The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
on his iMac. “My office hours were over five minutes ago, so—”“It’s me.”His hands halted, hovering half an inch or so above thekeyboard. Then he turned his chair toward her. “Olive.”There was something about the way he talked. Maybe itwas an accent, maybe just a quality of his voice. Olive didn’tquite know what, but it was there, in the way he said her name.Precise. Careful. Deep. Unlike anyone else. Familiar—impossibly so.“What did you say to her?” she asked, trying not to careabout how Adam Carlsen spoke. “The girl who ran out intears?”It took him a moment to remember that less than sixtyseconds ago there had been someone else in the office—someone whom he clearly made cry. “I just gave her feedbackon something she wrote.”Olive nodded, silently thanking all the gods that he was nother adviser and never would be, and studied her surroundings.He had a corner office, of course. Two windows that togethermust total seventy thousand square meters of glass, and somuch light, just standing in the middle of the room would curetwenty people’s seasonal depression. It made sense, what withall the grant money he brought in, what with the prestige, thathe’d been given a nice space. Olive’s office, on the other hand,had no windows and smelled funny, probably because sheshared it with three other Ph.D. students, even though it wasmeant to accommodate two at the most.“I was going to email you. I talked to the dean earliertoday,” Adam told her, and she looked back at him.He was gesturing to the chair in front of his desk. Olivepulled it back and took a seat.
“About you.”“Oh.” Olive’s stomach dropped. She’d much rather thedean didn’t know about her existence. Then again, she’d alsorather not be in this room with Adam Carlsen, have thesemester begin in a handful of days, have climate change be athing. And yet.“Well, about us,” he amended. “And socializationregulations.”“What did she say?”“There’s nothing against you and me dating, since I’m notyour adviser.”A mix of panic and relief flooded through Olive.“However, there are some issues to consider. I won’t beable to collaborate with you in any formal capacity. And I’mpart of the program’s awards committee, which means that I’llhave to excuse myself if you are nominated for fellowships orsimilar opportunities.”She nodded. “Fair enough.”“And I absolutely cannot be part of your thesis committee.”Olive huffed out a laugh. “That won’t be a problem. Iwasn’t going to ask you to be on my committee.”He narrowed his eyes. “Why not? You study pancreaticcancer, right?”“Yep. Early detection.”“Then your work would benefit from the perspective of acomputational modeler.”“Yeah, but there are other computational modelers in thedepartment. And I’d like to eventually graduate, ideallywithout sobbing in a bathroom stall after each committeemeeting.”
- 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 34 and 35: she could find, petrified. She was
- 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 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
- Page 84 and 85: herring for breakfast on the reg. M
- Page 87 and 88: WAS LATE for her second fake-dating
- Page 89 and 90: “I worked.”They got in line to
- Page 91 and 92: department chair this morning. He
- Page 93 and 94: “Is that so?”“Mmm.”His mout
- Page 95 and 96: “The time difference screwed me u
- Page 97 and 98: that he wasn’t planning to. Olive
- Page 99 and 100: “That is, I, um . . . never put t
- Page 101 and 102: “What kind of question is that?
- Page 103 and 104: “Who?”“Tom,” Adam said, a t
- Page 105 and 106: Olive had no idea he was giving a t
- Page 107: Adam laughed silently just as Tom s
- Page 110 and 111: “Hey—sorry.” She gestured in
“About you.”
“Oh.” Olive’s stomach dropped. She’d much rather the
dean didn’t know about her existence. Then again, she’d also
rather not be in this room with Adam Carlsen, have the
semester begin in a handful of days, have climate change be a
thing. And yet.
“Well, about us,” he amended. “And socialization
regulations.”
“What did she say?”
“There’s nothing against you and me dating, since I’m not
your adviser.”
A mix of panic and relief flooded through Olive.
“However, there are some issues to consider. I won’t be
able to collaborate with you in any formal capacity. And I’m
part of the program’s awards committee, which means that I’ll
have to excuse myself if you are nominated for fellowships or
similar opportunities.”
She nodded. “Fair enough.”
“And I absolutely cannot be part of your thesis committee.”
Olive huffed out a laugh. “That won’t be a problem. I
wasn’t going to ask you to be on my committee.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Why not? You study pancreatic
cancer, right?”
“Yep. Early detection.”
“Then your work would benefit from the perspective of a
computational modeler.”
“Yeah, but there are other computational modelers in the
department. And I’d like to eventually graduate, ideally
without sobbing in a bathroom stall after each committee
meeting.”
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