Page 234 - The Love Hypothesis

had their own issues with our adviser, of course. Everyone did. But they

helped me. For some reason my adviser always seemed to know when
something wrong was happening with my studies, but Tom mediated a lot
between us. He took lots of crap so I wouldn’t have to. He was a favorite of

my adviser’s and interceded to make the lab less like a battle zone.”
Adam talking about Tom as though he were a hero made her nauseous,

but she remained silent. This wasn’t about her.
“And Holden . . . Holden stole my law school applications and made

paper planes out of them. He was removed enough from what was
happening to me that he could help me see things objectively. Just like I am

removed from what happened to you today.” His eyes were on her, now.
There was a light in them that she didn’t understand. “You are not
mediocre, Olive. You were not invited to speak because people think that

you are my girlfriend—there is no such thing, since SBD’s abstracts go
through a blind review process. I would know, because I’ve been roped into

reviewing them in the past. And the work you presented is important,
rigorous, and brilliant.” He took a deep breath. His shoulders rose and fell

in time with the thudding of her heart. “I wish you could see yourself the
way I see you.”

Maybe it was the words, or maybe the tone. Maybe it was the way he’d
just told her something about himself, or how he’d taken her hand earlier
and saved her from her misery. Her knight in black armor. Maybe it was

none of it, maybe it was all of it, maybe it was always going to happen. Still
—it didn’t matter. Suddenly, it just didn’t matter, the why of it, the how. The

after. All Olive cared about was that she wanted to, right now, and that
seemed enough to make it all right.

It was all so slow: the step forward she took to come to stand between
his knees, the rise of her hand to his face, the way her fingers cupped his

jaw. Slow enough that he could have stopped her, he could have pulled out
of reach, he could have said something—and he did not. He simply looked
up at her, his eyes a clear, liquid brown, and Olive’s heart at once jumped

and quieted when he tilted his head and leaned into her palm.