Page 173 - The Love Hypothesis

Adam looked away. “I don’t know.” His jaw tensed. “I think I just

didn’t . . .” His voice trailed off, and he shook his head before giving her a
smile, small and a little forced. “He speaks very highly of you, you know?”
“Holden? Of me?”

“Of your work. And your research.”
“Oh.” She had no idea what to say to that. When did you talk about me?

And why? “Oh,” she repeated uselessly.
She wasn’t sure why now, in this very moment, but the possible

ramifications of their arrangement on Adam’s life hit her in full for the first
time. They had agreed to fake-date because they both had something to gain

from it, but it occurred to her that Adam also had significantly more to lose.
Out of all the people she loved, Olive was only lying to one, Anh, and that
was absolutely unavoidable. She could not care less about other students’

opinions. Adam, though . . . he was lying on a daily basis to his colleagues
and his friends. His grads interacted with him every day believing that he

was dating one of their peers. Did they think him lecherous? Had his
relationship with Olive changed their perception of him? And what about

other faculty members in the department, or in adjacent programs? Just
because dating a grad student was allowed, it didn’t mean that it wasn’t

frowned upon. And what if Adam met—or had already met—someone he
actually liked? When they’d struck their deal, he’d said he wasn’t going to
date, but that had been weeks ago. Olive herself had been convinced that

she’d never be interested in dating anyone at the time—and didn’t that
make her want to laugh now, in a remarkably unfunny way? Not to mention

that she alone was benefitting from their arrangement. Anh and Jeremy had
bought her lie, but Adam’s research funds were still frozen.

And yet, he was still helping her despite all of this. And Olive was
repaying his kindness by getting ideas and developing feelings that were

sure to make him feel uncomfortable.
“Do you want to get coffee?”
Olive looked up from her hands. “No.” She cleared her throat against the

burning sensation lodged behind her sternum. The idea of coffee made her
nauseous. “I think I need to go back to the lab.”