Page 285 - The Love Hypothesis

“It is.”

“Nuh-uh. This is a Hallmark movie. Or a poorly written young adult
novel. That will not sell well. Olive, tell Malcolm to keep his day job, he’ll
never make it as a writer.”

Olive made herself look up, and Anh’s frown was the deepest she’d ever
seen. “It’s true, Anh. I am so sorry I lied to you. I didn’t want to, but—”

“You fake-dated Adam Carlsen?”
Olive nodded.

“God, I knew that kiss was weird.”
She lifted her hands defensively. “Anh, I’m sorry—”

“You fake-dated Adam. Fucking. Carlsen?”
“It seemed like a good idea, and—”
“But I saw you kiss him! In the biology building parking lot!”

“Only because you forced me to—”
“But you sat on his lap!”

“Once again, you forced me to—not the coolest moment in our
friendship, by the way—”

“But you put sunscreen on him! In front of at least one hundred people!”
“Only because someone put me up to it. Do you sense a pattern?”

Anh shook her head, as if suddenly appalled at her own actions. “I just
—you guys looked so good together! It was so obvious from the way Adam
stared at you that he was wild about you. And the opposite—you looked at

him like he was the only guy on earth and then—it always seemed like you
were forcing yourself to hold back on him, and I wanted you to know that

you could express your feelings if you wanted to—I really thought I was
helping you, and—you fake-dated Adam Carlsen?”

Olive sighed. “Listen, I’m sorry I lied. Please, don’t hate me, I—”
“I don’t hate you.”

Oh? “You . . . don’t?”
“Of course not.” Anh was indignant. “I low-key hate myself for forcing
you to do all that stuff. Well, maybe not ‘hate,’ but I’d write myself a

strongly worded email. And I’m incredibly flattered that you’d do
something like that for me. I mean, it was misguided, and ridiculous, and