The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Chapter Ten
HYPOTHESIS: If I fall in love, things will invariably end poorly.
The knockout mouse had been hanging from a wire for a
length of time that should have been impossible, considering
how it had been genetically modified. Olive frowned at it and
pressed her lips together. It was missing crucial DNA. All the
hanging-from-a-wire proteins had been erased. There was no
way it could hold on for this long. It was the whole point of
knocking out its stupid genes—
Her phone lit up, and the corner of her eye darted to its
screen. She was able to read the name of the sender (Adam)
but not the content of the message. It was 8:42 on Wednesday,
which immediately had her worried that he might want to
cancel their fake date. Maybe he thought that because he’d let
Olive pick out an ice cream sandwich for him yesterday after
Fluchella (which she may or may not have ended up eating
herself) they didn’t need to meet today. Maybe she shouldn’t
have forced him to sit on a bench with her and recount the
marathons they had run, and possibly she had come off as
annoying when she’d stolen his phone, downloaded her
favorite running app, and then friended herself on it. He had
seemed to be enjoying himself, but maybe he hadn’t been.
Olive glanced at her gloved hands, and then back at her
mouse, who was still holding on to the wire.
“Dude, stop trying so hard.” She kneeled until she was at
eye level with the cage. The mouse kicked around with its
little legs, its tail flopping back and forth. “You’re supposed to
be bad at this. And I’m supposed to write a dissertation about