Page 41 - The Love Hypothesis

off when Anh turned around from the path and asked, “Is he blackmailing

you?”
“Huh?”
“Carlsen. Is he blackmailing you? Did he find out that you’re an

aberration and pee in the shower?”
“First of all, it’s time efficient.” Olive glared. “Second, I find it oddly

flattering that you’d think Carlsen would go to these ridiculous lengths to
get me to date him.”

“Anyone would, Ol. Because you’re awesome.” Anh grimaced before
adding, “Except when you’re peeing in the shower.”

—

ACTING weird. Which didn’t mean much, since Jeremy had
JEREMY WAS
always been a bit awkward, and having recently split from Olive to date her
best friend was not going to make him any less so—but today he seemed

even weirder than usual. He came into the campus coffee shop, a few hours
after Olive’s conversation with Anh, and proceeded to stare at her for two
good minutes. Then three. Then five. It was more attention than he’d ever

paid to Olive—yes, including their dates.
When it got borderline ridiculous, she lifted her eyes from her laptop

and waved at him. Jeremy flushed, grabbed his latte from the counter, and
found a table for himself. Olive went back to rereading her two-line email

for the seventieth time.

Today, 10:12 a.m.
FROM: Olive-Smith@stanford.edu
TO: Tom-Benton@harvard.edu

SUBJECT: Re: Pancreatic Cancer Screening Project

Dr. Benton,

Thank you for your response. Chatting in person would be
fantastic. What day will you be at Stanford? Let me know
when it ’s most convenient for you to meet.