Do you smell that? Like cigarette smoke? Is it just me? It is just me, isn’t it? I can smell cigarette smoke all the time now. I think it started the night we went to one of our favorite restaurants to see a musical trio who appears there about once a month on the patio, which is also where the smokers hang out.

Just for clarification, I’m not trying to blame anything on smokers. I don’t care whether or not they smoke. They can smoke all they want to. I was there by choice. I could have gotten up at any time and walked away. Smokers don’t owe me any special consideration. I thought it might be important to put that out there.

And I don’t know if this weird thing started that night, but I associate it with that night because it seemed as though every single one of the people there was chain-smoking. The air reeked of cigarette smoke. Not that I have a problem with that. Just sayin.

Since that night, I smell cigarette smoke all the time. Not exclusively. I can smell other things, when there’s something else to smell. I could smell the garlic My Darling B used to prepare dinner, and I could smell the cucumber she infused in the gin that she offered me afterwards. I soaked up the aroma of the coffee I brewed every morning for the past two weeks. But when there wasn’t any garlic or cucumber or coffee, I could smell cigarette smoke. It’s always there in the background. It’s like having tinnitus, except in my nose.