There’s a new female employee in my small department at work (corporate environment). I’m usually pretty good at the “don’t shit where you eat” thing, so I’ve just been nice and polite (pretty much beta) since she started like I do all my coworkers.

She invited me to an event she has tickets for, just me and her. It’s during work hours and she caught me off guard, so the only excuse I came up with “I don’t think our boss would let us both take off work at the same time during this time of year.” Legit excuse, as we’re super busy. She ended up asking him and he okayed it.

I don’t think it would be a good idea to cancel last minute, so I do plan on going. Part of me thinks (and hopes) this is just a platonic coworker bonding thing. However, I think it would be reckless to not be prepared if this some massive shit test to see how I am outside of work. I obviously want to “fail” this shit test, and looking for some tactics.

Should I lie and say I have a girlfriend? Tell her I’m not into her if things escalate at all? I can see both of these backfiring in various ways though.