Page 187 - The Love Hypothesis

“The thing is . . .” Malcolm seemed to move even farther away.

“What thing?”
“Well.” He fidgeted with the cardboard holder of his cup, and his eyes
darted to Anh, who seemed blissfully oblivious to his discomfort. “Jeremy’s

hotel room is paid for because of that fellowship he’s on, and he asked Anh
to stay with him. And then Jess, Cole, and Hikaru offered for me to stay

with them.”
“What?” Olive glanced at Anh. “Seriously?”

“It will save all of us a lot of money. And it will be my first trip with
Jeremy,” Anh interjected distractedly. She was typing something on her

phone. “Oh my God, guys, I think I found it! A location for the Boston
event for BIPOC women in STEM! I think I’ve got it!”
“That’s great,” Olive said weakly. “But I thought . . . I thought we’d

room together.”
Anh glanced up, looking contrite. “Yeah, I know. That’s what I told

Jeremy, but he pointed out that you . . . you know.” Olive tilted her head,
confused, and Anh continued, “I mean, why would you want to spend

money on a room when you could stay with Carlsen?”
Oh. “Because.” Because. Because, because, because. “I . . .”

“I’ll miss you, but it’s not as if we’ll be in the rooms for anything other
than sleeping.”
“Right. . . .” She pressed her lips together, and added, “Sure.”

Anh’s grin made her want to groan. “Awesome. We’ll get meals together
and hang out for poster sessions. And at night, of course.”

“Of course.” It was all Olive could do not to sound bitter. “I look
forward to it,” she added with as good a smile as she could muster.

“Okay. Great. I gotta go—the Women in Science outreach committee is
meeting in five. But let’s get together this weekend to plan fun activities for

Boston. Jeremy said something about a ghost tour!”
Olive waited until Anh was out of earshot before turning to face
Malcolm. He was already raising his hands defensively.

“First of all, Anh came up with this plan while I was monitoring that
twenty-four-hour experiment—worst day of my life, I cannot graduate soon