wherein she bashes herself for making such a fool of herself in front of the guy she likes that he barely says two words to her. He brought her coffee the other day and she was so nervous she destroyed a phone with it, for Petes sake; it sucks to be her.

I still like the idea of talking to her about non-work things (like the example she provided) and seeing if you have more in common than animal magnetism to justify asking for a date, taking small slow steps and seeing how that goes. Far as that goes, despite the fact I'd probably be too spineless to do it, too, I see no reason not to ask her out and spend the date finding out if you have much in common; in the old days, that's one of the reasons people would go on dates before they decided whom to romance.