We’ve all heard the stories and seen the movies: A new cute coworker slowly develops a friendship with a married colleague. They trade banter over Slack. They’re touchy feely at office lunches and happy hour. The next thing you know, the two are in a full-blown affair.

But many people around the country are working from home due to COVID-19. Ongoing affairs have been complicated. And without the office and after-work happy hours, close bonds with questionable boundaries are less likely to develop into something physical, said Talal H. Alsaleem, a marriage therapist and founder of the Infidelity Counseling Center in Roseville, California.