Say you are with a group of people or just with one woman who is in your distant social circle or a colleague in the strict sense but in another firm or a completely different department far away or something.

I assume you'd still be careful gaming her, but it would NOT be a no go zone like your close colleagues.

Can you safely use indirect game here to gauge their interest / see where it could go? The idea is that if you yourself make sure that there's always plausible deniability, you're in the clear. Is this true?

E.g. not overtly flirting but just being witty, talking etc. but making sure you could always claim this was just a fun exchange between distant friends / colleagues.