“Sure,” Gloria replied. “So, Ph.D.?”
“Working on it,” Larissa replied. “But this isn’t for my dissertation or an academic paper. If I decide to reference it for that, I’ll notify and ask permission of all participants, and there would be anonymity, of course.”
“No problem,” Gloria replied with a small smile.
Jessie placed her hand on the back of Gloria’s chair and seemed a little quiet.
“So, I’d like to start by having you tell me how you met,” Larissa began. “In particular, I’m looking for specific feelings,thoughts, and events. The more specific you can be, the better, but you don’t have to share anything you don’t want to and can decline to answer any question.”
She pressed record on her app and set the phone down at the center of the table.
“Um… Well, I’m in college,” Jessie said. “I’m a sophomore now, but I was a freshman when we met. Gloria was my TA. She taught the Tuesday section for my class, and after the first class, I went to her office hours because I was having trouble finding the course book that was required.”
“She says that like I believe her.” Gloria laughed.
“It’s true, though. She thinks I was into her right away, but I wasn’t. I mean, I did think she was hot, and sheishot, but it wasn’t about that. I just went to tell her that the campus bookstore was out of copies. I had a reading due for the next class.”
“And what happened then?”
“She told me she would let the bookstore know that they needed more copies and lent me hers for the week until they came in,” Jessie replied.
“How did it feel when you met for the first time?”
“In class?”
“I assume the class was more intro to the course?”
“Yeah.”
“So, office hours, then,” Larissa said and made a note.
“We just talked about the course book that time, technically, but her fingers kind of brushed mine when she was handing me her copy.” Jessie smiled, and Larissa found herself smiling, too, as she noted the smile in her notebook. “I felt static electricity. I know that’s all it was, but I looked into her eyes, and she seemed surprised, too. We laugh about it now because we know it’s silly, but we both think that’s the moment we first felt it.”
“It?” Harlow asked. “Can you describe it?”
“Interest?” Gloria asked more than said. “I knew it was wrong; trust me. I’d never slept with a student in my class any of the semesters I was a TA. But Jessie was different. I felt it in that moment.”
“And how did you feel about that, given that you were responsible for her grade?” Larissa asked.
“Oh, I hated myself. I worried I was becoming a cliché.” Gloria laughed a bit. “But her work was objectively amazing. There was a group project almost right away in the semester. The group got an A, and on their group member evaluations, all of them praised Jessie as the group leader who made it all work, so I felt a little less guilty, but not by much. And don’t get me started on the ethics situation.” She shrugged. “I just liked her. I couldn’t help it.”
“How did you spend time together?” Harlow asked.
“After the office hours, we didn’t for at least a month,” Jessie answered. “Then, I bumped into her at a coffee cart, and we had that kind of awkward thing that happens when a student and teacher run into one another outside of class.”
“Itwasawkward at first,” Gloria added and placed her hand on Jessie’s leg. “But she looked really tired, and I asked her if she was okay.”
“I’d been up late studying the night before. Hence, the coffee.”
“And we got to talking. I remember laughing a lot.”
“And I liked making her laugh,” Jessie said.
“Did you start dating after that?”
“Yeah. Well, it wasn’t really a date thing. Like, I didn’t ask her out, and she didn’t ask me out. I told her I was going to a movie later on campus, and she said she might be there, too, which surprised me. Then, shewasthere, so we sat next to each other and shared some popcorn.”
“And after that, we walked around campus for hours,” Gloria said, smiling.
