This is not about whether the author thinks a pat on the back is romance, nor about her temptation. Imagine a scenario like that emergency response drill, but

This is not about whether the author thinks a pat on the back is romance, nor about her temptation. Imagine a scenario like that emergency response drill, but where higher-ups took notice and decided to make a rule to prevent it from happening again. Since those higher-ups had authority over hiring both individuals, they're not likely to lay blame on the immature (to put it nicely) behaviour of the couple, but instead on the romantic relationship. How do they encode "station managers can't start dating crew members" in bureaucrat? So, a stupid rule gets added to the books, which doesn't really solve the problem, and upstanding managers have to pay attention to it forever more.