The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

“See, this is where a big part of my mistrust comes in.”
Holden worried at his lower lip, as if deciding whether and
how to continue. “Did Tom intercede to save Adam’s ass on
numerous occasions? Sure. It’s undeniable. But how did those
occasions come about to begin with? Our adviser was a piece
of work, but he was not a micromanager. By the time we
joined his lab, he was too busy being a famous asshole to
know what was going on in day-to-day lab business. Which is
why he had postdocs like Tom mentor grad students like
Adam and me and de facto run the lab. And yet, he knew
about every single minor screwup of Adam’s. Every few
weeks he’d come in, tell Adam that he was a failure of a
human being for minor stuff like switching reagents or
dropping a beaker, and then Tom, our adviser’s most-trusted
postdoc, would publicly intervene on behalf of Adam and save
the day. The pattern was eerily specific, and only for Adam—
who was by far the most promising student in our program.
Destined for greatness and all that. Initially, it made me a bit
suspicious that Tom was purposefully sabotaging Adam. But
in recent years I’ve been wondering if what he wanted was
something else altogether. . . .”
“Did you tell Adam?”
“Yes. But I had no proof, and Adam . . . well, you know
him. He is stubbornly, unwaveringly loyal, and he was more
than a little grateful to Tom.” He shrugged. “They ended up
becoming bros, and they’ve been close friends ever since.”
“Did it bother you?”
“Not per se, no. I realize I might sound jealous of their
friendship, but the truth is that Adam has always been too
focused and single-minded to have many friends. I’d have
been happy for him, truly. But Tom . . .”
Olive nodded. Yeah. Tom. “Why would he do this? This . . .
weird vendetta against Adam?”