Page 58 - The Love Hypothesis

could get away with. And if some—okay, if most of the grads in the

department looked at her suspiciously because she was dating Adam
Carlsen, so be it. Her friends seemed to be largely fine with this, if a little
bemused.

Except for Malcolm. He’d been shunning her like she had the pox for
three solid days. But Malcolm was Malcolm—he’d come around.

“Very well, then.” He was completely expressionless—almost too
expressionless. Like it was no big deal and he didn’t care either way; like if

she’d said no, it wouldn’t have changed anything for him.
“Though, I’ve been thinking about this a lot.”

He waited patiently for her to continue.
“And I think that it would be best if we laid down some ground rules.
Before starting.”

“Ground rules?”
“Yes. You know. What we are allowed and not allowed to do. What we

can expect from this arrangement. I think that’s pretty standard protocol,
before embarking on a fake-dating relationship.”

He tilted his head. “Standard protocol?”
“Yup.”

“How many times have you done this?”
“Zero. But I am familiar with the trope.”
“The . . . what?” He blinked at her, confused.

Olive ignored him. “Okay.” She inhaled deeply and lifted her index
finger. “First of all, this should be a strictly on-campus arrangement. Not

that I think you’d want to meet me off campus, but just in case you were
planning to kill two birds with one stone, I’m not going to be your last-

minute backup if you need to bring a date home for Christmas, or—”
“Hanukkah.”

“What?”
“My family is more likely to celebrate Hanukkah than Christmas.” He
shrugged. “Though I’m unlikely to celebrate either.”

“Oh.” Olive pondered it for a moment. “I guess this is something your
fake girlfriend should know.”