An Intoxicating Scent
Kora Cybil was never the girl that stood out. She was kind, thoughtful and strong for those that relied on her. However, she never wanted to be the center of attention. The popular girls had attempted to recruit her when she had been in high school. Their advances were refused, politely of course, but ever the same. Kora may not have wanted to stand out, but she did. Not only was she beautiful, but she was also kind, caring and giving. As she matured, she became more focused on by many. She had beautiful long brown hair, bright blue eyes that changed depending on her mood and a fit well-defined body. There wasn't a need for her to work out, her metabolism kept up with her intake, however, she frequented the gym, and her body became tight and muscular. Though staying healthy was especially important to her, it didn't matter what people looked like, as long as they were good inside; that's how Kora came to judge those around her.
"Kora! Hurry up! Let's go see if we can find your favorite Legos at the store!" Lindsey, my longest and best friend screamed at me in the parking lot of a large store.
"I'm coming! I needed to grab money!" I screamed after the girl and rushed to her side as she walked in. Lindsey was a touch taller than me, standing at 5’8 and me at about 5’6. She had medium length red hair and hazel eyes. We often frequented the gym together and we shared a similar physique though our taste in clothing and style were far different. There was me in jeans and a t-shirt while she was in tight short shorts and a revealing tank top. At one time I had crushed on Lindsey, but our relationship never matured into anything of that nature. We became like sister’s and were inseparable.
"You know, you never struck me as such a nerd. You're far too much of a pretty girl to be into Legos and videogames." Lindsey looked at me seriously as we B-lined for the toy department.
"Well, looks can be deceiving." I smiled and winked at her. With a roll of her eyes, we continued to our destination. Hopefully, they had what I was looking for. A new generation had been released and it so happened that a police station was one of the sets released that I needed.
We scoured the isle several times before accepting we weren't going to find one.
"I told you we needed to come earlier." I sighed in disappointment.
"I'm sorry, Kora. I didn't realize how many nerd... err, I mean, people collected these. We can keep looking and check online too." She gave me an apologetic smile.
I returned a smile to help ease her guilt. "It's ok. If it was meant to be mine, I would have found one. We'll keep looking and something will work out."
A large smile of relief appeared on her face as we left the isle.
"I'm glad you're not upset at me. I figured after the party last night we would both have overslept. I'm still hungover!" She exclaimed loudly and many passing shoppers looked at her strangely.
"Thankfully, I'm lucky and recover quickly. I don't feel any of the lasting effects of the alcohol." My laugh brought on a glare from Lindsey. Clearly, she wasn't as impressed with my body as I was.
"Not all of us can be gifted by the drinking God's!" She threw her head back and we both laughed loudly drawing the attention of many onlookers. Anytime we went anywhere together we always drew stares from lustful, to jealous and even contempt. One thing we were both good at was not caring what others thought of us or how we acted together.
As we wondered towards the exit of the store, a strong sweet and warm smell hit me. I quickly turned and looked frantically around the store for the cause of something so amazing. Without a second thought I stepped away from Lindsey to pursue the smell.
“Kora, where the hell are you going? Aren’t we done here?” My pace quickened and I didn’t bother giving her a response. As I grew closer the smell became stronger and my body became to heat up. Every part of me felt like I was on fire and my heart began to race. Before I could snap back to my senses, I was turning into the bedding isle and colliding with another person. The only sound was my painful gasp as I roughly landed on the floor. For a moment, I just sat there stunned at my impulsiveness and then realized I needed to apologize for mowing over this person in my desperate search. “I am so sorry. I was looking for something and obviously not paying attention.” My rambling came out before I even looked up. My concern at the moment establishing that I was sorry and then rubbing my butt to try and ease the pain from my landing. As I rose, the smell I had been so desperately following hit me hard. Every sense went into overdrive as my eyes frantically shot up to see what the source was. There in front of me stood a woman, about 6 foot, lean but clearly well built and toned. Her hair cascaded below her shoulders in beautiful blonde waves and when our eyes met, I was greeted with deep blue eyes. Everything about her was absolutely beautiful and my heart began to race.
“I-I-I umm, I hope I didn’t hurt you. You see I was, like I said, just looking for something and not paying attention. I’m very sorry for running into you.” My cheeks flushed in embarrassment from stuttering and the warmth filling my body as I took deep in hales of this sweet smell coming from her. Our eye contact became intense and it looked like her eyes were turning black. In a panic I began stepping backwards in an attempt to put distance between us incase I needed to run. As I made my steps backwards her eyes cleared, and she looked at me almost desperately.
“No harm done. Tell me, what is your name?” A small smile appeared at the corners of her mouth and my body relaxed. “My name is Kora.” I smiled brightly at her.
“Kora? My, that is a beautiful name. Tell me, Kora, what were you looking for so frantically?” Each time she spoke my name the heat felt worse in my body and I was beginning to feel almost a pull to reach out and make some type of physical contact with her.
“Umm, well, it is a little silly… I guess you could say I was following a smell.” After the words left my mouth, I realized how embarrassing the truth was. All this trouble over a smell. She’ll think I’m some kind of nut job I’m sure.
“A smell? What kind of smell?” Her voice became full of excitement and demand.
“It was a sweet smell but not like a typical sweet smell. It was very strong, and it just made me feel warm sort of.” I told her honestly. As I told her I needed to hear it for myself too. Hear what it was I was feeling.
“KORA!” Before we can continue our conversation, I see Lindsey stomping towards me. “What the hell? You just leave me standing at the doors, don’t say anything and then I find you just chit chatting while I wait around?”
“Lindsey, I am so sorry. I was trying to find something and then I accidently ran into her and well, I was just apologizing. We can go now.” I turn back towards the source of my search and a feeling of regret sets in. “I’m sorry again, and I’m glad you’re alright. It was nice meeting you.” With that, I reluctantly turned to leave with Lindsey. As we walked away, I could have sworn I heard a growl but decided with the craziness of everything else to brush it off. My senses at this point couldn’t be trusted anyways.
As we approached our vehicles I sighed loudly in disappointment. Not only because I didn’t find the lego set I had been hoping to get but then I realized I hadn’t even gotten that woman’s name.
“What’s wrong, Kora?” Lindsey looked at me concerned.
“Oh nothing. Just a little disappointed is all.”
“With the lego’s? I’m really sorry about that. If it cheers you up, I’ll never drink again because of this!” She proudly announced her resolution to the problem. I couldn’t help but laugh and decided to not share with her the real reason I was disappointed. After all, I already had a significant other and it wouldn’t go over well if she caught wind of me being interested in anyone else.
“Ha! You quit drinking? Not in a million years! Plus, I thought we were going to go out tonight anyways? Mandi is going with her friends and it’ll leave me at the house all by myself with nothing to do… no set to build…” I gave her my puppy dog eyes and whined.
“I forgot satan, I mean Mandi, was going out tonight. Tell me why you stay with her again?”
Another loud sigh left my mouth but this time she knew exactly why. “Can we not talk about this again? Mandi really isn’t that bad and we’ve been together for three years now! It’s time to just accept it.” I laughed but honestly, I knew Lindsey never would.
Mandi and I had dated for almost 4 years. We had been introduced in college and she had been one of the sweetest people I had ever met. On our first date, she had been so nervous she spilled her drink all over the table and me. While I cleaned it up, she had begun to cry assuming she had ruined the entire evening. I laughed, paid the check and took her out to my car where I always had a second set of clothes. Once she saw my second set, we both began to laugh and from that point on, we had become inseparable. After I moved Mandi into my house, things changed between us and she became very demanding and mean when she spoke to me. Tension had built between us and soon we weren’t even sleeping together. During the second year of our relationship, I caught Mandi cheating on me with her ex. She begged me for forgiveness and told me she hadn’t meant for it to happen. After a few days of none stop messaging and promises to change, I took her back. Since then, things had gotten a little better and we were getting ready to celebrate our four-year anniversary in a month.
“When she returns to hell to claim her thrown, I’ll accept it. For now, however, I see I am desperately needed this evening by my best friend in the whole world. So! I, Lindsey James, refuse to quit drinking in order to take my best friend to have the most fun night ever!” Her promise came out loud and she made quite the spectacle of herself; her arm straight in the air like she was truly swearing this to someone important. My laughter echoed in the parking lot and soon we were both cackling like hyenas. After a few minutes of looking clinically insane in the parking lot, we pulled ourselves together.
“Alright. I accept your promise and expect tonight to be amazing. For now, let’s figure out some food. You need to get your body up to par or you’ll probably die from double hangover disease.” We laughed again and decided on IHOP since they were right up the street. I jumped into my truck and before I even had the ignition turned over, Lindsey was peeling out of the parking lot in her mustang. What a horrible car for her to have, given her inability to control impulses. By the time I pulled up to the restaurant, she had already gotten us a table and ordered coffee.
“You know Lindsey, one of these days you’re probably going to wreck your pretty little sports car if you don’t slow down.” I teased as I sipped on my coffee.
“Maybe you just drive slow and my driving is normal?” She raised her eyebrow at me triumphantly.
“Maybe. Or maybe you’re in denial?” A large grin spread across my face as her eyebrows creased together and she put her tongue out at me.
“Whatever Kora. Let’s just get some food so we can recover our bodies and wreck them again.” Laughing we both picked up menus and picked out our orders.
Through the entire meal I was unable to stop thinking about that woman I had run into. How come I felt that way and what was with that smell? It felt like I was drawn to her. Lindsey noticed I had barely touched my food and had barely spoken.
“Kora, are you thinking about the stuff with Mandi?”
I looked at her surprised. “Uh, yeah.” I lied.
“Well, she’s going to be busy tonight and you deserve to have fun too! If she can go out friends, then I don’t see why you can’t.” Her face crinkled instantly at the thought.
“Yeah, you’re right. We’ll have a lot of fun tonight and I’ll try to not think about anything else.” But I knew that was a lie too. All I could think about was that woman. Why hadn’t I gotten her name? Damn.
“So, are we meeting at my place or yours?” Lindsey looked at me expectantly.
“Why don’t we meet at mine and take an uber or something? We’re both going to drink, and it would be silly to designate a driver.” Every time we agreed on a DD it always ended up being me because she refused to have self-control. At least this way, I wouldn’t have to worry about it and could drown my thoughts and problems for the night.
As if reading my mind, she instantly agreed. “True. I make a horrible DD and I know you deserve to have fun too.” She laughed and headed towards her car. “Ok, it’s decided. I’ll get an uber to your place and we’ll take it together to the club!” She hollered to me as she got into her car.
“Sounds good! See you later!” I smiled happily at our compromise and jumped into my own vehicle. Time to head home and see what kind of mood Mandi was in.
