Roommate Hell·
THE SCENT SIEGE
A couple argues over a roommate's invasive scent clutter, as plug-ins unleash an overpowering aroma that tests boundaries, hospitality, and a fragile sense of home.
Would you ask for the plug-ins to go?
Be one of the first to vote.
The house was already full of a stranger's perfume when the real problem turned out to be the plug-ins.
A woman named Melissa, 49, had moved in with the couple for a few weeks while she figured out the next step in her life. She was in the middle of leaving her husband after 25 years of marriage, and she planned to head to Los Angeles to work at Disneyland. The poster said both Melissa and her husband were responsible for the collapse of that marriage, and that their relationship had been bad for as long as he had known them.
But the marriage drama wasn't the issue under his roof. The smell was.
Melissa arrived with a whole collection of room scents, sprays, and plug-ins, and the odors started taking over the house. They drifted through the hallway, the family bathroom, and the office. They didn't stop there. The scent reached down two flights of stairs into the foyer drawing room and the living room.
The poster said the house had been deliberately kept free of chemical smells, so Melissa's setup was an immediate clash. At first, he thought the problem was just a room spray. He asked her to be careful, telling her: "hey those room sprays are pretty strong, would you mind keeping the door closed if you're using them."
Then he realized it was worse. There were plug-ins. Not one. Plug-ins, plural.
That changed the conversation.
He asked Melissa to remove them, saying: "can you please remove the plugins." She apologized and took them out right away.
Later, he added one more detail: one of the plug-ins had been placed near the central air intake vent, which likely helped spread the scent so fast. Even after the plug-ins came out, the smell still hadn't disappeared 24 hours later. He said, bluntly, "I hated the smell of them."
His wife did not see it the same way. She thought he had gone too far by making Melissa uncomfortable while she was already going through a difficult separation, and by telling her to stop using the scents. The poster, meanwhile, said he was shocked that someone would change the scent of his house and felt he had every right to ask for the plug-ins to go.