It's the stuff of romantic comedies and episodes of "The Office," but certainly not just a fictional script: coworkers fall for each other, and to add even more intrigue, one sometimes turns out to be the other's boss.

State Transportation Board Chairman Mike Evans apparently chose love over work this week when he resigned his position to pursue a relationship with state Department of Transportation Commissioner Gena Abraham. They are both single, but she reported to the board he chaired, and department policy forbids relationships beyond the friendly and professional variety within the direct chain of command.

In a world of headline-grabbing scandals that typically involve infidelity, prostitutes or the underaged, the romantic angle here feels refreshingly innocent.

And hey, people are people. They fall in love. They are subject to attraction – both real and fleeting, and it's not always easy to tell the difference.

"We are waiting for our knight to ride in in shining armor, but he never does," said Dr. Scott Haltzman, a psychiatrist at Brown University. "So often our mate is sitting in the cubicle next to us, or in a corner office next to us.

"The reality is for all of the Harlequin romance ideals, we tend to fall in love with people we are familiar with."

With Evans and Abraham, cynics say they must have been caught. Romantics say he's falling on his sword for the woman he loves – today's version of King Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne for Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee.

Said Evans in his resignation Thursday: "Over the last month or so, we have developed a relationship that we both want to be more than a friendship."

In decades past, some companies had all-out bans on office dating. But those policies are almost unheard of today, according to employment attorneys.

"You have people working side-by-side long hours and inevitably some people are going to fall in love," said Ashley Brightwell, an employment attorney with Alston & Bird's Atlanta office.

Six months ago, Brightwell drafted a "love contract" for a supervisor who started dating someone who held a lower position in the office but didn't directly report to him. They are still together.

In a love contract, both people admit the dating is voluntary, and also sign their name and promise "to keep the work and the private parts of the relationship separate," according to Brightwell.

Brightwell said most companies today do not have policies about in-office dating but added there's an "unspoken, unwritten rule" about dating the boss.

A real question becomes timing. How and when do consenting adults "out" themselves? Do you change a career path just because you start thinking someone might be a match, which can be a lot of pressure on a budding relationship?

Brightwell suggests couples disclose a relationship once it "becomes serious", which could be as soon as a couple of dates.

Josey Miller, a senior editor at iVillage online community, says not so fast.

There's so much risk disclosing a relationship, Miller said, that office lovers should wait until it's very serious. Or as she put it, "wait until there's a ring."

"And being discreet is of the utmost importance, because no matter how serious they think it is, co-workers might think it's just a fling, and it could damage your professional image," she said.

Miller, who monitors singles chats in which office dating is a common subject of conversation, said dating a co-worker is fraught with problems — it can make it hard to focus on the job and extremely awkward to work together if you break up.

If you have a high-powered job, even more is at stake.

"Some end badly and some end in happy marriages," said Miller. "Sometimes it's worth it and sometimes it isn't. But no matter what, there's always going to be an added layer of complication."

Atlanta dating coach Jula Jane suggested evaluating company policies on dating and how serious a few dates with a co-worker could be. If it seems like more than a crush, it's time to be up front with the boss or the board and let them decide whether they want to lose an employee, Jane said.

Whether a worker sticks with the job or with the romance, it's a career decision. Hiding more-than-friend feelings won't be an option for long, she said, and the consequences could be more disastrous than leaving a job upfront.

"Even if they didn't act on it, didn't pursue it, the chemistry is probably there, someone could see it, it could sway their decisions," Jane said of the Abraham-Evans relationship. "It's more political than romantic."

And then there was this, perhaps the wisest, most succint analysis, courtesy of an AJC.com reader: "Dating someone at work is great ... until it's not."