The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
she could find, petrified. She was the only woman in the room,virtually alone in a sea of white men who were already talkingabout boats, and whatever sportsball was on TV the nightbefore, and the best routes to drive places. I have made aterrible mistake, she thought. The Guy in the bathroom waswrong. I should never have come here. I am never going to fitin.And then a girl with curly dark hair and a pretty, round faceplopped in the chair next to hers and muttered, “So much forthe STEM programs’ commitment to inclusivity, am I right?”That was the moment everything changed.They could have just been allies. As the only two non-ciswhite-malestudents in their year, they could have found solacetogether when some bitching was needed and ignored eachother otherwise. Olive had lots of friends like that—all ofthem, actually, circumstantial acquaintances whom shethought of fondly but not very often. Anh, though, had beendifferent from the start. Maybe because they’d soon found outthat they loved spending their Saturday nights eating junk foodand falling asleep to rom-coms. Maybe it was the way she’dinsisted on dragging Olive to every single “women in STEM”support group on campus and had wowed everyone with herbull’s-eye comments. Maybe it was that she’d opened up toOlive and explained how hard it had been for her to get whereshe was today. The way her older brothers had made fun of herand called her a nerd for loving math so much growing up—atan age when being a nerd was not quite considered cool. Thattime a physics professor asked her if she was in the wrongclass on the first day of the semester. The fact that despite hergrades and research experience, even her academic adviser hadseemed skeptical when she’d decided to pursue STEM highereducation.Olive, whose path to grad school had been rough but notnearly as rough, was befuddled. Then enraged. And then in
absolute awe when she understood the self-doubt that Anh hadbeen able to harness into sheer fierceness.And for some unimaginable reason, Anh seemed to likeOlive just as much. When Olive’s stipend hadn’t quitestretched to the end of the month, Anh had shared her instantramen. When Olive’s computer had crashed without backups,Anh had stayed up all night to help her rewrite hercrystallography paper. When Olive had nowhere to go over theholidays, Anh would bring her friend home to Michigan andlet her large family ply Olive with delicious food while rapidVietnamese flowed around her. When Olive had felt too stupidfor the program and had considered dropping out, Anh hadtalked her out of it.The day Olive met Anh’s rolling eyes, a life-changingfriendship was born. Slowly, they’d begun to include Malcolmand become a bit of a trio, but Anh . . . Anh was her person.Family. Olive hadn’t even thought that was possible forsomeone like her.Anh rarely asked anything for herself, and even thoughthey’d been friends for more than two years, Olive had neverseen her show interest in dating anyone—until Jeremy.Pretending that she’d been on a date with Carlsen was the leastOlive could do to ensure her friend’s happiness.So she bucked up, smiled, and tried to keep her tonereasonably even while asking, “What do you mean?”“I mean that we talk every minute of every day, and younever mentioned Carlsen before. My closest friend issupposedly seeing the superstar professor of the department,and somehow I’ve never heard of it? You know his reputation,right? Is it some kind of joke? Do you have a brain tumor? DoI have a brain tumor?”This was what happened whenever Olive lied: she endedup having to tell even more lies to cover her first, and she was
- Page 2: Praise for The Love Hypothesis“Co
- Page 5 and 6: To my women in STEM: Kate, Caitie,
- Page 7: Chapter FourteenChapter FifteenChap
- Page 10 and 11: Olive squeaked. She tried to open h
- Page 12 and 13: “Neither are eyes.”Humph. Good
- Page 14 and 15: “Are you planning to enroll?” h
- Page 16 and 17: She could hear his smile.“I’ll
- Page 18 and 19: When given a choice between A (a sl
- Page 20 and 21: to be held for any length of time,
- Page 22 and 23: feature of humanity, could never un
- Page 24 and 25: good night.”“Wait!” She leane
- Page 26 and 27: “But it wasn’t my worst, either
- Page 28: Any rumor regarding my love life wi
- Page 32 and 33: “Dr. Carlsen.”Dammit, dammit, d
- Page 36 and 37: horrible at it, which meant that ea
- Page 38 and 39: ago—and Olive immediately underst
- Page 40: “Oh. Oh, no.” That would be way
- Page 43 and 44: caught Anh kissing Adam Carlsen, sh
- Page 45: that she didn’t even flip her off
- Page 48 and 49: “I cannot believe it.”“Believ
- Page 50 and 51: This was the worst. The absolute wo
- Page 52 and 53: It was true that Anh had seemed hap
- Page 54 and 55: seemed insane.“You mean . . . for
- Page 56 and 57: probably whacked someone on the hea
- Page 58 and 59: “What do people who are dating do
- Page 60: over you and am not involved in you
- Page 63 and 64: “About you.”“Oh.” Olive’s
- Page 65 and 66: “Though, I’ve been thinking abo
- Page 67 and 68: sexual intercourse between the two
- Page 69 and 70: “For this to work we should proba
- Page 71: talk about. Their ten-minute coffee
- Page 74 and 75: “The relationship, it’s fake. W
- Page 76 and 77: “I have, haven’t I? Did I ever
- Page 78 and 79: Olive nodded again. When a single t
- Page 80 and 81: little unsettling, the realization
- Page 82 and 83: Olive smiled back, gesturing at Ada
absolute awe when she understood the self-doubt that Anh had
been able to harness into sheer fierceness.
And for some unimaginable reason, Anh seemed to like
Olive just as much. When Olive’s stipend hadn’t quite
stretched to the end of the month, Anh had shared her instant
ramen. When Olive’s computer had crashed without backups,
Anh had stayed up all night to help her rewrite her
crystallography paper. When Olive had nowhere to go over the
holidays, Anh would bring her friend home to Michigan and
let her large family ply Olive with delicious food while rapid
Vietnamese flowed around her. When Olive had felt too stupid
for the program and had considered dropping out, Anh had
talked her out of it.
The day Olive met Anh’s rolling eyes, a life-changing
friendship was born. Slowly, they’d begun to include Malcolm
and become a bit of a trio, but Anh . . . Anh was her person.
Family. Olive hadn’t even thought that was possible for
someone like her.
Anh rarely asked anything for herself, and even though
they’d been friends for more than two years, Olive had never
seen her show interest in dating anyone—until Jeremy.
Pretending that she’d been on a date with Carlsen was the least
Olive could do to ensure her friend’s happiness.
So she bucked up, smiled, and tried to keep her tone
reasonably even while asking, “What do you mean?”
“I mean that we talk every minute of every day, and you
never mentioned Carlsen before. My closest friend is
supposedly seeing the superstar professor of the department,
and somehow I’ve never heard of it? You know his reputation,
right? Is it some kind of joke? Do you have a brain tumor? Do
I have a brain tumor?”
This was what happened whenever Olive lied: she ended
up having to tell even more lies to cover her first, and she was
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