The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

“For this to work we should probably . . . do things
together. Every once in a while.”
“Things?”
“Things. Stuff.”
“Stuff,” he repeated dubiously.
“Yep. Stuff. What do you do for fun?” He was probably
into something atrocious, like cow-tipping excursions or
Japanese beetle fighting. Maybe he collected porcelain dolls.
Maybe he was an avid geocacher. Maybe he frequented vaping
conventions. Oh God.
“Fun?” he repeated, like he’d never heard the word before.
“Yeah. What do you do when you’re not at work?”
The length of time that passed between Olive’s question
and his answer was alarming. “Sometimes I work at home,
too. And I work out. And I sleep.”
She had to actively stop herself from face-palming. “Um,
great. Anything else?”
“What do you do for fun?” he asked, somewhat
defensively.
“Plenty of things. I . . .” Go to the movies. Though she
hadn’t been since the last time Malcolm had dragged her. Play
board games. But every single one of her friends was too busy
lately, so not that, either. She’d participated in that volleyball
tournament, but it had been over a year ago.
“Um. I work out?” She would have loved to wipe that
smug expression off his face. So much. “Whatever. We should
do something together on a regular basis. I don’t know, maybe
get coffee? Like, once a week? Just for ten minutes, at a place
where people could easily see us. I know it sounds annoying
and like a waste of time, but it’ll be super short, and it would
make the fake dating more credible, and—”