Eccentric Tea Woman

(This story was previously published in Tales From a Goth Librarian II - out of print) When I first met Paula, I told her that she smelled like bergamot. Every time she moved her arms, every time her hair caught a light breeze, my senses would go into overdrive and all I could think of was a pot of Earl Grey tea. She said she smelled that way because she spent most of her childhood in her uncle’s teashop, wandering among the tall glass jars filled to the brim with exotic smells and delicacies from around the world. A pinch of oolong here, a dabble of British Breakfast there, some lavender thrown in for good measure, and voila! she would say, raising her hands over her head as if she was a magician. She lived for the scents that awakened the senses, for it was in those scents that brought us to a moment of undiluted happiness. One day I wanted to feel that same experience, so the two of us walked from my home to her uncle’s teashop, the small cerulean blue coloured store at the end of t...