Celeste comes down the stairs. A high-end DSLR hangs from her neck, and she’s wearing what I know is her usual studio outfit: black cargo pants and a plain white T-shirt. It’s a simple enough outfit, but with the tattoos snaking down her arms, red lipstick, and hair tied back in a perfectly messy bun, she looks breathtakingly artistic and sexy, all at once.

“Hi” is all I manage to say.

She walks ahead of me and holds up one of the audio equipment sets she has laid out on the kitchen table.

“Here, I’ll get you set up.”

Her fingers brush against my bare skin as she mikes me up. I shiver, and not because I’m cold. In fact, I’m suddenly quite the opposite.

Thankfully, the studio door opens, and our first pair, a young white couple wearing matching University of San Francisco sweatshirts, walks in holding hands. Even without the college paraphernalia, both the girl and the guy give off an awkward, nervous energy that makes it obvious they’re in their early twenties, at most.

I wonder if I was also this squirrelly in college, but then I remember the old photo I’d found on Celeste’s Instagram. Yes, yes I was.

“Hi! I’m Sarah, she/her,” says the girl. “Sorry, I hope it’s okay that we’re early. We got out of class sooner than we thought we would.”

“Hey,” I reply. “No problem at all. I’m Gemma Cho from Horizon Magazine. She/her. Thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview.”

“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 even bubbly—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 hanging from 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.