IS THIS A CONFLICT OF INTEREST?
JAMES DANCE
It was a Wednesday night, pre-quarantine. Commerce/Law student Jeremy Matthers (20) had just finished his last tutorial for the week and was heading home on the 75 tram. He reported seeing the most beautiful Deakin student in the most beautiful grey Deakin hoodie sitting on the opposite side of the tram. She looked busy, so he decided to leave her alone. But he couldn’t stop thinking of her since.
Jeremy had been a long time lurker of Deakin Love Letters (DLL) on Facebook, and often laughed to himself about some of the posts. “Yeah look, I love scrolling through the posts. Most are funny, some are weird, and others are pretty darn depressing. But I’ve never felt a need to post something myself,” Jeremy told Damages Incurred.
“This girl, though, definitely deserved a post.” So Jeremy went ahead and posted his love letter. The post read:
“Burwood/Tram/Coffee
To the girl in the grey Deakin hoodie on the 75 city-bound tram on March 9th around 5:45pm, I was sitting across from you – the guy with the blue jacket and the green backpack. Wanted to say hello but you looked busy. If you read this and you’re interested, heart react and I’ll send you a message!”
All was good, all was fine. A couple of likes, a couple of comments with tags, etc. But then one heart react. “Is this her?” Before Jeremy had a chance to check, another heart react came through. Confused, Jeremy checked both of their profiles. “They looked the same, it could have been either of them on the tram that night.”
“At that point, I was conflicted,” reported Jeremy. “Not a conflict of interest in a legal sense, but a conflict as I was interested in both.”
It is not yet known to us whether Jeremy sent a message, and if so, to whom. We’ll have to wait for a follow up on Deakin Love Letters…either on the auxiliary page ‘DLL – Success Stories’ or ‘DLL – Epic Fails’.
