perfume counter

[deere]

Not sure how I feel about this one, really.  But it's done enough to post, so here ya go.

 

 

Kiera hoped she could hurry past the perfume booth at JC Penney’s.  It smelled awful, and made her nose tickle.  Her heart fell when she saw the returns counter so close behind it, and the line stretching right past the perfumes.

Grumbling to herself, she got in the back of the line.  At least it seemed to be moving quickly- they’d clearly staffed up for the post-holiday rush.  Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.  As the line moved along, Kiera tried to ignore slight tickle in her nose.

Kiera hated sneezing in public.  She didn’t like sneezing at all, but when her allergies really got going, she had positively enormous fits- sometimes lasting for ten or fifteen minutes with barely enough time between the sneezes to even breathe.  And once a fit got started, there was no stopping it.  It was so embarrassing when people saw her like that.

The closer she got to the perfume counter, the harder it was to pretend her nose wasn’t tickling, but it wasn’t too bad, and the line was still moving.  She hoped she’d be okay.  Just as she got even with the counter, the line seemed to stop.  After a while, Kiera looked ahead to the return counter to see what the holdup was.  She couldn’t tell- something was clearly wrong, judging by the expressions on everyone’s faces up at the front of the line, but it was impossible to tell what.

Kiera looked back to see the woman from behind the perfume counter coming over to talk to the woman in front of her in line.  Oh, god, no, she thought.  But sure enough- the saleslady came over and started talking, and then sprayed some perfume on her as a sample.  Kiera’s nose started to tickle worse.  She wondered why anyone would buy a perfume that smelled like that- even if it didn’t make her sneeze, she thought it smelled terrible.

The saleslady came back with a different perfume.  It smelled better, but Kiera was even more allergic to it than the first one- or maybe the effects were additive.  She wasn’t sure, but by now there was no denying she had to sneeze.  Was going to sneeze, in fact.

She didn’t want to sneeze in public.  She thought about stifling it, but stifling her sneezes often made the tickle worse.  Maybe if she let it out, it would just be the one.

She turned, covered her nose with her hand, and let it out.  ahCHOO  Nope, one wasn’t going to  do it.  She couldn’t bear the thought of having one of her huge sneezing fits here in line- they were so embarrassing.  She pinched her nose with her fingers as the next one tried to come out.  ah’chXk  Oww- stifling strong sneezes hurt, and sure enough, made the tickle worse.  But she kept pinching her nose and managed not to sneeze again.  It took just about all she had.

Finally, Kiera made it to the front of the line.  Her nose was burning, her eyes were watering, and she only dared breathe through her mouth.

“I’d like to” e’ch “return these” Oh, no eh-t’ch “sweaters, please.”  Turns out she could just about stand still and breathe without sneezing, but speaking was beyond her.  She was able to stifle, so far, but it wasn’t easy and wasn’t going to last.

“Of course- I’ll just need your receipt,”  the older woman behind the counter said.  “And may I ask why?”

“They’re just a bi..bit…” the tickle was getting worse, and she could feel her eyes beginning to twitch “too…too large for me,” Keira said. She pinched her nose as she handed the receipt over.

t’ch’chh—t’CH  God, these were getting hard to stifle.  Kiera knew holding them in was only going making her need to sneeze worse.

The woman behind the counter seemed to be having trouble with the computer.

ahh-ahh-T’CH’ch’chew  Wow, barely sort of caught that one, Kiera thought.

Finally, the woman finished processing the return.  “Would you like store credit or cash, dear?”

“Cash, please” Kiera said.

“Of course- I’ll just have to get the manager over to approve it.”

Kiera wished she’d asked for store credit, but talking made the tickle worse so she didn’t dare say anything.

Kiera hurried to the door as fast as she could.  The cold air hitting her nose made the tickle even worse. She hadn’t thought that was possible.  She pinched her nose again, praying she could just make it to her car.

k’ch’ch  k’chh  k’chh-xx’chew  They were barely stifled now- but she was working as hard as she could to keep them under control.

Dropping into the driver’s seat of her car, she breathe a sigh of relief- she hadn’t had a full-fledged sneezing fit in public.

AHH-AA-CHOOO  AHCHOO  Ahh-ahh-K’TCHOO’kchoo’kchoo

The sneezes were just getting started.  Kiera started the engine to let it warm up, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to drive anywhere for a while.  She hated her nose, but was sort of used to it.  There wasn’t much to be done about it.

ahh’CHoo    ah—ahh—ahh’CHOOOO’choo’choo’TCHewAHCHOO

It felt good to let the sneezes out, but so far, it wasn’t doing much to dissipate the tickle.

ah-CH’AHCHOOO   ahh-T’chew’CHOO’choo’T’CHEWWW  AHHshooo

It was nearly fifteen minutes before Kiera got her nose under control enough that she dared drive home.

[Alyssa1146]

This was great!  I really like perfume/cologne sneezes a lot, so definitely enjoyable for me!  Thank you for posting!

[NoV]

I have always enjoyed the scenario of someone struggling to control a huge sneezing fit when exposed to a perfume counter. I wonder just how often this happens - there's got to be the occasional spectacular fit at these places right...?

[Ben Drowned]

@NoV I agree that would be nice to watch too in person