Cans and Cannots

She used to smell of L L.A.M.B.  Now she smells of cigarettes.

I don't like it.

To be fair, it isn't socially acceptable to comment on the smell of co-workers.  I don't even know if the others have noticed the change or can guess its cause.  It's a shortcoming of everyone else in my opinion, not noticing that sort of sensory input.  There are so many stories that are so much more clear when you take into account little cues like that.  It makes life more interesting.  Or at least more like a livable soap opera.

Person A normally smells like 1a, 1b, 1c depending on the day.  Because who doesn't like playing with pretty perfumes?  Person B normally smells like 1b and. . . well, at a stretch maybe 1a.  1a was the initial smell until they took up smoking again and then the normal scent became 1b.

Then person A starts smelling like B1b.  Instant drama!

Except all my other instincts, my other senses have taken an instant dislike to person B.  They had before this happened.  Sure, he pays me some mind and that's all well and good (I'm cute).  But there's always that red flag in my mind, warning me off, saying that all isn't what it appears to be from my perspective here.  Even if anyone else notices, it's a ShouldNot to speak of it to the person in question.  

Most people aren't good at pinpointing the cues.  The body language that tells them everything they'd every need to know.  At best, they may be left with a vague feeling of uneasiness that they can't justify. When people can't logically justify a thing, they have an alarming tendency to dismiss it.  I've never really understood this; isn't that how the entire species managed to survive this long?  Those little instincts that tell them that going to that quiet watering hole is a terrible plan?  It's obvious that they listened often enough then to see the creature in the water eat the unwary.  So why to so many dismiss it now?  

She will have no warning.  She will miss the breadcrumbs leading her to the right conclusion.  The people will listen to the notion that it is a ShouldNot and shroud themselves in silence.

But I'm only the office dog.  I Cannot tell her.  I Can only watch and offer my pelt for the tear-streams when it all folds like a lamb giving up on life before the fox.