Love, Theoretically

The professor who was meant to give Elsie a tour of the department is busy, so, to Elsie’s dismay, Jack agrees to show her around. Elsie starts to feel woozy and knows she needs to check her insulin pod but can’t get away from Jack. She realizes that it was one of the two professors they overheard in the bathroom who was supposed to give her the tour, but Jack tells her that both had to step back from the hiring committee. It is later revealed that Jack reported their sexist remarks, which forced them to leave the committee. Jack shows Elsie what would be her office if she got the job, and she fantasizes about being able to finish her manuscript there.

They have an interaction with one of Jack’s graduate students, in which Elsie claims to be code-switching and anticipating the needs of others, but Jack accuses her of lying. Elsie feels faint again and begins to collapse into Jack. Jack brings her a sugary drink to help stabilize her blood sugar, recognizing she has Type 1 diabetes. She tells him how the only two glycemic attacks she has had the last year have both been in front of him—the first being during their second meeting at another of his family’s gatherings—and tells him how she can’t afford a new insulin pump to replace the one that is malfunctioning and not doing an adequate job of warning her when her blood-sugar levels are too low.