I want to ask out/show romantic interest in female colleagues at work. How do I do so carefully and with minimal impact to our careers.

I (28M) have been socializing with a nice lady (23/24?F) at work for a couple months now, close to a year now. I stop by her cubicle about 2-3 times a week on average, and she always seems to light up, is full of enthusiasm, and gives me her full attention when I talk to her.

Anyways, recently she told me she started to read/listen to my favorite book that I told her about a couple months back, and honestly surprised she remembered. We had back and forth discussion for about 10 minutes before I told her I enjoy talking to her, but I need to get back to work. She usually thanks me for making time to see her, and this time was no different.

Couple days later, I asked her on Teams if she has any book recommendations for me, which she did, and she suggested we could listen to the books together on our way to work and talk about them during the day. We decided we would alternate book suggestions.

So far, nothing crazy on either end, but I was thinking of asking her out to lunch this week (normal in our company) and possibly tease the idea of meeting outside of work on a date, and see how she feels to a thinly veiled joke.

I have already looked at the company policy, and they are not strictly against “relationships” (family, sibling, romantic, etc) as long it is not disruptive to others.

Would this be the safest way to ask her out? I really do not want to hurt her potential at the company, but also want to cover my own ass. I feel she is worth the potential risk because I feel we are pretty receptive to each other already. Though I’d appreciate others thoughts.

Thanks.