The phone rang. Dang, she'd just changed into her pyjamas! Cheryl answered "Hello?"
"Cheryl, I know you're not on call but we need you to come in to fix the analyzer. Victor can't. His wife says he's passing a kidney stone."
Poor Victor. He'd passed a kidney stone about four weeks prior and after being tested, had been told three more were present and would likely come out at some point. Usually she'd be upset with being called when it wasn't her turn to be on call but she'd take the call over passing a kidney stone any day.
"What's wrong with the analyzer?"
The shift foreman told her the error and sure enough, it wasn't something she could solve on the phone. Behind him she heard a voice call out.
"Hey Cher, if I had to come in here on a Saturday night, you have to come in too!"
"Who was that?"
"It's Steve, he's in because mill #4 is down."
"Dang, bad night, eh?"
"Yeah. So you're coming in?"
"I'll be there soon."
After they hung up, Cheryl hurriedly got out of her pyjamas and into jeans and a sweater. She grabbed her keys and headed out. On the way to the factory, she smiled as she remembered the texts she and Steve had exchanged just the night before.
Steve was a maintenance supervisor who'd been hired four years prior as a maintenance worker. In his first few years, Cheryl had associated his name with another face, someone she didn't like as much but once she'd gotten the two workers figured out and gotten to know Steve a little more, she liked him. Since he'd become a supervisor, they'd had more opportunities to talk and Cheryl had grown to really like him. It didn't hurt that he was easy on the eyes and had a cute tushy. And then, there was the affectionate side of Steve that she really liked. At first, it had surprised her that he was so touchy-feely but having been single for a while, she really enjoyed his touches, a side hug here, a hand on the shoulder there, things that nobody would question at work.
On the Friday, they had been in a training session and sitting next to each other. Cheryl had noticed a round object in his pocket and had written down a question in her notebook, asking what it was. She was really hoping that it wasn't a can of chewing tobacco. He grabbed her pen and wrote down "gum, want one?"
Cheryl had declined and had continued to doodle in her notebook while the training went on. Then, she noticed that Steve was sitting with his hands over his crotch and leaned over and whispered in his ear "I can't help but wonder why guys sit with their hands on their crotch... Is it that you're afraid the jewels are going to run away?"
He'd laughed and shaken his head and then whispered back "my hands are the only company they get lately".
Her first reaction had been a silent "What?" And it was quickly followed by "Heck, I'd keep them company any day!" But she couldn't really say that. Noticing that the teacher was not impressed with the whispering, Cheryl had written in her notebook "Let me know if I can help."
He'd smiled but then, the teacher was asking people to participate so the exchange stopped there. The course ended and they had gone in different directions, their respective offices being on different floors. The rest of the afternoon had been busy and it was once she was home that she noticed that he had texted her to wish her a good weekend. She answered and over the next half hour, they'd exchanged very flirty texts, almost making her late for dinner with a few of her girlfriends. The flirting had been to the point of hinting he'd like more than friendship so she'd been distracted all evening and teased about it but she'd kept the reason to herself.
When she got to the factory, Cheryl parked close to the door and went in. She got her tools from her office and went to the analyzer. She was greeted by the lab tech who was rather grumpy about his little routine being interrupted. She went into the adjacent control room and told the shift foreman that she had arrived. Then she went back to the lab and started taking the analyzer apart to fix the problem. Steve showed up and laughingly asked "Do you know how to use that?"
He pointed at the tool she was holding. She shook her head, laughing. "Typical male."
"You like me anyway."
"Do I now?"
"Too bad this is such a fishbowl."
"Why?"
"If we had any privacy, I'd show you how typically male I am and how much you like me."
