Georgia Vasiliki Kostopoulos and Jacob Michael Rae met in Washington in March 2014 at a career weekend sponsored by N.Y.U. School of Law.

It was an instant connection. “I was at a table and Jake came over and started talking, and he was funny and sweet and seemed like a very interesting person,” Ms. Kostopoulos said. “I felt like I had always known him, and couldn’t imagine a time when I hadn’t.”

Mr. Rae said he “instantly realized that Georgia was a very charismatic person.” He talked to her for hours, and over the next few months, they settled into a close friendship.

But whenever Mr. Rae tried to stretch the boundaries of their friendship, he noticed that Ms. Kostopoulos seemed to make excuses about why she wasn’t able to spend free time with him. Weeks would also go by, he said, without seeing her in class.