"Just the usual grind"

Clients/customer/business partners all have holiday parties, many during the late afternoon to give the employees a break during working hours and to cut the expense of booze. They expect "special" people to drop by. You did.

But how do explain getting home from work at 10:30pm smelling of cheap perfume?

The grind thing doesn't always do much for me, however if you happen to be passionately kissing a dancer (assuming one of your favorites) for an extended period of time, even though they don't use perfume per se (some clubs don't even allow it) - that scent induced by the soap or bath oil some of these girls use before coming to the club - it can get all over you as it basically integrates into your face and hair and skin, and it doesn't easily wash off - so you got to make sure there is time gap involved after the "dance" and sometimes figure how to get a very very good shower, maybe after jogging. In fact I've got some very high mileage jogging this year.

spilling gasoline on yourself when you fill up on the way home is useful

Wet wipes, after shave lotion, and a change of shirt in the car works for me. Golf pullover that is left in the trunk serves a similar purpose. Yeah post holidays can be such a grind!