Page 210 - The Love Hypothesis

carry out her research next year, and two big names in her field had just

complimented her work. She smiled, letting her mind wander to whether
she should text Adam to tell him that he was right, she did make it out alive;
she should probably ask how his keynote address had gone, too. If his

PowerPoint had acted up and he’d mispronounced words like “microarrays”
or “karyotyping,” whether he planned to go to the department social. He

was probably meeting up with friends, but maybe she could buy him a
thank-you drink for all his help. She would even pay, for once.

“It went well,” someone said.
Olive turned to find Tom standing behind her, arms folded across his

chest as he leaned against the table. He looked as though he’d been staring
at her for a while. “Thank you. Yours, too.” His talk had been a more
condensed repeat of the one he’d given at Stanford, and Olive had to admit

that she’d spaced out a bit.
“Where’s Adam?” he asked.

“Still giving his keynote, I think.”
“Right.” Tom rolled his eyes. Probably with fondness, though Olive

didn’t quite catch it in his expression. “He does that, doesn’t he?”
“Does what?”

“Outdoes you.” He pushed away from the table, ambling closer. “Well,
outdoes everyone. It’s not personal.” She frowned, confused, wanting to ask
Tom what he meant by that, but he continued, “I think you and I will get

along great next year.”
The reminder that Tom believed in her work enough to take her in his

lab quashed her discomfort. “We will.” She smiled. “Thank you so much
for giving me and my project a chance. I can’t wait to start working with

you.”
“You’re welcome.” He was smiling, too. “I think there are a lot of things

we can gain from each other. Wouldn’t you agree?”
It seemed to Olive like she had much more to gain from it than he did,
but she nodded anyway. “I hope so. I think imaging and blood biomarkers

complement each other perfectly, and only by combining them can we—”