Page 216 - The Love Hypothesis

give a talk.” She shook her head. She needed to let it go. To put it out of her

head. To think carefully about what to do.
“Who? Who were they?”
Oh, Adam. “Someone. I’m not sure.”

“Did you see their badges?”
“I . . . didn’t pay attention.”

“Were they on your panel?” There was something underneath his tone.
Something pressing that hinted at violence and rage and broken bones.

Adam’s hand was still gentle on her cheek, but his eyes narrowed. There
was a new tension in his jaw, and Olive felt a shiver run down her spine.

“No,” she lied. “It doesn’t matter. It’s okay.”
His lips pressed into a straight line, his nostrils flared, so she added, “I
don’t care what people think of me, anyway.”

“Right,” he scoffed.
This Adam, right here, was the moody, irascible Adam who grads in her

program complained about. Olive shouldn’t have been surprised to see him
this angry, but he’d never been like this with her before.

“No, really, I don’t care what people say—”
“I know you don’t. But that’s the problem, isn’t it?” He stared at her, and

he was so close. She could see how the yellows and greens mixed into the
clear brown of his eyes. “It’s not what they say. It’s what you think. It’s that
you think they’re right. Don’t you?”

Her mouth was full of cotton. “I . . .”
“Olive. You are a great scientist. And you will become an even better

one.” The way he was looking at her, so earnest and serious—it was going
to break her. “Whatever this asshole said, it speaks nothing of you and a

whole lot of them.” His fingers shifted on her skin to weave through the
hair behind her ear. “Your work is brilliant.”

She didn’t even think it through. And even if she had, she probably
couldn’t have stopped herself. She just leaned forward and hid her face in
his neck, hugging him tight. A terrible idea, stupid and inappropriate, and

Adam was surely going to push her away, any minute now, except that . . .