Page 183 - The Love Hypothesis

RECEIVED the email, she initially thought it must be an error.
WHEN SHE
Maybe she’d misread—she hadn’t been sleeping well, and as it turned out,
having an unwanted, unreciprocated crush came with all sorts of scatter-
headedness—though after a second look, then a third and a fourth, she

realized that wasn’t the case. So maybe the mistake was on the SBD
conference’s side. Because there was no way—absolutely no way—that

they’d really meant to inform her that the abstract she’d submitted had been
selected to be part of a panel.

A panel with faculty.
It was just not possible. Graduate students were rarely selected for oral

presentations. Most of the time they just made posters with their findings.
Talks were for scholars whose careers were already advanced—except that
when Olive logged into the conference website and downloaded the

program, her name was there. And out of all the speakers’ names, hers was
the only one not followed by any letters. No MD. No Ph.D. No MD-Ph.D.

Crap.
She ran out of the lab clutching her laptop to her chest. Greg gave her a

dirty look when she almost crashed into him in the hallway, but she ignored
him and stormed inside Dr. Aslan’s office out of breath, her knees suddenly

made of jelly.
“Can we talk?” She closed the door without waiting for an answer.
Her adviser looked up from behind her desk with an alarmed expression.

“Olive, what is—”
“I don’t want to give a talk. I can’t give a talk.” She shook her head,

trying to sound reasonable but only managing panic-stricken and frantic. “I
can’t.”

Dr. Aslan cocked her head and steepled her hands. The veneer of calm
her adviser projected was usually comforting, but now it made Olive want

to flip the nearest piece of furniture.
Calm down. Deep breaths. Use your mindfulness and all that stuff
Malcolm’s always yapping his mouth about. “Dr. Aslan, my SBD abstract

was accepted as a talk. Not as a poster, a talk. Out loud. On a panel.
Standing. In front of people.” Olive’s voice had made its way to a shriek.