Emily Yoffe, aka Dear Prudence, is online weekly to chat live with readers. An edited transcript of the chat is below. (Sign up here to get Dear Prudence delivered to your inbox each week. Read Prudie’s Slate columns here. Send questions to Prudence at prudence@slate.com.)

Emily Yoffe: Good afternoon. I look forward to your questions.

Q. Emotional Affair and Blackmail: I’m in the middle of an intense emotional affair at work. I am separated, his marriage is on the rocks, but nothing has happened beyond hand-holding. We get an incredible amount of support from each other and thought no one at work noticed. The issue is my summer intern: She did notice and is now threatening me that I have to write her a letter of recommendation better than the one I did or else she will “tell.” She did an OK job but was not the best or brightest, so I wrote a B-plus recommendation. She confronted me and mentioned she knew everything. So should I write an even more enthusiastic letter or stand my ground? I really feel like I’ve done anything wrong with my colleague but don’t want to deal with any awkward questions.

A: First of all, let me assure you that your intern doesn’t have special powers to see into the human heart, but everyone at work has noticed. So now you and your pal have been put on notice that you have to seriously cool it. He is married. While you two are entitled to be friends, holding hands around the periphery of the office, having intense conversations in the hallway, etc., is unprofessional and, as you’ve seen, bound to catch up with you. But the good news is that there’s really nothing to tell. Your intern was an OK employee, but she’s definitely an unskilled blackmailer. In response to her crude threat you should do a couple of things. One, create a time-stamped file and document everything this little extortionist has done. Next, go to HR and report that you are being threatened by a former intern. Say her proposal is to get a better recommendation out of you in exchange for keeping quiet about your private life. Explain, however, that she has misconstrued a friendship with a colleague and there is nothing for her to reveal. Ask that HR, or your company’s attorney, let the intern know about the consequences of blackmail. Let’s hope this possible little sociopath realizes she’s heading down the wrong path. But be prepared she may really be off her rocker and could escalate things by making false allegations. Your own documentary evidence of her treachery will make a powerful case against her.