A few nights ago, I slipped quietly into bed and snuggled up to Liv, who was already fast asleep. She’d exercised that evening – a particularly energetic Joe Wicks workout – and while she’d got in the bath with our daughter a short while later, she’d neither washed her hair nor used any soap. When I pressed my face into her neck, I could smell the sweat on her skin.
Over the course of a six-year relationship, you get to learn your partner’s different scents inside and out. The way their brand of shampoo lingers on their hair. Their aftershave or perfume. Their genitals; in the case of someone with a vulva, their genitals at different stages in the menstrual cycle, as well as pre- and post-orgasm. The skin on their hands and face. Their morning breath.