Page 85 - The Love Hypothesis

“A graduate student,” Adam clarified. There was a hint of warning in

his tone, like he really wanted Dr. Benton to drop the subject.
Dr. Benton, naturally, did not. “Your graduate student?”
Adam frowned. “No, of course she’s not my—”

This was the perfect opening. “Actually, Dr. Benton, I work with Dr.
Aslan.” Maybe this meeting was still salvageable. “You probably don’t

recognize my name, but we’ve corresponded. We’re supposed to meet
today. I’m the student who’s working on the pancreatic cancer biomarkers.

The one who asked to come work in your lab for a year.”
Dr. Benton’s eyes widened even more, and he muttered something that

sounded a lot like “What the hell?” Then his face stretched into a wide,
openmouthed grin. “Adam, you absolute ass. You didn’t even tell me.”
“I didn’t know,” Adam muttered. His gaze was fixed on Olive.

“How could you not know that your girlfriend—”
“I didn’t tell Adam, because I didn’t know you two were friends,” Olive

interjected. And then she thought that maybe it wasn’t quite believable. If
Olive really were Adam’s girlfriend, he’d have told her about his friends.

Since, in a shocking plot twist, he did appear to have at least one.
“That is, I, um . . . never put two and two together, and didn’t know that

you were the Tom he always talked about.” There, better. Kind of. “I’m
sorry, Dr. Benton. I didn’t mean to—”
“Tom,” he said, grin still in place. His shock seemed to be settling into

pleasant surprise. “Please, call me Tom.” His eyes darted between Adam
and Olive for a few seconds. Then he said, “Hey, are you free?” He pointed

at the coffee shop. “Why don’t we go inside and chat about your project
now? No point in waiting until this afternoon.”

She took a sip of her latte to temporize. Was she free? Technically, yes.
She would have loved to run to the edge of campus and scream into the

void until modern civilization collapsed, but that wasn’t exactly a pressing
matter. And she wanted to look as accommodating as possible to Dr. Benton
—Tom. Beggars and choosers and all that.

“I’m free.”
“Great. You, Adam?”