Page 149 - The Love Hypothesis

She nodded.

“There are lots of cancer labs in the US. Why did you choose Tom’s?”
“Well, I sort of didn’t. I emailed several people—two of whom are at
UCSF, which is much closer than Boston. But Tom was the only one who

answered.” She leaned her head against the seat. It occurred to her for the
first time that she was going to have to leave her life for an entire year. Her

apartment with Malcolm, her nights spent with Anh. Adam, even. She
immediately pushed the thought away, not ready to entertain it. “Why do

professors never answer students’ emails, by the way?”
“Because we get approximately two hundred a day, and most of them

are iterations of ‘why do I have a C minus?’ ” He was quiet for a moment.
“My advice for the future is to have your adviser reach out, instead of doing
it yourself.”

She nodded and stored away the information. “I’m glad Harvard worked
out, though. It’s going to be amazing. Tom is such a big name, and the

amount of work I can do in his lab is limitless. I’ll be running studies
twenty-four seven, and if the results are what I think they’ll be, I’ll be able

to publish in high-impact journals and probably get a clinical trial started in
just a few years.” She felt high on the prospect. “Hey, you and I now have a

collaborator in common, on top of being excellent fake-dating partners!” A
thought occurred to her. “What is your and Tom’s big grant about,
anyway?”

“Cell-based models.”
“Off-lattice?”

He nodded.
“Wow. That’s cool stuff.”

“It’s the most interesting project I’m working on, for sure. Got the grant
at the right moment, too.”

“What do you mean?”
He was silent for a beat while he switched lanes. “It’s different from my
other grants—mostly genetic stuff. Which is interesting, don’t get me

wrong, but after ten years researching the same exact thing, I was in a rut.”
“You mean . . . bored?”