Not all business

[omni]

My college had an alumni mixer earlier this week, and I met a really attractive girl there. It was defintely more of a professional mixer than a party. Anyway, this chick and I met at the food cart and had a brief chat about hummus (at first). I made her laugh a little, but nothing earth-moving. Anyway, I had to leave because I had somewhere else to be. So I asked if she had a card and said "Let's get lunch soon." She agreed, but then she said, "I guess you can't know too many young professionals in this town." She mentioned that her friends are all out still partying while she has to work, so it'd be nice to know someone in a similar position. This all happened in the span of about three minutes.

My concern is that she's agreed to meet for a business-type networking lunch, while I have other (more prurient) intentions. Have I screwed myself by being too professional? I'm not really concerned about ruining a future working relationship because we don't work together, we just met at the same professional event. But I still didn't want to go too direct in that atmosphere. It was FAR from a typical bar or club vibe. And my boss was there (but he wasn't around for this conversation). What else could/should I have done? What should I do now? Thanks in advance.

[Tim]

I think you'll be fine to try and frame it as a date. If she isn't interested in that at all then you've lost nothing, and if she is open to it then it'll be fine. The fact that it wasn't appropriate for you to be too direct at the time explains why you weren't in her mind. It just shows you understand what's socially appropriate.

Assume that she's interested and take it from there.