Page 188 - The Love Hypothesis

enough. And after that—what was I supposed to do? Inform her that you’re

not going to stay with Carlsen because you’re fake-dating? Oh, but wait—
now that you’ve got a huge crush on him maybe it’s sort of real—”
“Okay, I get it.” Her stomach was starting to ache. “You still could have

told me.”
“I was going to. And then I dumped Neuro Jude and he went crazy and

egged my car. And after that my dad called me to say hi and asked me about
how my projects are going, which devolved into him grilling me on why

I’m not using a C. elegans model, and, Ol, you know how incredibly nosy
and micromanaging he can be, which led to us having an argument and my

mom got involved and—” He stopped and took a deep breath. “Well, you
were there. You heard the screams. Bottom line is, it totally slipped my
mind, and I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine.” She scratched her temple. “I’m going to have to find
someplace to stay.”

“I’ll help you,” Malcolm told her eagerly. “We can look online tonight.”
“Thanks, but don’t worry about it. I’ll manage.” Or not. Probably.

Likely. Since the conference was in less than two weeks, and everything
was likely already booked up. What was left was undoubtedly so out of her

price range, she’d have to sell a kidney to be able to afford it. Which could
be an option—she did have two.
“You’re not mad, right?”

“I . . .” Yes. No. Maybe a little. “No. It’s not your fault.” She hugged
Malcolm back when he leaned into her, reassuring him with a few awkward

pats on the shoulder. As much as she’d have liked to blame him for this, she
only had to look at herself. The crux of her problems—most of them, at

least—was her moronic, harebrained decision to lie to Anh in the first
place. To begin this fake-dating sham. Now she was giving a talk at this

stupid conference, probably after sleeping at a bus station and eating moss
for breakfast, and despite all of this she couldn’t stop thinking about Adam.
Just perfect.

Laptop under her arm, Olive headed back to the lab, the prospect of
getting her slides in order for her talk simultaneously daunting and