good old-fashioned Catholic guilt can sometimes work in your favor. if managed properly, it can tend to mitigate potentially bad situations. observe the subtext conversation which actually didn't occur (except inside my head):
EG: Hi Remote Boss-I'm contacting you under a valid pretext, but morbid curiosity and the aforementioned crush is compelling me to send you random communication.
RB: That's okay. I think I'll pretend that I don't see it and get back to you in my extremely lucid way (as always). By the way, your request was confusing, but because I'm smart I've figured it out anyway.
EG: (Face turns red). Oh.
RB: At any rate, I'm referring you to someone else who is also very competent and could probably be of help.
EG: Yeah, that's probably a good idea. I probably shouldn't have sent you that random request. Attraction-type stuff gets really confusing sometimes. Gotta concentrate on my work and family. Besides, nothing would come of it anyway.
RB: Agreed. But you have an asset that everyone wants. Regardless of whether I'd figured out what your actual motivation for contacting me was, I still have to preserve the notion for the both of us that your request was valid, as opposed to merely semi-valid.
EG: Yeah, wouldn't I be embarassed if I was found out? I shouldn't even be posting in my blog about it. I think I'll have to go and re-edit some of this when I write it down. I feel slightly guilty about this whole thing, so maybe it's best if I just forget about it and chalk it up to basic human interaction.
RB: Well, I can only surmise that part of the reason you have a crush on me is that I have foresight to think of these things--that is, if I in reality did have some inkling of what all of this nonsense is about. Another reason that you probably have a crush on me is that I'm so humble I might not even think that this was a possibility.
EG: Darn it! See, you're doing it again.
RB: Whoops, sorry. I can't help being so damn competent and nice.
I really did have a reason to contact him--in fact, I had a couple. But that guilt "thing" actually motivated me to keep cool. And right now, it's motivating me to sort of distance myself from it, which is good.