The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

crap her pants. “Right.” Olive had to force her head into an
up-and-down motion and take a deep breath. She exhaled
slowly. “Okay.”
“Why don’t you put together a draft? You could practice
during the next lab meeting.” Another reassuring smile, and
Olive was nodding again, not feeling reassured in the least.
“And if you have any questions, I’m always here. Oh, I am so
disappointed that I won’t get to see your talk. You must
promise to record it for me. It will be just as if I was there.”
Except that you won’t be there, and I’ll be alone, she
thought bitterly while closing the door of Dr. Aslan’s office
behind her. She slumped against the wall and squeezed her
eyes shut, trying to quiet the agitated mess of thoughts
fluttering inside her head. And then she opened them again
when she heard her name in Malcolm’s voice. He was standing
in front of her with Anh, studying her with a half-amused,
half-worried expression. They were holding Starbucks cups.
The smell of caramel and peppermint wafted over, making her
stomach churn.
“Hey.”
Anh took a sip of her drink. “Why are you taking a
standing nap next to your adviser’s office?”
“I . . .” Olive pushed away from the wall and walked a few
steps away from Dr. Aslan’s door, rubbing her nose with the
back of her hand. “My abstract got accepted. The SBD one.”
“Congrats!” Anh smiled. “But that was pretty much a
given, right?”
“It was accepted as a talk.”
For a few seconds, two pairs of eyes just stared at her in
silence. Olive thought that Malcolm might be wincing, but
when she turned to check, there was just a vague smile pasted
on his face. “That’s . . . awesome?”