The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Chapter Twenty
HYPOTHESIS: People who cross me will come to regret it.
She had to lie.
Again.
It was becoming a bit of a habit, and while she spun an
elaborate tale for the secretary of Harvard’s biology
department, one in which she was a grad student of Dr.
Carlsen’s who needed to track him down immediately to relay
a crucial message in person, she swore to herself that this
would be the last time. It was too stressful. Too difficult. Not
worth the strain on her cardiovascular and psychophysical
health.
Plus, she sucked at it. The department secretary didn’t look
like she believed a word of what Olive said, but she must have
decided that there was no harm in telling her where the
biology faculty had taken Adam out for dinner—according to
Yelp, a fancy restaurant that was less than a ten-minute Uber
ride away. Olive looked down at her ripped jeans and lilac
Converse and wondered if they’d let her in. Then she
wondered if Adam would be mad. Then she wondered if she
was making a mistake and screwing up her own life, Adam’s
life, her Uber driver’s life. She was very tempted to change her
destination to the conference hotel when the car pulled up to
the curb, and the driver—Sarah Helen, according to the app—
turned around with a smile. “Here we are.”
“Thank you.” Olive started getting out of the passenger
seat and found that she couldn’t move her legs.