The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

“Is that so?”
“Mmm.”
His mouth twitched. “Maybe I wanted to spare you.”
Olive smiled, because it was actually a nice thing to say.
And he was not a nice person, but he was very kind to her
most of the time—if not always. He was almost smiling back,
staring down at her in a way that she couldn’t quite interpret
but that made her think weird thoughts, until the barista
deposited their drinks on the counter. He suddenly looked like
he was about to retch.
“Adam? Are you okay?”
He stared at her cup and took a step back. “The smell of
that thing.”
Olive inhaled deeply. Heaven. “You hate pumpkin spice
latte?”
He wrinkled his nose, moving even farther away. “Gross.”
“How can you hate it? It’s the best thing your country has
produced in the past century.”
“Please, stand back. The stench.”
“Hey. If I have to choose between you and pumpkin spice
latte, maybe we should rethink our arrangement.”
He eyed her cup like it contained radioactive waste.
“Maybe we should.”
He held the door open for her as they exited the coffee
shop, taking care not to come too close to her drink. Outside it
was starting to drizzle. Students were hastily packing up their
laptops and notebooks from the patio tables to head to class or
move to the library. Olive had been in love with the rain since
as far back as she could remember. She inhaled deeply and
filled her lungs with petrichor, stopping with Adam under the