The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

department chair this morning. He’s still refusing to release
my research funds.”
“Oh.” She cocked her head. “I thought they weren’t due to
decide until the end of September.”
“They aren’t. This was an informal meeting, but the topic
came up. He said that he’s still monitoring the situation.”
“I see.” She waited for him to continue. When it became
clear that he wouldn’t, she asked, “Monitoring . . . how?”
“Unclear.” He was clenching his jaw.
“I’m sorry.” She felt for him. She really did. If there was
something she could empathize with, it was scientific studies
coming to an abrupt halt because of a lack of resources. “Does
that mean that you can’t continue your research?”
“I have other grants.”
“So . . . the problem is that you cannot start new studies?”
“I can. I had to rearrange different pots, but I should be
able to afford to start new lines of research, too.”
Uh? “I see.” She cleared her throat. “So . . . let me recap. It
sounds like Stanford froze your funds based on rumors, which
I agree is a crappy move. But it also sounds like for now you
can afford to do what you were planning, so . . . it’s not the
end of the world?”
Adam gave her an affronted glare, suddenly looking even
more cross.
Oh, boy. “Don’t get me wrong, I understand the principle
of the matter, and I’d be mad, too. But you have, how many
other grants? Actually, don’t answer that. I’m not sure I want
to know.”
He probably had fifteen. He also had tenure, and dozens of
publications, and there were all those honors listed on his
website. Not to mention that she’d read on his CV that he had