Page 103 - The Love Hypothesis

members here, too, so maybe they’ll tell the department chair and it will be

two birds with one stone and I can leave if you—”
“It’s okay, Olive. Breathe.”
Right. Yes. Good suggestion. Olive did breathe, and the act made her

realize that she hadn’t done that in a while, which in turn made her smile up
at Adam—who did his mouth-twitch thing back at her. She was really

starting to get used to him. To his expressions, his size, his distinctive way
of being in the same space as her.

“Anh’s staring at us,” he said, looking over Olive’s head.
Olive sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I just bet she is,” she

mumbled.
Adam wiped sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.
Olive squirmed. “So . . . Should we hug or something?”

“Oh.” Adam looked at his hands and down at himself. “I don’t think you
want to do that. I’m pretty gross.”

Before she could stop herself Olive studied him from head to toe, taking
in his large body, his broad shoulders, the way his hair was curling around

his ears. He didn’t look gross. Not even to Olive, who was usually not a fan
of dudes built like they spent a double-digit percentage of their time at the

gym. He looked . . .
Not gross.
Still, maybe it was better if they didn’t hug. Olive might end up doing

something egregiously stupid. She should just say goodbye and leave—yes,
that was the thing to do.

Except that something absolutely insane came out of her mouth.
“Should we just kiss, then?” she heard herself blurt out. And then she

instantly wished a stray meteorite would hit the exact spot where she was
standing, because—had she just asked Adam Carlsen for a kiss? Was that

what she’d done? Was she a lunatic all of a sudden?
“I mean, not like a kiss kiss,” she hastened to add. “But like the last
time? You know.”

He didn’t seem to know. Which made sense, because their other kiss had
definitely been a kiss kiss. Olive tried not to think about it too much, but it