“Of course not—I don’t own any dogs!” Amanda protested.
Still, she picked up her feet and looked at the bottoms of her low-heeled work shoes anyway. Of course there was nothing there.
“See—nothing,” she said impatiently. “Anyway, I came to tell you that Janice is trying to steal my sale!” She took another step towards him but Mr. Hornfetter stepped back so quickly that he knocked over the display of expensive lipsticks he’d been working on so carefully. Shiny rectangular boxes flew everywhere, skittering across the polished floor like expensive beetles.
Mr. Hornfetter swore under his breath and bent down to pick the shiny little rectangular boxes up off the floor. Amanda bent reflexively as well, to help, but her boss’s nose wrinkled again and he scooted away.
“Amanda, please! Since it’s clear you didn’t step in something, I have to think that smell is coming from you,” he told her. “If you’re having excessive flatulence today, I can get someone else to cover your shift.”
“What?” Amanda was horrified. Was everyone going crazy today? What was this awful smell everyone kept talking about that everyone but her could smell? What was going on?
As she backed away from the spilled lipsticks, Janice came back with several other coworkers. She was whispering to them in a really obvious way, Amanda thought sourly. Exactly the way she and her girl friends on the cheer squad used to whisper about whatever fat, pimply, disgusting kid they wanted to torment in the cafeteria back in high school. One of them—Eric Dawson, who worked in men’s fragrances, took a step towards Amanda, sniffed, and took a quick step back.
“Oh my God, you’re right!” Amanda heard him mutter to Janice. “She does smell like dog crap!”
“Hey!” Amanda couldn’t take any more. She stormed over to her coworkers, who all backed up hurriedly, most with their hands over their noses. “How dare you all talk about me like I’m not here? And what smell? I don’t smell anything at all!”
“That’s because you can’t smell your own personal odor—your body gets used to it and you can’t actually tell when you stink,” a voice murmured behind her.
Amanda whirled around to see the girl with black hair and green eyes giving her an extremely satisfied smile.
“What?” she demanded. “What are you talking about? I don’t stink!”
“I’m talking about you, Amanda,” the girl said. “And you do stink. You’re rotten inside—and now everyone will be able to tell it. Because you’re going to smell as nasty on the outside as you actually are on the inside. For the rest of your life.”
Amanda opened her mouth to demand what she was talking about again but the girl turned on her heel and left, her black hair bouncing with the swaying of her full hips.
“Mommy,” came a child’s voice from Amanda’s other side. “Why does that lady smell like a potty?”
“I don’t know, Essie, but we can’t talk like that about people—it’s rude. Come on—let’s get away from here—it’s awful!” And a harried-looking mother with a hand over her face rushed her little girl away.
Looking around, Amanda saw that other people were backing away from her too—including her coworkers and her boss. Some of them were gagging. A man with a service dog on a leash couldn’t get his animal to go past her. The German Sheppard backed away, its muzzle wrinkling as it whined frantically.
Amanda was horrified at what she was seeing. All of them were pointing and whispering. It was just like high school all over again, only instead of Amanda leading the popular kids in making fun of some ugly idiot, they were all pointing at her.
Slowly, she backed away, staring at the group of people. Was this some kind of a joke? An elaborate prank somebody wanted to post on their YouTube channel?
Then she remembered the girl with green eyes whispering, “You’re going to smell as nasty on the outside as you actually are on the inside. For the rest of your life.”
Turning tail, Amanda Brannigan ran away as fast as she could. But no matter how fast she ran, she couldn’t get away from the smell…
Fifty
“So what is it, Sis? What do you want to talk about?” Jodi had a relaxed, happy look on her face Melinda could hardly ever remember seeing there before. Usually, it seemed like her big sister was always uptight about something. But not now—now Jodi seemed like a whole new person. A person who was at peace with herself and the world around her in a way she never had been before.
She was practically glowing, Melli couldn’t help noticing. And her big sister’s smile had a satisfied quality—a look of utter contentment.
She’s glowing and satisfied because she’s bonded, Melli thought. Bonded to a male who loves her and treats her right and probably makes love to her every night.