The boy revealed what aftershave he wears this week, and I have to admit, I was a tad disappointed. The way a guy smells is one of the things that draws me to him initially, and in this case, perhaps because we see each other so infrequently, it never loses its impact.

In this particular case, I’ve witnessed other girls mention it too, so I know I’m not the only one lured in by it. He smells amazing, but not of a fragrance I recognise, which kind of makes the whole thing more alluring – it’s specific to him, like an invisibility superpower or the ability to fly (ok, this analogy worked better in my head than it does in type.)

So finding out that, predictably, you could pick up a bottle of it in any good branch of Boots? Not gonna lie … it takes the shine off a bit.

I’ve long had history with guys and the way they smell. Remember hot French teacher? He wore something strong enough that his classroom smelt of it even when he was absent on break duty, but it wasn’t overpoweringly so: just strong in a way that was unmistakably him.

Except, of course, as I discovered in the Duty Free shop of a cross-channel ferry, it wasn’t unmistakably him at all – it was unmistakably L’eau d’Issey, aftershave beloved by men on buses, in bars and in offices all around the country, and in more recent years, my dad (yeah, that was a weird day). And yet, for me, it always will bring back memories of him, to the point that, when I found a peel and sniff sample in a copy of Cosmo in the hairdressers last weekend, I was briefly no longer a woman of twenty-nine but a fifteen-year-old with a dodgy pleated skirt  and ‘I love Ian’ scrawled across the back of all my exercise books.

It’s not always aftershave, either, I’m well aware of that. The boy before this boy didn’t wear any at all – his scent was more one of Imperial Leather soap mixed with a hint of wet dog. Somehow though, it was way more appealing than it sounds, and it suited him – if the way a guy smells is noteworthy, I find it almost becomes part of his personality.

So, to the guy on OKC who, when I suggested meeting for a drink, couldn’t resist adding, ‘And some red hot sex?’, when I said that would depend on the chemistry, that’s not quite what I meant. It depends what you smell like.