Montana Jones

Aqua di Gio

"Excuse me, is that Aqua di Gio you are wearing?"

"I'm sorry?" I turned from my companion to the lady that had stepped to the bar behind me. She was tall with long black hair, sexy clothes, dressed for some nightlife.

"Aqua di Gio. Is that your cologne?" There was a smell of perfumes in the air. Masculine. Someone nearby had taken care to wear it.

"No, I'm not wearing cologne." I was a little put off by the intrusion. A precious few hours with no work and an opportunity to meet a voice from the internet. Somehow I actually found the time to go on a date. I had a glass of scotch and someone new to get to know and now an interruption.

"Oh, well someone here is." She conspiratorially shielded her mouth with her hand and faux whispered "If it is coming from two people away perhaps they went a little overboard." The lady was in nightlife mode for sure. Borderline tipsy and willing to strike up conversation with whomever was around. Was she trying to flirt with me? If I weren't already on a date I would have paid more attention. Not just any date either; this was a first date. The only time one has to make a first impression. I was not interested in wasting time talking with someone else.

I shrugged my shoulders and tried to express through body language that I was not interested in colognes or smells and turned back to my companion. "She is very attractive." My date said.

My instincts recoiled at that comment. As far as I am concerned first date etiquette does not include discussions of how attractive someone else at the bar is. Was that a comment of insecurity? A statement of fact? Did she want me to agree, disagree, what did she want to hear? I suppose the interloper was attractive in a shallow sort of way. Again I tried to express body language that said 'I'm not interested in that either.'

"You know, I could swear that was you. Are you sure you are not wearing any cologne?" It was the lady over my shoulder again.

I once again turned away from my date. The only way to deal with this intrusion was to address it. "No, I'm pretty much just wearing soap. What was the name of that cologne again?"

"Aqua di Gio."

"So that is what I should be looking for the next time I am out, you know, shopping for cologne?"

"It's a good one. It's an older cologne, been on the market for quite a while so they sell it at ordinary stores now. It's easy to find. I swear that is what I am smelling now. You know, I'm getting married soon, but my fiancée doesn't wear cologne. I'd like him to, I love the smell, but he just never has worn any and doesn't think of it."

"It's a learned thing." I offer. "Some guys have never learned to wear it and don't understand it."

"Have you asked him to wear it?" Suggests my date.

"Well, yes. But I would like him to remember without being told. I love him to death and it is such a small thing. Easy to forgive. That smell still turns my head though." She leaned across me to my date and said "I'm sorry to interrupt your conversation, but I thought your date smelled really nice."

The lady turned away and I turned back to my date, trying to laugh off the eccentric encounter. "Did you learn anything?" asked my companion.

"I learned to shop for Aqua di Gio"

"It may be an oddity of me, but I don't like colognes. I prefer a more natural scent."

"It's one of those things that I hardly ever think of. I'm one of those people that never learned to wear cologne."

"I'm almost embarrassed to say it, but I think you do smell very nice."

Posted by: Montana Jones / 3:04 AM