If you want to be ultra-safe, you always have the option of writing up a legal agreement between you and your lover. Youšll be pleased to know that several law firms around the country have drafted relationship contracts that can be signed by any sexually-partnered employees. Usually they state that both employees are entering into the relationship consensually and that they won't show favoritism toward each other or compel one another to stay in the relationship to benefit themselves professionally. "It's a creative way for handling what sometimes is a sticky situation," says Jeff Tanenbaum, an attorney at Littler, Mendelson in San Francisco, who's drawn up about 12 different relationship contracts, including one between same-sex partners. He says since his firm wrote their first contract three years ago, it's gotten a staggering number of requests.

Employers like the contracts, he says, because they prevent favoritism and protect companies from sexual harassment suits. Are they good for employees? Tanenbaum typically represents the interests of employers, but he says, "If you're in a relationship that really is voluntary, you shouldn't have any problem signing something like this." And if either party in the relationship does feel their tryst is coercive? Refusing to sign such a contract might just be the key to tactfully breaking it off, says Tanenbaum.