffee is going to make me magically fall in love with this place. It’s not Kansas City.”
Danessa finally looked at me, sensing from my tone I was actually upset. “You didn’t even wanna go to Kansas City. You were pissed when you got drafted.”
“Yeah, well things change. I grew to enjoy a slower paced life.”
“Stop acting like you were out there baling fucking hay. KC is a major city.”
“Well at least in KC they’re not handing out pornographic materials on every corner.” Yes, I was shouting, Yes, I was making a scene. Yes, I was an asshole.
“That’s just on the Strip.”
“Do you think that makes it better? This place is literally Sodom and Gomorrah.”
Danessa rolled her eyes. “When was the last time you actually entered a church? I’m talking boots on the ground.”
“I attend church virtually every Sunday. Thank you very much.”
“If you hate Vegas so much then why are you here?”
“For my fucking job, duh.”
“Then just rent a condo and be done with it.”
“Done with what?”
“Annoying me,” she snapped back.
“If you’re annoyed imagine how I feel. Having to tour ugly ass houses in weird ass neighborhoods.”
Danessa didn’t like scenes. She preferred to blend in, not stand out.
Her mother was good for causing chaos in unexpected places.
By the way she dialed up a fake smile while sneaking glances at the others in the shop, it was clear I was taking shit too far.
But the thing about me was when I got this way, I didn’t know how to stop.
It was scorched earth or nothing. She dropped her voice, hoping to disarm me.
“I’m basing my searches on what I know about you. ”
“What do you know about me? We haven’t been in one another’s company in years. So, what you used to know or think you know no longer applies.”
“I know you’ll need several bedrooms for visits from family.
I know you love the water and always said when you bought a home it would have a pool and a grotto.
I know you don’t do anything without music and your place will need good acoustics and thick walls.
So, unless you’ve fundamentally changed, the places I’m showing you are close if not spot on based on what you’re looking for. ”
Damn she had a good memory.
“My priorities have shifted.” That was a lie, I still wanted all those things. “And Vegas is really disappointing me right now.”
“Is it Vegas, the homes, or me you’re taking issue with?”
“Maybe it’s a combination of the three.” I pinned my arms across my chest.
“Wow, one minute I think we’re making headway and the next you’re basically calling me a stranger and shitting on my hometown.”
“I mean technically I’d consider us acquaintances.”
A slow disbelieving head shake was her initial response.
My stomach knotted and I could barely fill my lungs with air.
I’d hurt her. My words did that. I wanted to apologize, tell her I was scared of disappointing my team, myself, and her.
In so many ways I wasn’t the man she fell in love with, and her presence drove that point home.
“Wow, glad to know exactly how you feel.”
“Like you said, you’re my realtor. I’m just trying to keep shit professional.”
Once again Danessa scanned the virtually empty store in which the three other individuals tried to pretend they weren’t invested in the argument as much as Danessa and I were. “This was a bad idea,” she whispered.
“The fragrance shop?”
“No this.” She waved her hand in the space between us. “Me being your realtor.”
Heart palpitations seared my chest. “What do you mean?”
“Clearly this isn’t working for you. You hate the houses; you hate my tours of the neighborhood—”
“No I don’t. I liked the last house. You’re reading way more into this.”
“Don’t do that. I’m not misconstruing things. I’m picking up what you’re putting down.”
“Well, I’m glad one of us has a handle on things because I don’t know where all this is coming from.”
“Aldridge, you’ve been berating me for the past ten minutes. I think it would be best if Anika worked with you from now on.”
“Let me get this straight. You’re dumping me?”
“I’m not dumping you. I’m just stepping back.”
“No, you don’t get to dump me twice in a lifetime. I’m dumping you. You are officially fired.”
“You can’t fire someone after they’ve already quit.”
“I’m the client, and what the client says goes.”
“Fine, whatever helps you sleep at night.”
“I have a sleepy girl mocktail each night and rest like a baby.”
“A what?”