Wednesday Eau de Toilette

You ordered the fruit tea today, instead of the usual pleasant bitterness of your Earl Grey. The café is calm. Dusk is painting the floor gold through the window frame. They have put in an air freshener since...something floral, hanging in the air of the room where you spent most of your youth on someone. Red pepper first, sharp and brief, the way a room you know too well greets you. Then the teas: rooibos, sweet and red, and Earl Grey underneath it anyway. And at the bottom, musk, baby powder, somehow tasted like soft resin. Warm. And the light has not changed at all.