The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

industry jobs are where it’s at. But I think I want to stay and
become a professor. It’ll be miserable, for sure, but it’s the
only way to create a good environment for women like us, Ol.
Give some competition to all these entitled white men.” She
grinned, beautiful and fierce. “Jeremy can go into industry and
make a ton of blood money that I’ll invest in wireless vacuum
cleaners.”
Olive drunkenly studied the drunken determination on
Anh’s drunken face, thinking that there was something
reassuring in knowing that her closest friend was starting to
figure out what she wanted her life to be like. Who she wanted
to live it with. It did send a pang deep in Olive’s stomach, in
that spot that seemed to feel Adam’s absence most acutely, but
she pushed it down, trying not to think about it too hard.
Instead she reached for her friend’s hand, squeezed it once,
and inhaled the sweet scent of apple from her hair.
“You’ll be so good at it, Anh. I can’t wait to see you
change the world.”
—
ALL IN ALL, Olive’s life continued as it always had—except that
for the first time, there was something else she’d rather be
doing. Someone else she’d rather be with.
So, this is liking someone, she mused. Feeling like the
biology building was not worth going to because if Adam was
out of town, even the most remote chance of running into him
had been taken away from her; constantly spinning around
after catching a glimpse of jet-black hair, or when hearing a
deep voice that sounded as rich as Adam’s but really wasn’t;
thinking of him because her friend Jess mentioned planning a
trip to the Netherlands, or when on Jeopardy! the correct
answer to “Aichmophobia” turned out to be “What is fear of