The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
“Hey, Olive.”She tore her gaze from Adam’s and noticed Tomapproaching. He, too, was shirtless, and clearly fit, and had alarge number of abs that were defined enough to be easilycounted. And yet, for some reason, it did absolutely nothingfor Olive.“Hi, Tom.” She smiled, even though she was a littleirritated by the interruption. “Loved your talk the other day.”“It was good, wasn’t it? Did Adam tell you about ourchange of plans?”She tilted her head. “Change of plans?”“We’ve been making great progress on the grant, so we’regoing to Boston next week to finish setting up stuff on theHarvard side.”“Oh, that’s great.” She turned to Adam. “How long willyou be gone?”“Just a few days.” His tone was quiet. Olive felt relief thatit wasn’t going to be longer. For indiscernible reasons.“Would you be able to send me your report by Saturday,Olive?” Tom asked. “Then I’ll have the weekend to look itover, and we’ll discuss it while I’m still here.”Her brain exploded in a flurry of panic and bright red-alertsigns, but she managed to keep her smile in place. “Yeah, ofcourse. I’ll send it to you on Saturday.” Oh God. Oh God. Shewas going to have to work around the clock. She wasn’t goingto get any sleep this week. She was going to have to bring herlaptop to the toilet and write while she peed. “No problem atall,” she added, leaning even harder into her lie.“Perfect.” Tom winked at her, or maybe just squinted in thesun. “You going back to play?” he asked Adam, and when
Adam nodded, Tom spun around and headed back into thegame.Adam hesitated for just a second longer, then he nodded atOlive and left. She tried hard not to stare at his back as herejoined his team, which seemed to be overjoyed to have himagain. Clearly, sports were another thing Adam Carlsenexcelled at—unfairly so.She didn’t even have to check to know that Anh andJeremy and pretty much everyone else had been staring atthem for the past five minutes. She fished a seltzer can out ofthe nearest cooler, reminding herself that this was exactly whatthey wanted from this arrangement, and then found a spotunder an oak tree next to her friends—all this sunscreen fuss,and now they were sitting in the shade. Go figure.She wasn’t even that hungry anymore, a small miraclecourtesy of having to apply sunscreen to her fake boyfriendvery publicly.“So, what’s he like?” Anh asked. She was lying down withher head on Jeremy’s lap. Above her, Malcolm was staring atthe Frisbee players, probably swooning over how prettyHolden Rodrigues looked in the sun.“Mm?”“Carlsen. Oh, actually”—Anh smirked—“I meant to sayAdam. You call him Adam, right? Or do you prefer Dr.Carlsen? If you guys role-play with schoolgirl uniforms andrulers, I totally want to hear about it.”“Anh.”“Yeah, how is Carlsen?” Jeremy asked. “I’m assuming he’sdifferent with you than with us. Or does he also tell yourepeatedly that the font for the labels of your x- and y-axis isirritatingly small?”
- Page 97 and 98: that he wasn’t planning to. Olive
- Page 99 and 100: “That is, I, um . . . never put t
- Page 101 and 102: “What kind of question is that?
- Page 103 and 104: “Who?”“Tom,” Adam said, a t
- Page 105 and 106: Olive had no idea he was giving a t
- Page 107: Adam laughed silently just as Tom s
- Page 110 and 111: “Hey—sorry.” She gestured in
- Page 112 and 113: Because millions of dollars in rese
- Page 114 and 115: torso. He didn’t say anything but
- Page 116 and 117: pitch her voice. “Or do you maybe
- Page 118 and 119: Cherie just standing there, chattin
- Page 120 and 121: “Because you moved the truck. I
- Page 122 and 123: this time with the sleeve of his sh
- Page 124 and 125: “The— Oh.” Adam rolled his ey
- Page 127 and 128: with an uneasy expression and start
- Page 129 and 130: “Yeah, well.” He stood and walk
- Page 131: Olive: Did you just fail Greg?trick
- Page 137 and 138: In the back seat Olive and Jeremy e
- Page 139 and 140: a six-pack?”Jeremy blinked. “Mi
- Page 141 and 142: 1.5. Okay, I don’t like this. Jer
- Page 143 and 144: had a choice. Any choice. Especiall
- Page 145 and 146: “So.” Her mouth was dry. “Thi
- Page 147: She pinched him lightly on the unde
- Page 151: “What? No.”“Because that’s
- Page 154 and 155: “Should you be having caffeine at
- Page 156 and 157: “Can’t stand chocolate.”Olive
- Page 158 and 159: He glared, but she was starting to
- Page 160 and 161: “There are things you can do abou
- Page 162 and 163: the person she loved the most, but
- Page 164 and 165: He nodded, thoughtful. “You’re
- Page 166 and 167: jeans. “We’re friends. We weren
- Page 169 and 170: Olive: Tom just invited me to your
- Page 171 and 172: she’d sent. “To make sure I und
- Page 173 and 174: Once they were in Adam’s car—a
- Page 175 and 176: Adam was still around. The reason s
- Page 177 and 178: “I will if you get pumpkin stuff.
- Page 179 and 180: “It literally takes ten minutes.
- Page 181 and 182: you need to get over it. For scienc
- Page 183: Chapter TenHYPOTHESIS: If I fall in
- Page 188 and 189: the whole idea was idiotic and a ca
- Page 190 and 191: added begrudgingly, “he’s not n
- Page 192 and 193: noticeably different from the Adam
- Page 194 and 195: “Ol.”“How would that conversa
- Page 196 and 197: The lie rolled off her tongue like
Adam nodded, Tom spun around and headed back into the
game.
Adam hesitated for just a second longer, then he nodded at
Olive and left. She tried hard not to stare at his back as he
rejoined his team, which seemed to be overjoyed to have him
again. Clearly, sports were another thing Adam Carlsen
excelled at—unfairly so.
She didn’t even have to check to know that Anh and
Jeremy and pretty much everyone else had been staring at
them for the past five minutes. She fished a seltzer can out of
the nearest cooler, reminding herself that this was exactly what
they wanted from this arrangement, and then found a spot
under an oak tree next to her friends—all this sunscreen fuss,
and now they were sitting in the shade. Go figure.
She wasn’t even that hungry anymore, a small miracle
courtesy of having to apply sunscreen to her fake boyfriend
very publicly.
“So, what’s he like?” Anh asked. She was lying down with
her head on Jeremy’s lap. Above her, Malcolm was staring at
the Frisbee players, probably swooning over how pretty
Holden Rodrigues looked in the sun.
“Mm?”
“Carlsen. Oh, actually”—Anh smirked—“I meant to say
Adam. You call him Adam, right? Or do you prefer Dr.
Carlsen? If you guys role-play with schoolgirl uniforms and
rulers, I totally want to hear about it.”
“Anh.”
“Yeah, how is Carlsen?” Jeremy asked. “I’m assuming he’s
different with you than with us. Or does he also tell you
repeatedly that the font for the labels of your x- and y-axis is
irritatingly small?”
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