The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

“Sure.”
Oh.
She’d thought it would take more convincing. A lot more.
Then again, this was in his interest, too. He needed his
colleagues to believe in their relationship if he was to cajole
them into releasing his funding.
“Okay. Um . . .” She forced herself to stop wondering why
he was being so accommodating and tried to visualize her
schedule. “How about Wednesday?”
Adam angled his chair to face his computer and pulled up a
calendar app. It was so full of colorful boxes that Olive felt a
surge of vicarious anxiety.
“It works before eleven a.m. And after six p.m.”
“Ten?”
He turned back to her. “Ten’s good.”
“Okay.” She waited for him to type it in, but he made no
move to. “Aren’t you going to add it to your calendar?”
“I’ll remember,” he told her evenly.
“Okay, then.” She made an effort to smile, and it felt
relatively sincere. Way more sincere than any smile she’d ever
thought she’d be able to muster in Adam Carlsen’s presence.
“Great. Fake-dating Wednesday it is.”
A line appeared between his eyebrows. “Why do you keep
saying that?”
“Saying what?”
“ ‘Fake dating.’ Like it’s a thing.”
“Because it is. Don’t you watch rom-coms?”
He stared at her with a puzzled expression, until she
cleared her throat and looked down at her knees. “Right.” God,
they had nothing in common. They’d never find anything to