List #195: The Classic Scent of Curve for Men

I was walking across my library today when I was struck still by a certain scent.

Curve for Men.

Immediately I was cast back to 1998:  An awkward teenager who didn't know how cute she was exactly. A smart girl who was just beginning to really grow out of high school and was just starting to realize how much the future could have in store. A girl who would have a long way to go before she finally felt fully confident in her skin. And a girl who was so head-over-heels with a very tall boy who liked to skateboard.

That high school romance was the classic sort of girl likes boy, girl wants boy to like her back. Boy flirts with girl. Girl and boy kiss. They don't end up together because it's high school and they both have other lives they are suppose to live. But he gives her butterfly earrings the night before she leaves for college even though he'll be dating someone new by Halloween. And she'll be busy kissing college boys even before that. But the scent of his cologne would remain. 

So much so that 13 years later, one whiff sends her back.

But after all of this time travel I got to realizing how many of the men who have shaped me have worn this scent. Or at least had a bottle of it sitting on their dresser, collecting dust until some fancy event requires it.

• The high school boy kept wearing it, each time he came back into my life, until I said no and meant it. 
• The empty bottle that must been haphazardly packed by the big ex, even though I don't remember him wearing cologne ever. 
• How it lingered between myself and a man I couldn't have on Saturday nights in bookstores. 
• The crush who resurfaced and wore it when he invited me to meet his parents on the third date and then invited me to his cabin in the woods but vanished as quickly as he appeared.
• And though I think my memory might be failing me, how an old and almost-forgotten bottle sat on the high shelf, jammed with books and lighters and candles, of a man I liked from Middle America. 

Do men I date have to store a bottle of Curve somewhere? No, of course not. To be honest, these days I much prefer to have his body wash mix with mine or the clean scent of just him. 

But one of the biggest (and earliest) compliments a guy can get from me is the whispering of "You smell good" as we fold into each other. If I say that, and once I say it I will keep on saying it...you have me. I really like you. I'm yours.

So dear readers, what scents bring you back in time? What do they remind you of?