seriously though, if she’s nice, say yes, do the business thing and after you’re finished with the work part, see what else happens… just try to separate work and private life. both have to be professionals at work but at home, do whatever you want

I think the longer a person has been working and the more committed he is to work, the more likely it becomes that he’ll meet his future spouse through his growing professional network.

I once dated a coworker and after that ended I made it a personal policy not to date coworkers. But there have been times when I thought to myself that I would ask some girl out if only I didn’t work with her and I’ve wondered what would have happened if I had asked her out (probably a friendly rejection). Once I went out with a customer I met at a company event (I wasn’t a salesperson and she wasn’t the one making the purchasing decisions so I think it was acceptable), and it turned into one of the most meaningful relationships I’ve had.

I definitely think that there’s a wrong way to date people with whom you have professional relationships, but I think it’s unavoidable. If you have a group of single people working together for long enough, someone (maybe not you) is bound to start dating someone else, and simply saying that it’s against company policy isn’t going to prevent that. (One of our salespeople married one of our resellers, and if there’s a company dating policy, that’s probably prohibited.) Someone is bound to meet someone worth risking his career for and when that happens, he’s not going to want to know how to turn her down while maintaining the client relationship. He’s going to want to know how to go out with her without getting himself fired. At least that’s what I would want to know in that situation. I wonder what advice the consulting communication prof would give for that.

But I see your second point. Of course it could happen that you start to like someone you work with like you described in your scenario. If you are working as a consultant or as a sales person you are representing the company and people might watch you closely what you do and how you behave. Where as a ‘normal’ employee other people don’t associate you directly with the company and dating someone might not be a big deal.
But to be honest this would be a really difficult situation and there is no single answer to it. I guess at this point the question is, if it is worth to risk the job.
But to go back to my initial post: I wrote this post from the perspective that she likes just my look and not that we have a lot in common and feel connected. I guess more often this will be the other way around. (Good looking consultant woman and a ‘horny’ guy on the client side). One part of being a consultant is that you have to look good and professional since you represent the company, this might also lead that you get people who admire your look.