Catt Chasing by Shana Burton

and acts that compromise or contradict my faith.”
    â€œChill out, Catt. It was a joke.” Turning his back to her, Jamal began shuffling papers attached to his clipboard. “Dang, don’t they do that where you come from?”
    Catt put her hands on her hips and looked at him squarely in the face. “Why do you do that?”
    â€œDo what?”
    â€œI mean, one minute, you’re acting like my drill sergeant and the next . . .”
    He set the clipboard down. “The next what?”
    â€œI don’t know. It’s like you’re messing with my head or something,” she blurted out. “Just forget it,” she huffed.
    â€œI believe the word you’re looking for is flirting ,” filled in Jamal. “Does it bother you—the flirting, I mean? Do you like it?” He pressed against her. “Do you want me to stop?”
    Her head started spinning again. “Jamal, we can’t . . .”
    â€œCan’t what . . . this?” He leaned down and set his lips above hers as if he were going to kiss her. Fumes from an overheated beaker caught his attention, and he immediately broke away from Catt to attend to the overflowing beaker behind them.
    A thin cloud of smoke hovered above him. He smiled back at Catt. “You see what you do to me? That was a close one,” he said, pouring the scorched mixture down the drain.
    In more ways than one, thought Catt.
    She wondered if he was just joking around again or if he was really going to kiss her. “Now you see why I don’t approve of all this playing around in the lab.”
    â€œI was just trying to get you to loosen up. You’re wound way too tight. This is an office, not a military base. Even Christians are allowed to have some fun every now and then.”
    She didn’t really like that he thought she was a prude nor did she like the emotions he managed to stir up inside of her when he looked at her the way he was right then. “It’s getting late. Maybe we should call it a day.”
    â€œAre you sure? Things were just starting to heat up.” Jamal locked eyes with her and moved to touch her face.
    Suddenly a bell chimed, and the elevator slid open.
    A leggy, saucy-eyed woman stepped off and strutted past Catt and over to Jamal. “They said I could find you down here.” She tossed her long ringlets back and held up a gold watch. “You left this on the nightstand.”
    â€œThanks,” he replied warily and clasped it onto his wrist. “I was looking for it this morning.”
    â€œI was looking for a lot of things this morning too. You’ll never guess where I found my panties.” She giggled and clamped her arms around his neck. “Will I see you again tonight?”
    He licked his lips. “I’ll call you.”
    â€œI’ll be waiting.” She kissed him and departed.
    Jamal approached Catt, who pretended not to pay the whole scene any attention. She silently prayed, asking God to forgive her for the moment of weakness she had with Jamal and thanked Him for bringing back to her remembrance of the kind of operator he really was.
    She began readjusting her formula. “Don’t!” barked Catt when he tried to assist her.
    â€œI thought that we were working on this together.”
    â€œYou thought wrong. Excuse me.” She swept by him and moved to another station.
    â€œI want to finish our conversation.”
    â€œYeah, well, I want to finish this up so I can go home before dawn.” She looked up at him. “You don’t have to hover over me. I’m sure you have skirts to chase or something else important like that.”
    â€œAt least let me apologize for what just happened. Even I have to admit that wasn’t very professional. It won’t happen again.”
    â€œYes, it will, Jamal, because that’s just who you are. You have no respect for the workplace and, obviously, no respect for women. You may