For Valentine's Day on Monday, Amy McMahon will be celebrating twice. She's preparing a romantic candlelight dinner for her longtime boyfriend and giving him a gift card from his favorite fitness website. That same day, Ms. McMahon will be giving her 'work husband' some small heart-shaped cakes and a sentimental card.

'Valentine's Day doesn't have to be all about romance. It is about showing the people you love that you care,' says Ms. McMahon, who lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her boyfriend of 10 years, Casey Hoover.

Over the past three years, Kian Weaver, her colleague at a health-care organization, has become her office spouse, a term for a co-workers with close relationships. They exchange job and personal advice and take workday lunches and shopping breaks together. Mr. Weaver says he will be getting Ms. McMahon a card and chocolates Monday as well.

For many office spouses, Valentine's Day is uncharted territory. Even though the relationship is platonic, some want to use Feb. 14 to acknowledge their bond.

Of course, conventionalwisdom says it's a no-no. Valentine's Day is so tied to romantic love that even casual gifts to a co-worker are easily misunderstood, says Jacqueline Olds, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. 'One person might think it's all in good fun, while the other person could easily take it the wrong way,' she says.

Employers, wary of sexual-harassment problems, often frown on Valentine's Day parties or gift-giving at the office. And office spouses can also be hazardous to a marriage when the relationships cross the line into an 'emotional affair' -- a romance 'that hasn't become sexual yet,' says Peggy Vaughan, a San Diego author and founder of Beyond Affairs Network, an organization of support groups for people hurt by spousal infidelity.

Nearly two-thirds of workers have or have had a work spouse, according to a survey in July of 640 white-collar workers by Captivate Network, a Chelmsford, Mass., digital-programming and advertising company.

Still, the greeting-card industry isn't touching the office-spouserelationship. Valentine's Day is universally regarded as 'an occasion for spouses or romantic partners to express their love,' says Susan January, vice president of the Greeting Card Association, a White Plains, N.Y.-based trade group. Any non-romantic cards stick to humor between friends.

Mr. Hoover says he knows all about Ms. McMahon's plans with Mr. Weaver. In fact, Mr. Hoover says he and Mr. Weaver are friends and work out together. He sees Mr. Weaver's bond with his girlfriend as 'a win-win.' When Mr. Weaver advises Ms. McMahon on relationship matters, 'she gets the perspective of another guy, and sometimes it makes my life easier,' Mr. Hoover says.

Office spouses also have to make it clear that they value their actualspouses or romanticrelationships more. Former TV anchorwoman Cindy Morrison says she respected and admired her longtime work husband, co-anchor Mark Bradshaw, so much that she always bought him a Valentine's Day 'friend card' and gift, such as cologne. 'I spent more time with him than with my actual husband,' says Ms. Morrison, who worked with Mr. Bradshaw for 12 years at KTUL-TV in Tulsa, Okla., before leaving in 2009. 'If you have that great trustingrelationship, why not have fun and be funny with it?'

But Ms. Morrison always got her husband Todd a more romantic, 'fun and flirty' gift, such as a jar with 365 'sweet nothings' inside, one for every day of the year, or a vacation plane ticket, she says. Mr. Morrison says he not only didn't mind his wife's Valentine's Day gifts to her office spouse, but appreciated the support his wife and Mr. Bradshaw provided each other at work.

Mr. Bradshaw says he enjoyed the gifts as a product of Ms. Morrison's 'very giving and very emotional' nature and felt bad because he could never think of anything appropriate to give her in return. The Morrisons are friends with Mr. Bradshaw and his wife of 21 years, Michelle.

Other office spouses will just tweak their daily routines a bit in honor of each other. Kristi Serrano and Dennis Ritell, both managers at The Knot, a New York-based wedding-planning media company, have been office spouses for about three years. 'I consider him one of my best friends and a sounding board' on both work and personal life, Ms. Serrano says. Mr. Ritell always buys her a birthday card, and Ms. Serrano sometimes helps him shop for clothes, he says. Mr. Ritell has met Ms. Serrano's boyfriend, Brian Sozzi, and they have double-dated.

In honor of Valentine's Day next week, they will switch their usual Tuesday lunch together to Monday. 'I may pay for lunch,' Mr. Ritell says, but otherwise, they will stick to their normal routine.

There is also an easy route for office spouses, the one chosen by Megan Stuke. She readily jokes that she has two husbands -- one at home and a work husband at the hospital where she is employed as an administrator. 'It's important to have someone to bond with at work,' she says. She teases her work husband about his wardrobe choices and reminds him when he needs a haircut. He kids her about her bossing him around, and cleans the snow off her car in the office parking lot, she says. Her husband at home knows her office husband and 'thinks it's funny,' says Ms. Stuke, of Lawrence, Kan.

But she won't be getting her office husband anything on Valentine's Day. 'Are you kidding me?' Ms. Stuke says. 'That's just weird. It's a romantic holiday.'

Sue Shellenbarger

• romantic [rəu´mæntik] a.传奇(式)的；浪漫的 (初中英语单词)
• romance [rəu´mæns] n.中世纪骑士小说 (初中英语单词)
• columbus [kə´lʌmbəs] n.哥伦布 (初中英语单词)
• acknowledge [ək´nɔlidʒ] vt.(公开)承认；感谢 (初中英语单词)
• wisdom [´wizdəm] n.智慧，聪明，才智 (初中英语单词)
• associate [ə´səuʃieit] v.联合a.同伴的n.伙伴 (初中英语单词)
• medical [´medikəl] a.医学的；医疗的 (初中英语单词)
• survey [´sə:vei] vt.&n.俯瞰；审视；测量 (初中英语单词)
• advertising [´ædvətaiziŋ] n.广告a.广告的 (初中英语单词)
• actual [´æktʃuəl] a.现实的；实际的 (初中英语单词)
• vacation [və´keiʃən, vei´keiʃən] n.假期；休庭期；腾空 (初中英语单词)
• otherwise [´ʌðəwaiz] ad.另外 conj.否则 (初中英语单词)
• normal [´nɔ:məl] a.正规的 n.正常状态 (初中英语单词)
• readily [´redili] ad.乐意地；容易地 (初中英语单词)
• relationship [ri´leiʃənʃip] n.关系；联系；亲属关系 (高中英语单词)
• casual [´kæʒuəl] a.偶然的；临时的 (高中英语单词)
• harvard [´hɑ:vəd] n.哈佛大学 (高中英语单词)
• founder [´faundə] n.奠基者 v.陷落 (高中英语单词)
• appropriate [ə´prəupri-it, ə´prəuprieit] a.适宜的 vt.私占；拨给 (高中英语单词)
• switch [switʃ] n.开关 v.转换 (高中英语单词)
• sentimental [,senti´mentl] a.感伤的；多愁善感的 (英语四级单词)
• weaver [´wi:və] n.纺织工；编织者 (英语四级单词)
• colleague [´kɔli:g] n.同事，同僚 (英语四级单词)
• conventional [kən´venʃənəl] a.常规的；协定的 (英语四级单词)
• network [´netwə:k] n.网状物 vt.联播 (英语四级单词)
• white-collar [wait´kɔlə] a.白领的 (英语四级单词)
• touching [´tʌtʃiŋ] a.动人的 prep.提到 (英语四级单词)
• universally [,ju:ni´və:səli] ad.普遍地 (英语四级单词)
• cologne [kə´ləun] n.科隆香水 (英语四级单词)
• wardrobe [´wɔ:drəub] n.衣柜；全部服装 (英语四级单词)
• fitness [fitnis] n.适合；健康 (英语六级单词)
• spouse [spauz] n.配偶 (英语六级单词)
• hazardous [´hæzədəs] a.危险的 (英语六级单词)
• sexual [´sekʃuəl] a.性(欲)的 (英语六级单词)
• perspective [pə´spektiv] n.望远镜 a.透视的 (英语六级单词)
• trusting [´trʌstiŋ] a.信任的；相信的 (英语六级单词)
• administrator [əd´ministreitə] n.管理者，行政人员 (英语六级单词)