Page 293 - The Love Hypothesis

“Yeah. Just, un . . .”

“Are you gonna puke in my car?”
Olive shook her head. No. Yes. “Maybe?”
“Don’t, or I’ll destroy your rating.”

Olive nodded and tried to slide out of the seat. Her limbs were still
nonresponsive.

Sarah Helen frowned. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“I just . . .” There was a lump in her throat. “I need to do a thing. That I

don’t want to do.”
Sarah Helen hummed. “Is it a work thing, or a love thing?”

“Uh . . . both.”
“Yikes.” Sarah Helen scrunched up her nose. “Double threat. Can you
put it off?”

“No, not really.”
“Can you ask someone else to do it for you?”

“No.”
“Can you change your name, cauterize your fingertips, enter the witness

protection program, and disappear?”
“Um, not sure. I’m not an American citizen, though.”

“Probably no, then. Can you say ‘fuck it’ and deal with the
consequences?”
Olive closed her eyes and thought about it. What, exactly, would the

consequences be if she didn’t do what she was planning to? Tom would be
free to keep on being an absolute piece of shit, for one. And Adam would

never know that he was being taken advantage of. He would move to
Boston. And Olive would never have a chance to talk to him again, and all

that he’d meant to her would end . . .
In a lie.

A lie, after a lot of lies. So many lies she’d told, so many true things she
could have said but never did, all because she’d been too scared of the truth,
of driving the people she loved away from her. All because she’d been

afraid to lose them. All because she hadn’t wanted to be alone again.