The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

“Not sure. Not sure Holden knows, either. Tom says he’s
jealous. I think it’s just a personality thing.”
Olive fell silent, absorbing the information. “You didn’t tell
Holden about us, either. That it’s not real.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Adam looked away. “I don’t know.” His jaw tensed. “I
think I just didn’t . . .” His voice trailed off, and he shook his
head before giving her a smile, small and a little forced. “He
speaks very highly of you, you know?”
“Holden? Of me?”
“Of your work. And your research.”
“Oh.” She had no idea what to say to that. When did you
talk about me? And why? “Oh,” she repeated uselessly.
She wasn’t sure why now, in this very moment, but the
possible ramifications of their arrangement on Adam’s life hit
her in full for the first time. They had agreed to fake-date
because they both had something to gain from it, but it
occurred to her that Adam also had significantly more to lose.
Out of all the people she loved, Olive was only lying to one,
Anh, and that was absolutely unavoidable. She could not care
less about other students’ opinions. Adam, though . . . he was
lying on a daily basis to his colleagues and his friends. His
grads interacted with him every day believing that he was
dating one of their peers. Did they think him lecherous? Had
his relationship with Olive changed their perception of him?
And what about other faculty members in the department, or in
adjacent programs? Just because dating a grad student was
allowed, it didn’t mean that it wasn’t frowned upon. And what
if Adam met—or had already met—someone he actually
liked? When they’d struck their deal, he’d said he wasn’t
going to date, but that had been weeks ago. Olive herself had