Page 141 - The Love Hypothesis

“There’s nothing bad about taking more than five years to graduate,” he

offered in a conciliatory tone.
Olive huffed. “You just want me to stay around forever. Until you have
the biggest, fattest, strongest Title IX case to ever exist.”

“That was my plan all along, in fact. The one and only reason I kissed
you out of the blue.”

“Oh, shut up.” She ducked her chin into her chest, biting into her lip and
hoping he wouldn’t notice her grinning like the idiot she was. “Hey, can I

ask you something?”
Adam looked at her expectantly, like he seemed to a lot lately, so she

continued, her tone softer and quieter.
“Why are you really doing this?”
“Doing what?”

“The fake dating. I understand that you want to look like you’re not a
flight risk, but . . . Why aren’t you really dating someone? I mean, you’re

not that bad.”
“High praise.”

“No, come on, what I meant was . . . Based on your fake-dating
behavior, I’m sure that a lot of women . . . well, some women would love to

real-date you.” She bit into her lip again, playing with the hole that was
opening up on the knee of her jeans. “We’re friends. We weren’t when we
started, but we are now. You can tell me.”

“Are we?”
She nodded. Yes. Yes, we are. Come on. “Well, you did just break one of

the sacred tenets of academic friendships by mentioning my graduation
timeline. But I’ll forgive you if you tell me if this is really better for you

than . . . you know, getting a real girlfriend.”
“It is.”

“Really?”
“Yes.” He seemed honest. He was honest. Adam was not a liar; Olive
would bet her life on it.

“Why, though? Do you enjoy the sunscreen-mediated fondling? And the
opportunity to donate hundreds of your dollars to the campus Starbucks?”