The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Chapter Five
HYPOTHESIS: The more I need my brain to be on top of its
game, the higher the probability that it will freeze on me.
“Wait a minute.” Dr. Benton tilted his head. His smile was still
in place, but his gaze became a little sharper, his focus on
Olive less superficial. “Do you happen to be . . .”
Olive froze.
Her mind was never calm, or orderly—more like a garbled
mess of thoughts, really. And yet, standing there in front of
Tom Benton, the inside of her head went uncharacteristically
quiet, and several considerations stacked themselves neatly
into place.
The first was that she was comically luckless. The chances
that the person she depended on to finish her beloved research
project would be acquainted—no, friends with the person she
depended on to ensure her beloved Anh’s romantic happiness
were laughably low. And yet. Then again, Olive’s special
brand of luck was no news, so she moved on to the next
consideration.
She needed to admit who she was to Tom Benton. They
were scheduled to meet at 3:00 p.m., and pretending not to
recognize him now would mean the kiss of death to her plans
to infiltrate herself into his lab. Academics had huge egos,
after all.
Last consideration: if she phrased this right, she could
probably avoid Dr. Benton hearing about the whole fakedating
mess. Adam hadn’t mentioned it, which probably meant