Page 74 - The Love Hypothesis

“Eight years ago. For college.”

He nodded, as if storing up the information. “Why the US? Canada has
excellent schools.”
“I got a full ride.” It was true. If not the whole truth.

He fidgeted with the cardboard cup holder. “Do you go back a lot?”
“Not really, no.” Olive licked some whipped cream off her straw. She

was puzzled when he immediately looked away from her.
“Do you plan to move back home once you graduate?”

She tensed. “Not if I can help it.” She had lots of painful memories in
Canada, and her only family, the people she wanted nearby, were Anh and

Malcolm, both US citizens. Olive and Anh had even made a pact that if
Olive was ever on the verge of losing her visa, Anh would marry her. In
hindsight, this entire fake-dating business with Adam was going to be great

practice for when Olive leveled up and started defrauding the Department
of Homeland Security in earnest.

Adam nodded, taking a sip of his coffee. “Favorite color?”
Olive opened her mouth to tell him her favorite color, which was so

much better than his, and . . . “Dammit.”
He gave her a knowing look. “Difficult, isn’t it?”

“There are so many good ones.”
“Yup.”
“I’m going to go with blue. Light blue. No, wait!”

“Mmm.”
“Let’s say white. Okay, white.”

He clucked his tongue. “You know, I don’t think I can accept that.
White’s not really a color. More like all colors put together—”

Olive pinched him on the fleshy part of his forearm.
“Ow,” he said, clearly not in pain. With a sly smile, he waved goodbye

and turned away, heading for the biology building.
“Hey, Adam?” she called after him.
He paused and looked back at her.

“Thanks for buying me three days’ worth of food.”