The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

She nodded and stored away the information. “I’m glad
Harvard worked out, though. It’s going to be amazing. Tom is
such a big name, and the amount of work I can do in his lab is
limitless. I’ll be running studies twenty-four seven, and if the
results are what I think they’ll be, I’ll be able to publish in
high-impact journals and probably get a clinical trial started in
just a few years.” She felt high on the prospect. “Hey, you and
I now have a collaborator in common, on top of being
excellent fake-dating partners!” A thought occurred to her.
“What is your and Tom’s big grant about, anyway?”
“Cell-based models.”
“Off-lattice?”
He nodded.
“Wow. That’s cool stuff.”
“It’s the most interesting project I’m working on, for sure.
Got the grant at the right moment, too.”
“What do you mean?”
He was silent for a beat while he switched lanes. “It’s
different from my other grants—mostly genetic stuff. Which is
interesting, don’t get me wrong, but after ten years researching
the same exact thing, I was in a rut.”
“You mean . . . bored?”
“To death. I briefly considered going into industry.”
Olive gasped. Switching from academia to industry was
considered the ultimate betrayal.
“Don’t worry.” Adam smiled. “Tom saved the day. When I
told him I wasn’t enjoying research anymore, we brainstormed
some new directions, found something we were both
enthusiastic about, and wrote the grant.”
Olive felt a sudden surge of gratitude toward Tom. Not
only was he going to rescue her project, but he was the reason