Page 26 of Love in Focus

“For sure,” the guy replies. “My name is Will, he/him. It’s nice to meet you.”

I shake both their hands.

Compared to how icy Celeste was with me, she’s five times warmer—and evenbubbly—with the students as she introduces herself and mikes them up.

“I’ll be recording this interview with my video cameras over there,” she says, pointing at the two cameras she has set up in different angles. “While also occasionally snapping photos with this.” She holds up the camera hangingfrom her neck. “At any given moment, I might be moving around to check on the video cameras or to take photos, so please try your best to ignore me. We’re not doing any photos or videos of people looking directly at the cameras, so do your best not to glance over. Thank you so much!”

Will and Sarah nervously look at each other and nod.

The first interview goes as well as it could. As Celeste quietly walks around behind the cameras, I ask them about how they met (a science GE class during their first year), how they defined the relationship (he asked her to be his girlfriend during a date at the Rose Garden in Golden Gate Park), and their biggest struggles (communication and making time for one another despite their challenging academic and internship loads). Even though they’re young, I also ask them about their advice for other couples (don’t assume that the other person can read your mind) and their hopes and future plans (to get married after graduation and get jobs close to one another).

I wrap up by asking them one last question: “How do you define love?”

Sarah and Will look at each other, their gazes growing soft.

“The warm sunlight after a cold winter,” Sarah says.

“Wow,” Will says, genuinely impressed. “See, you can tell she’s an English major, because that was beautiful. I’m not as good with words, but I will say this. For me, love is Sarah. No one and nothing else.”

“Aw!” Sarah exclaims. “That’s so sweet!”

The two of them make me nostalgic about college, arelatively simple time where my biggest problems were passing a midterm or a final. And of course, a girl named Celeste, who was once the most important person in my life before she seemingly vanished into thin air.

Well, the latter is still one of my problems.

The next couple we have scheduled for the day is queer, with Shriya, a desi lesbian girl, and Case, a nonbinary East Asian individual. Shriya has long, dark hair that directly contrasts with Case’s buzz cut, which is dyed in all shades of the rainbow. Unlike the first couple, they’re not dressed in any college paraphernalia, but they still have the same nervous, youthful energy.

After Celeste gets them set up, I ask them the same questions I asked the first couple. Their answers start similarly to the previous ones, but things diverge when we get to the question about struggles.

“Honestly the biggest challenge for me in terms of our relationship was trying to figure out if they were into me as more than a friend in the first place,” says Shriya. “I didn’t even know they were into girls.”

“And I didn’t know she was into nonbinary people like me,” Case responds with a laugh. “I think what’s also hard is people often think we’re just two friends, instead of a romantic couple.”

“My family also still thinks Case is a girl, even though I’ve told them multiple times that they’re not,” Shriya adds. “It’s always a struggle whenever I go back home.”

When I ask them about their future plans, Case says, “We have no idea how our future will look. Ideally, we’llstay here since SF is a nice little bubble apart from the rest of the country. I grew up in the Midwest, and it’s so different there.”

“Yeah, I’m figuring things out, too,” says Shriya. “Hopefully we’ll have a better idea when we start applying for jobs.”

They both look at each other and smile in a hopeful way that’s so sweet and familiar, it almost makes me sick.

“One last question,” I say. “How do you two define love?”

“Home,” Shriya says. “You know that saying, home can be another person? Well, that’s the case with me and Case. We accept each other unconditionally, like no one else has ever accepted us.”

“Damn,” says Case. “Definitely that! But also… shit. I don’t have anything substantial to add—wait, I know! Love is being there for each other, no matter what. Ah, sorry, that’s such a stereotypical answer.”

Shriya shrugs. “But it’s so true, though. Like, it’s not just having a crush or thinking someone is hot. It’s sticking together, through thick or thin.”

The sun is on the verge of setting by the time Shriya and Case leave. I stay behind to help Celeste pack up her equipment. And to hopefully thaw some of the ice between us. I want to keep things professional, but that doesn’t mean I want us to be so stiff and uncomfortable around each other.

The warm, cozy vibe of the studio is now gone, the waning light casting long shadows across the large open space. Everything takes on an almost haunted quality in the growing darkness, and Celeste turns on the overhead lights.

She has her back toward me, unplugging and wrapping wires around the studio, when I say, “What did you think about today’s interviews?”

“They were cute,” she replies. “Idealistic and naive, for sure, though. It reminded me of…”

She trails off and meets my eyes, glancing up at me from underneath her long, dark lashes. Just her looking at me like that is enough to make me warm up in places I shouldn’t even be thinking of right now.

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