The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

She paused right in front of his chair and looked down at
him. It was so odd, to be the taller one for once.
“This might be inappropriate, but . . .” His jaw shifted, and
he closed his eyes for a second. As if to collect his thoughts.
“Olive. You are really . . . You are extraordinary, and I cannot
imagine that if you told Jeremy how you feel he wouldn’t . . .”
He trailed off and then nodded. A punctuation of sorts, as his
words and the way he’d said them brought her that much
closer to tears.
He thought it was Jeremy. Adam thought Olive had been in
love with Jeremy when they’d begun their arrangement—he
thought she was still in love with him. Because she’d just told
a half-assed lie that she was too afraid to take back and—
It was going to happen. She was going to cry, and what she
wanted most in the world was to not do it in front of Adam.
“I’ll see you next week, okay?” She didn’t wait for his
response and walked briskly toward the exit, her shoulder
bumping into someone she should have apologized to. Once
she was outside, she took a deep breath and marched to the
biology building, trying to empty her mind, forcing herself to
think about the section she was slated to TA later today, the
fellowship application she’d promised Dr. Aslan she’d send by
tomorrow, the fact that Anh’s sister would be in town next
weekend and had made plans to cook Vietnamese food for
everyone.
A chilly wind weaved through the leaves of the campus
trees, pushing Olive’s sweater against her body. She hugged
herself and didn’t look back to the café. Fall had finally begun.