"No thanks" I said to Clement. For probably the 200th Friday in a row he had invited me to join some people from our department at the hospital at a bar.
"You sure?" he asked with a smile on his face. "You never come out with us."
"I'm sorry. I just don't mix my personal life and work. It can get too messy. Look at what happened to Carmen". Carmen was one of our co-workers. She was one of the more middle-aged techs in our department, Cardiac Monitoring, and she was married and she had slept with and she had gotten too attached and Clement ad almost lost her husband and was now continually chasing after Clement. The list could go on, but that is enough.
Carmen was an attractive married woman of about 35. Every guy in the department, including Clement, had been hitting on her since she started working here. She had gone out with them last year. Clement had fucked her when they had gone out. She had a reputation around work now and it really bothered her.
It bothered her so much that even though she loved working in our department, she was looking for a transfer. She was desperate for one. Every guy in the department hounded her constantly.
I wasn't going to make the same mistake.
"Carmen's upset about everyone knowing something that she didn't want them to know." He replied.
"So how did it happen?" I asked, quizzically.
"Does it matter? It's not my place to say." He replied, seemingly earnestly.
"You know she can't get over it?" I asked, frankly.
"You should come out. All we do is drink and dance." He said encouragingly. "You need to have some fun."
"I'm OK", I said. In truth, I had been out almost every weekend. I just didn't go out around there. For the same reasons I didn't go out with them. I valued my privacy. But, it had been almost a month since I had gone out.
A couple of people had been fired and we were a bit short staffed, so there was some overtime available. I had been taking a lot of it, especially on the weekends. Not lately, a few people had come off training, so there wasn't any available.
"Come on" he pushed as his hands began to massage my shoulders from behind.
Clement was attractive. A black man from Cameroon about 28. Well built with a smooth voice and well kept dreads, he had had flings with a lot of the nurses in the hospital and several girls from our department. Quite a few more had crushes on him.
One of the things that made him seem sincere was the fact that he didn't just target the prettiest girls. He got his share of the pretty ones, but just as often he hooked up with nice, or interesting, or flirty or off-limits girls.
He loved hooking up with girls in a relationship or married girls because there wasn't much of a chance that they were looking for anything more than a hookup from him. Some had crossed that line, and it had been a problem for him, but he was so smooth that he worked it out.
"Tempting" I teased, looking at him and implying a double-entendre. He picked up on it.
"Am I" he asked shyly.
"I meant the invitation" I replied to him.
"You should come" he smoothly encouraged me again.
He was right, of course. I should go, but there was a reason. All I had to do to avoid Carmen and all the other girls problems was to be good. The problem was that I didn't want to be good. Ever. That was why I always went out in Philadelphia or Baltimore. Both were less than an hour away, yet far enough that I wouldn't run into anyone that I knew while I was there.
"I should", I relented. "But, I have to work tomorrow." This weekend was not overtime. It was simply my weekend to work.
"So do I" he said as he continued to gently massage my shoulders. It felt so good. He had soft, supple, talented hands.
"I'll let you know." I finally relented. "Now get back to your station before Carmella comes back in here.
"John's got it covered." He smiled. He was right, but I was getting distracted and I had to get back to work. He did leave, however, and go across the room to his own workstation.
The rest of the shift went pretty smoothly. I had a couple of patients who went into arrythmias and I had to call across the street to the hospital proper and notify the nurses, but that was it.
About an hour before the end of the shift, Clement went from station to station passing around end of shift report forms. He was the charge tech.
He dropped the form onto my desk and leaned down to whisper in my ear in that smooth African voice. "10:00" was all he said.
"OK" I replied without thinking. WHAT! I didn't mean to say yes, but before I could call him back, one of the traces on my board went into V-fib and started alarming.
I focused my attention of my board and the phone, calling the nurse on the floor and noting the waveform, time, patient name, duration and the name of the nurse that I spoke to in my log book.
By the time I was finished, it was ten minutes until the end of shift. Clement was gone into Carmella's office to give her daily report. Maybe I could just clock out and sneak out without being seen.
I gave my report and made my way quickly to the time clock. 'Click' and I was out the door and to the elevator. Clement, Kume, Jon and Jill were all there waiting for the elevator.
"I hear you are coming out with us tonight" Jill said as I approached.
"I don't know..." I began.
Clement put his arm around my shoulder and said "Come on. You know you want to." In that voice of his. It was a voice that promised no drama and no problems but I knew better.
Still, I heard "OK" coming out of my mouth.
I looked down at Clement. He was shorter than me. Almost everybody in the department was. At 5'11" I was tall for a girl and taller than most of the guys.
"That's because I never let you put your arm around me before." Then I whispered, teasingly, just loud enough for everyone to hear. "I'm not now either. I might have to call HR if you don't stop."