You know, there's probably a mistake or flaw in there somewhere, but I'm officially besotted with the story. I just left a (mostly incoherent) love letter-cum-essay on what I love about it at AO3, but one thing I forgot to mention was your prose - beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Between the present tense and your lovely parenthetical asides, I can't think of enough good things to say.
Grad school makes you late for stuff (and I'm always just flattered when I'm friended back!) - no worries there. :)