The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

“We’re done.” She wished she weren’t smiling. Then
maybe he’d take her seriously instead of just looking at her
with that patient, amused expression. “Seriously. It was nice
while it lasted.” She made to stand and leave indignantly, but
he grabbed the sleeve of her shirt and gently tugged at it until
she was sitting down again, next to him on the narrow couch
—maybe even a little closer than before. She continued
glaring, but he regarded her blandly, clearly unperturbed.
“There’s nothing bad about taking more than five years to
graduate,” he offered in a conciliatory tone.
Olive huffed. “You just want me to stay around forever.
Until you have the biggest, fattest, strongest Title IX case to
ever exist.”
“That was my plan all along, in fact. The one and only
reason I kissed you out of the blue.”
“Oh, shut up.” She ducked her chin into her chest, biting
into her lip and hoping he wouldn’t notice her grinning like the
idiot she was. “Hey, can I ask you something?”
Adam looked at her expectantly, like he seemed to a lot
lately, so she continued, her tone softer and quieter.
“Why are you really doing this?”
“Doing what?”
“The fake dating. I understand that you want to look like
you’re not a flight risk, but . . . Why aren’t you really dating
someone? I mean, you’re not that bad.”
“High praise.”
“No, come on, what I meant was . . . Based on your fakedating
behavior, I’m sure that a lot of women . . . well, some
women would love to real-date you.” She bit into her lip again,
playing with the hole that was opening up on the knee of her