Let me tell you about Lee

Let me tell you about Lee.

He was a young intern from the hospital just across the street.  His grandmother broke her hip and ended up in the unit where I worked and by some stroke of luck (or whatever you may call it), I took care of her that day.  

Lee was cute and for the first time in a very long time I felt my heart flutter a little.   When he talked to me about his Nana, I noticed how gentle he was, the way he talked, the way he held the pen, the way he engaged my eyes.  He was flirting with me, I noticed.  But what I liked about it was he was  actually trying to hide it.  

No, it wasn’t my imagination.  He was flirting alright.  He gave me his home, mobile and pager numbers, you know just in case there was something we needed for his Nana.  But being a medical intern and without a POA, he knew full well we would be calling his Grandpa, his Dad, and his Nana’s other children before we would even get to him.  I held on to that yellow sticky, kept it just because it made me feel good.  It was nice to feel once again that I had the power to attract the opposite sex..... It’s been a long time.

Before he left that afternoon, he invited me for coffee.  I politely declined although I would have really loved to just be able to discover what was in Lee.  I knew that if I obliged to this one invitation, it can lead to something further, something complicated, something I might not be able to handle, or undo.  He did call the floor several more times, in the pretense that he was asking about his Nana.  But we both knew it wasn’t that at all.  

When Nana finally left she hugged me so tight and muttered something in a foreign language to which everybody sheepishly smiled.  One of the daughters put her arms around me and translated what Nana said......”You would be wonderful for Lee”.  I was pretty sure the shock showed in my face but I tried to bring out a smile and wrinkled my nose at her.  Deep inside I was also smiling.  

Now several years later, I still remember Lee.  I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if we did go for that coffee.