I'm being dumb, but I don't think I understand how the boundary was wriggling here?

Was it not just you getting a modest glow of enjoyment out of interacting with someone you know and like? I mean, say it had been somebody else, like a college professor you got on very well with- would you not have felt a similar appropriate sense of pleasure if they made a nice remark (the remark your T made was intended as a compliment wasn't it?) in passing?