Thank you for sharing this! I think we really need to trust our instincts when a situation seems fishy. I'm experiencing a similar situation as you did with a professional colleague asking me to lunch. My gut is telling me if I accept, he's going to see it as a date, not a work lunch. I've ignored his email for now. If he keeps pushing, I'm going to flat out say no. I could be wrong about his intentions... at the same time, it could end up as it did for you where it becomes inappropriate and then I'd have to twice the amount of work to get him to leave me alone. *sigh* Set boundaries and do it early!