Grad school dating fail.

Quick disclaimer: This is not about me. This is all about my wonderful Lab Soulmate who has had to deal with this for the past few months. I will post my own fun stuff in a few days.

Ok, so imagine you join a group. Yay! Woo! Group! You get along with most to all of the people. Very importantly, you get along with the guy you are sharing equipment and a hood with. Hoorah!

However, things start getting awkward fast. Being an attractive, smart, funny, single female, your coworker is interested. And makes his interest known. Multiple times. Despite you doing everything short of banging him over the head and yelling "WE SHARE A HOOD YOU MORON HOW BAD OF AN IDEA WOULD THAT BE?!?!" This other student is a third year student, who, despite everything else, is a nice guy and you do not want to make things ultra awkward and still would like to get along with this guy.

Unfortunately, he drunkenly asks to kiss you at a holiday party and you explain to him that this is a bad idea because: a) he's drunk and b) you share a hood. This goes over somewhat well in that he doesn't storm away and seems to realize that it's not OK to date you.

But how do you stop the awkward??? Dear readers, got any tips for Lab Soulmate? As we both figured so far, there's no real solution other than what she's done already. But maybe someone else out there who has some good ideas and/or has dealt with coworkers trying to romance you.