I'm not sure if this helps or not, but I could certainly call her under the auspices of work... As we do need to talk about some work-related stuff. Now that could be done via email, but a phone conversation would be more effective.

The only thing there is I'd have to hope that SHE brings up the thing "we needed to talk about in person" or asks why I'm not calling her or whatever... Because if I call to talk about work, I can't just launch into the "Conversation" for no reason...