seneca-rolfeâ:
Seneca didnât question whether the employee, Mateo according to his nametag, had in fact made any of the perfumes. She had been obnoxious enough to just take his word for it. Her lips pinched into a tight line as he began to list the names of his fragrances. Rusty Spoon alone was enough to make it incredibly difficult not to grin or laugh at the names. Somehow, she managed to keep it together through each name, the most offensive of which was probably The Popsicle Pencil, before she asked, âIâm sorry, sir, but with names like that Iâm really struggling to tell if youâre being serious or if I might have just suffered a stroke.â She raised her brows. âI mean, do you just open a dictionary and pick a word or two and sayâyep, thatâs good enough for meâand smack it on a label?â
Her smug air fell away quickly as he subconsciously checked to see if his cufflinks were still there. Her mouth dropped open with insult at the insinuation. âDo you really think Iâm going to try and take your stupid cufflinks? I wanted free samples, my dude. What, like I came here to rob you of them cuz I just couldnât live without them? What would I even wear a cufflink with? And Iâm not about to steal âem and pawn âem after what happened to the Golden State Killer.â
§§§
Mateo didnât understand her willingness to just say things, and he had to fight his own shock at being called dude and asked such flagrantly disrespectful questions, one right after the other. This was probably the thiefâs modus operandi- overwhelm, shock, and nab. He shouldnât-couldnât-wouldnât give in, even in the face of such a pride-threatening accusation.
âI picked them based on energy and inspiration. Thereâs nothing haphazard about my naming process. Just because theyâre a little more out-there than Bath and Body Works doesnât mean that theyâre ridiculous... as for this serial killer talk...â he bristled. He didnât know anything about the Golden State Killer, or what he had to do with cufflinks, but thoroughness was one of his few true weapons against this reputation onslaught.
âIf you consider the slightest look an accusation that you share something with a serial killer, then that is not something to blame me for. That is something you you should unpack on your own... your hyper-vigilance is not something that my cufflinks need to be exposed to.â










