The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

“I haven’t.”
“Yes, Ol, you have.” Anh’s eyes were earnest, burning into
hers, and it occurred to Olive then, the enormity of what had
happened. Of what Tom had done.
She took a shuddering breath. “If the situation were
inverted, I would want to know. But it’s different.”
“Why is it different?”
Because I’m in love with Adam. And he’s not in love with
me. Olive massaged her temples, trying to think against the
mounting headache. “I don’t want to take something he loves
away from him. Adam respects and admires Tom, and I know
Tom’s had Adam’s back in the past. Maybe he’s better off not
knowing.”
“If only there were a way to find out what Adam would
prefer,” Malcolm said.
Olive sniffled in response. “Yeah.”
“If only there were someone who knows Adam very well
that we might ask,” Malcolm said, louder this time.
“Yeah,” Anh repeated, “that would be great. But there isn’t,
so—”
“If only there were someone in this room who recently
started dating Adam’s closest friend of nearly three decades,”
Malcolm near-yelled, full of passive-aggressive indignity, and
Anh and Olive exchanged a wide-eyed look.
“Holden!”
“You could ask Holden for advice!”
Malcolm huffed. “You two can be so smart and yet so
slow.”
Olive suddenly recalled something. “Holden hates Tom.”
“Uh? Why does he hate him?”