Page 79 - The Love Hypothesis

“They aren’t. This was an informal meeting, but the topic came up. He

said that he’s still monitoring the situation.”
“I see.” She waited for him to continue. When it became clear that he
wouldn’t, she asked, “Monitoring . . . how?”

“Unclear.” He was clenching his jaw.
“I’m sorry.” She felt for him. She really did. If there was something she

could empathize with, it was scientific studies coming to an abrupt halt
because of a lack of resources. “Does that mean that you can’t continue

your research?”
“I have other grants.”

“So . . . the problem is that you cannot start new studies?”
“I can. I had to rearrange different pots, but I should be able to afford to
start new lines of research, too.”

Uh? “I see.” She cleared her throat. “So . . . let me recap. It sounds like
Stanford froze your funds based on rumors, which I agree is a crappy move.

But it also sounds like for now you can afford to do what you were
planning, so . . . it’s not the end of the world?”

Adam gave her an affronted glare, suddenly looking even more cross.
Oh, boy. “Don’t get me wrong, I understand the principle of the matter,

and I’d be mad, too. But you have, how many other grants? Actually, don’t
answer that. I’m not sure I want to know.”
He probably had fifteen. He also had tenure, and dozens of publications,

and there were all those honors listed on his website. Not to mention that
she’d read on his CV that he had one patent. Olive, on the other hand, had

cheap knockoff reagents and old pipettes that regularly got stolen. She tried
not to dwell on how much further ahead than her he was in his career, but it

was unforgettable, how good he was at what he did. How annoyingly good.
“My point is, this is not an insurmountable problem. And we’re actively

working on it. We’re in this together, showing people that you’re going to
stay here forever because of your amazing girlfriend.”
Olive pointed to herself with a flourish, and his glare followed her hand.

Clearly he was not a fan of rationalizing and working through his emotions.