Page 319 - The Love Hypothesis

Epilogue

RESULTS: Careful analyses of the data collected, accounting for potential
confounds, statistical error, and experimenter ’s bias, show that when I fall in
love . . . things don’t actually turn out to be that bad.

Ten months later

“Stand there. You were standing right there.”
“Was I?”

He was humoring her. A little. That deliciously put-upon expression had
become Olive’s favorite over the past year. “A bit closer to the water
fountain. Perfect.” She took a step back to admire her handiwork and then

winked at him as she took out her phone to snap a quick picture. She briefly
considered swapping it for her current screensaver—a selfie of the two of

them in Joshua Tree a few weeks earlier, Adam squinting in the sun and
Olive pressing her lips to his cheek—but then thought better of it.

Their summer had been full of hiking trips, and delicious ice cream, and
late-night kisses on Adam’s balcony, laughing and sharing untold stories

and looking up at the stars, so much brighter than the ones Olive had once
climbed on a ladder to stick to the ceiling of her bedroom. She was going to
start working at a cancer lab at Berkeley in less than a week, which would

mean a busier, more stressful schedule and a bit of a commute. And yet, she
couldn’t wait.

“Just stand there,” she ordered. “Look antagonistic and unapproachable.
And say ‘pumpkin spice.’ ”