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The Love Hypothesis ebook

Hazelwood ali.

23 osoby interesują się tą książką

• Wydawca : Muza
• Kategoria : Literatura obyczajowa i piękna • Proza obyczajowa
• Język : polski
• Rok wydania : 2022

Udawany związek pary naukowców i siła przyciągania, której nie da się racjonalnie wytłumaczyć. Olive Smith, doktorantka na wydziale biologii Uniwersytetu Stanforda, jest inteligentna i utalentowana, ale też niepozbawiona kompleksów. Niedawno zerwała ze swoim chłopakiem Jeremym. Aby udowodnić swojej przyjaciółce Anh, że nic ich już nie łączy – w końcu naukowców interesują tylko namacalne dowody – Olive postanawia pocałować pierwszego mężczyznę, którego spotka na swojej drodze.

Jej wybór pada na doktora Adama Carlsena, przystojnego i genialnego wykładowcę. O dziwo, największa gwiazda Uniwersytetu Stanforda, a zarazem czołowy wydziałowy tyran i postrach studentów zgadza się udawać jej chłopaka. Kiedy sprawy przybierają zły obrót podczas wielkiej konferencji naukowej, zagrażając całej karierze Olive, Adam znowu ją zaskakuje, oferując swoje wsparcie oraz… jedną niezapomnianą noc.

Nagle ten niewielki eksperyment przeradza się w odkrycie stulecia. A Olive dowiaduje się, że jedyną rzeczą trudniejszą niż próba ujęcia miłości w naukowe ramy jest zmierzenie się z własnymi uczuciami.

Ebooka przeczytasz w aplikacjach Legimi lub dowolnej aplikacji obsługującej format:

Liczba stron: 412

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Tytuł oryginału: The Love Hypothesis

Redakcja: Martyna Kałan/Słowne Babki

Redaktor prowadzący: Aleksandra Janecka

Redakcja techniczna: Sylwia Rogowska-Kusz

Skład wersji elektronicznej: Robert Fritzkowski

Korekta: Lilianna Mieszczańska, Bogusława Jędrasik

Ilustracja wykorzystana na okładce

© lilithsaur

© 2021 by Ali Hazelwood

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

This edition published by arrangement with Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

© for the Polish edition by MUZA SA, Warszawa 2022

© for the Polish translation by Filip Sporczyk

ISBN 978-83-287-2346-7

Warszawskie Wydawnictwo Literackie

Warszawa 2022

– fragment –

Dla moich dziewczyn ze STEM-u: Kate, Caitie, Hatun i Mar

Per aspera ad aspera

Hi-po-te-za (rzeczownik)

Założenie bądź proponowane wyjaśnienie bazujące na ograniczonym materiale dowodowym, stanowiące punkt wyjścia do dalszych badań.

Przykład: Na podstawie dostępnych informacji i zgromadzonych dotychczas danych przedstawiam hipotezę, że im dalej będę się trzymała od miłości, tym lepiej na tym wyjdę.

Olive nie wiedziała, czy studia doktoranckie to dobry pomysł.

Powodem nie była niechęć do nauki. (Lubiła naukę. I to jeszcze jak! Nauka była jej życiem). Niepewność nie miała też nic wspólnego z ryzykiem. Olive doskonale wiedziała, że poświęcenie kilku lat na pracę, w której nikt jej nie doceni, w której płacą tyle co nic i która wymaga osiemdziesięciu godzin harówki tygodniowo, nie będzie dobre dla jej zdrowia psychicznego. Zdawała sobie również sprawę z tego, że codzienne ślęczenie nad palnikiem Bunsena w nadziei, że dokona się jakiegoś pomniejszego odkrycia, nie jest kluczem do szczęścia. Że poświęcenie całego życia na badania akademickie – z krótkimi przerwami na podkradanie niepilnowanych bajgli z uniwersyteckiej kafeterii – nie jest mądrym posunięciem.

Olive doskonale to wszystko wiedziała, ale nic a nic jej to nie martwiło. No, może odrobinę. Była jednak pewna, że da sobie radę. Przed rzuceniem wszystkiego i skokiem w najgłębszą otchłań piekieł (czyli właśnie studia doktoranckie) powstrzymywało ją coś zupełnie innego, choć tylko do momentu, kiedy została zaproszona na rozmowę kwalifikacyjną, po której mogła dostać posadę na Wydziale Biologii Uniwersytetu Stanforda. Wtedy właśnie spotkała Faceta.

Faceta, którego imienia nie znała.

Faceta, na którego wpadła w łazience – pierwszej, którą dostrzegła, a więc pierwszej, do której na ślepo wparowała.

Mowa tu o Facecie, który zadał jej pytanie:

– Czy można wiedzieć, dlaczego płaczesz w mojej łazience?

Olive pisnęła, zaskoczona. Próbowała otworzyć oczy, ale łzy pozwoliły jej tylko na nieznaczne uchylenie powiek. Wszystko było rozmazane. Jedyne, co udało jej się dostrzec, to rozmyta sylwetka – wysoki mężczyzna o ciemnych włosach, ubrany w czerń i… To by było na tyle.

– Czy to toaleta dla pań? – wydukała.

Cisza. A następnie odpowiedź:

– Nie. – Jego głos był głęboki. Dudniący. Niski. Bardzo niski. Cudownie niski.

– Jest pan pewien?

– Na sto procent?

– Owszem. To łazienka przyległa do mojego laboratorium.

Ha! To by zamykało sprawę.

– Przepraszam. Potrzebuje pan… – Olive machnęła ręką w kierunku kabiny toaletowej, a przynajmniej w kierunku, gdzie jak się jej wydawało, powinny znajdować się kabiny. Załzawione oczy w dalszym ciągu szczypały, więc zacisnęła powieki. Spróbowała rękawem otrzeć łzy z policzków, ale materiał jej taniej, obcisłej sukienki był zbyt cienki i nie pochłaniał wilgoci tak dobrze jak prawdziwa bawełna. Cóż, takie życie biedoty.

– Chciałbym tylko wylać reagent do zlewu – odpowiedział mężczyzna, choć Olive nie usłyszała, by zrobił krok w stronę umywalek. Może dlatego że ona stała mu na drodze. Albo myślał, że Olive jest jakąś dziwaczką, i właśnie się zastanawiał, czy nie nasłać na nią ochrony. To by szybko odebrało jej marzenia o obronie doktoratu. – Nie korzystamy z tej łazienki w celach fizjologicznych. Utylizujemy tu odpady i myjemy oprzyrządowanie.

– Ojej, przepraszam. Myślałam, że… – Że co? Zaliczyła wpadkę. Jak zwykle. To była jej częsta przypadłość, a zarazem odwieczny problem.

– Wszystko w porządku? – Mężczyzna musiał być bardzo wysoki. Jego głos brzmiał, jakby dochodził z punktu zawieszonego około trzech metrów nad głową Olive.

– Pewnie. A co?

– Cóż. Pytam, bo płaczesz. W mojej łazience.

– Wcale nie płaczę. No, może trochę, ale to tylko łzy. Rozumiesz, nie?

– Niespecjalnie.

Olive westchnęła i oparła się o pokrytą kafelkami ścianę.

– To przez soczewki. Są trochę przeterminowane, a kupiłam najtańsze. I podrażniły mi oczy. Już je wyjęłam, ale… – Wzruszyła ramionami, mając nadzieję, że przynajmniej stoi twarzą w stronę mężczyzny. – Jeszcze przez chwilę będą mi łzawiły oczy, ale potem będzie lepiej.

– Włożyłaś przeterminowane soczewki? – Pytanie zadał takim tonem, jakby poczuł się osobiście dotknięty jej słowami.

– Tylko trochę przeterminowane.

– Jak bardzo trochę?

– Sama nie wiem. Może kilka lat?

– Słucham? – syknął, akcentując spółgłoski. Mówił wyraźnie i zwięźle. Przyjemnie dla ucha.

– Ze dwa, nie więcej.

– Dwa lata?

– To nic takiego. Terminy ważności są przereklamowane.

Usłyszała suchy dźwięk, jakby parsknięcie.

– Terminy ważności są ważne choćby dlatego, żebym nie wpadał na płaczące kobiety w mojej łazience.

Jeżeli ten gość nie nazywa się Stanford, powinien przestać nazywać ten kibel jego łazienką.

– Wszystko w porządku. – Olive machnęła ręką. Przewróciłaby oczami, gdyby nie płonęły żywym ogniem. – Pieczenie zazwyczaj nie trwa długo.

– Chcesz mi powiedzieć, że robiłaś to wcześniej?

Olive zmarszczyła brwi.

– Robiłam: co?

– Wkładałaś przeterminowane soczewki.

– Oczywiście. Wiesz, ile kosztuje para soczewek? To nie jest tania zabawa.

– Leczenie oczu też do tanich nie należy.

Ha! Może i racja.

– Hej – zmieniła temat – czy my się nie znamy? Nie spotkaliśmy się przypadkiem wczoraj na kolacji z kandydatami na doktorantów?

– Nie poszedłeś na bankiet?

– To nie dla mnie.

– I nie skusiło cię darmowe żarcie?

– Nie, jeżeli w zamian musiałbym ze wszystkimi rozmawiać.

Może był na diecie. Olive nie słyszała jeszcze o doktorancie świadomie rezygnującym z darmowego jedzenia. A miała pewność, że Facet był studentem – jego wyniosły i oschły ton nie pozostawiał co do tego złudzeń. Wszyscy doktoranci są nadęci i wywyższają się tylko dlatego, że dano im wątpliwy przywilej mordowania muszek owocówek w imię nauki za marne dziewięćdziesiąt centów za godzinę pracy. W mrocznej, paskudnej rzeczywistości akademickiej doktoranci stanowili najniższą kastę, przez co sami próbowali przekonywać siebie nawzajem o własnej wyższości. Olive nie była psycholożką, ale to jej wyglądało na podręcznikowy wręcz przykład mechanizmu obronnego.

– Idziesz na rozmowę kwalifikacyjną? – zapytał.

– Mhm… Chcę zrobić doktorat z biologii.

Rany boskie, ależ ją piekły oczy.

– A ty? – spytała, przyciskając dłonie do powiek.

– Długo tu jesteś?

– Tutaj? – Zastanowił się chwilę. – Sześć lat. Mniej więcej.

– O! Czyli niedługo dyplom?

Olive szybko wyczuła wahanie w jego głosie. I natychmiast poczuła się głupio.

– Okej, nie musisz mówić.

Pierwsza zasada studiów doktoranckich: nie pytać, ile innym zajmuje napisanie rozprawy doktorskiej. Chwila ciszy na jedno uderzenie serca. I kolejne.

– No tak. Przepraszam. – Chciałaby go teraz widzieć. Interakcje międzyludzkie nigdy nie były jej mocną stroną. Im mniej bodźców, tym trudniej trafić z odpowiednią reakcją. – Nie chciałam być wścibska. Gadam pewnie jak rodzice w Święto Dziękczynienia, co?

Mężczyzna zaśmiał się krótko.

– Nie dałabyś rady.

– Aha. – Olive się uśmiechnęła. – Są aż tak wkurzający?

– Szczególnie w Święto Dziękczynienia.

– Wy, Amerykanie… Tak się kończą zabawy w rewolucję. – Wyciągnęła rękę, mając nadzieję, że celuje w dobrym kierunku. – Tak przy okazji, jestem Olive. Jak oliwa.

W jej głowie już kiełkował strach, że właśnie przedstawiła się zlewowi, kiedy usłyszała, jak mężczyzna robi krok w jej kierunku. Ręka, która uścisnęła jej dłoń, była sucha, ciepła i tak wielka, że mogłaby pewnie bez trudu objąć całą jej pięść. Wszystko w tym człowieku musiało być ogromne. Był wysoki, miał długie palce, a głos dudniący jak u olbrzyma.

Przyjemne połączenie.

– Nie jesteś Amerykanką? – spytał.

– Pochodzę z Kanady. Słuchaj, jeśli będziesz miał okazję porozmawiać z kimś z komisji rekrutacyjnej, nie wspominaj o tych soczewkach, dobra? Jeszcze mogłoby się im zacząć wydawać, że nie jestem najlepszą kandydatką, z jaką kiedykolwiek mieli do czynienia.

– Myślisz? – rzucił śmiertelnie poważnym tonem.

Gdyby mogła otworzyć oczy, posłałaby mu mordercze spojrzenie. Może sama jej mina wystarczyła, bo Facet się zaśmiał. To było tylko krótkie sapnięcie, ale Olive była pewna, że go rozbawiła. Całkiem miłe uczucie.

Mężczyzna puścił jej rękę, wtedy Olive zdała sobie sprawę, że do tej pory trzymała jego dłoń w mocnym uścisku. Ups!

– Czyli zamierzasz tu studiować? – zapytał.

Wzruszyła ramionami.

– Jeżeli mnie przyjmą. – Prawda jednak była taka, że z doktor Aslan, która prowadziła z nią rozmowę rekrutacyjną, polubiły się od razu. Olive zdecydowanie mniej się jąkała i mówiła znacznie składniej niż zazwyczaj. A poza tym jej wyniki i oceny były prawie idealne. Mogłoby się wydawać, że bycie kujonem wreszcie zaczyna się spłacać.

– Czyli zamierzasz tu studiować, jeżeli cię przyjmą?

Byłaby głupia, gdyby przepuściła taką okazję. W końcu to Stanford – jeden z najlepszych wydziałów biologii na świecie. A przynajmniej tak sobie powtarzała, by zagłuszyć rozbrzmiewającą w jej głowie paraliżującą prawdę: że nie była pewna, czy studia doktoranckie to dobry pomysł.

– Może… W tym przypadku granica pomiędzy świetnym wyborem kariery a spieprzeniem sobie doszczętnie życia jest wyjątkowo cienka.

– Wygląda na to, że skłaniasz się ku opcji numer dwa. – Z jego tonu wywnioskowała, że się uśmiechał.

– Cóż. Jak by to powiedzieć, ja tylko…

– Tylko co?

Olive przygryzła dolną wargę.

– A co, jeśli jestem za słaba? – wyrzuciła z siebie, nie myśląc zbyt wiele. O Boże! Dlaczego, do cholery, właśnie opowiadała temu Facetowi spotkanemu w łazience o swoich największych obawach? Pomijając spontaniczność jej zwierzenia, po co w ogóle o tym rozmawiać? Za każdym razem, gdy poruszała ten temat ze znajomymi i z przyjaciółmi, zarzucali ją sztampowymi formułkami w stylu: „Będzie dobrze”, „Dasz radę”, „Wierzę w ciebie”. On zapewne zrobi dokładnie to samo.

Już za chwilę.

Za chwileczkę. Czuła to w kościach.

– Po co ci to, tak właściwie?

– Po co ci doktorat? Skąd ten pomysł?

Olive odchrząknęła.

– Zawsze byłam ciekawa świata, a studia doktoranckie to idealny sposób pielęgnowania tej ciekawości. Mogę zdobyć wiedzę i cenne umiejętności.

Mężczyzna chrząknął.

– Formułka z poradnika, jak się dobrze zaprezentować na rozmowie kwalifikacyjnej. Po co tobie konkretnie ten doktorat?

– Mówiłam prawdę – powiedziała niepewnie. – Chcę kształcić swoje zdolności badawcze.

– Chcesz studiować na Stanfordzie, bo nie masz innych pomysłów?

– Bo nie znalazłaś pracy w branży?

– Nie. Nawet nie próbowałam jej szukać.

– Czyżby? – Poruszył się. Przez łzy widziała jego wielką, ciemną sylwetkę. Zbliżał się. Wylał coś do zlewu. Olive wyczuła woń eugenolu i płynu do prania, a poza tym czystej męskiej skóry. Całkiem przyjemne połączenie.

– Firmy z branży nie dają wystarczającej swobody działania.

– Na uniwersytecie nie znajdziesz jej więcej.

Był coraz bliżej. Nie cofnął się jeszcze.

– Będziesz musiała bezustannie walczyć o granty, a konkurencja jest zabójcza. Możesz zarabiać więcej w dowolnej pracy na etacie, miałabyś wolne weekendy. Tutaj pojęcie weekend w ogóle nie funkcjonuje.

Olive się skrzywiła.

– Chcesz mnie podpuścić, żebym zrezygnowała? To jakaś kampania przeciw ludziom noszącym przeterminowane soczewki?

– Nic z tych rzeczy.

Tym razem na pewno słyszała, że się zaśmiał.

– Uznam, że to był jednorazowy wybryk.

– Wcale nie. Noszę przeterminowane soczewki zawsze. Codziennie!

– W takim razie wybryk jeden z wielu. – Westchnął. – Słuchaj, nie mam pojęcia, czy dasz sobie radę. Czy jesteś wystarczająco dobra. Ale to nie jest pytanie, które powinnaś sobie zadać. Życie akademickie to ciężki kawałek chleba i bardzo niewdzięczna robota. Dlatego tym, co się naprawdę liczy, jest motywacja. Co cię popchnęło do wyboru takiej ścieżki kariery? Czy masz wystarczająco dobry powód? Wracając do meritum: po co ci ten doktorat, Olive?

Tym razem poważnie zastanowiła się nad pytaniem i przemyślała swoją odpowiedź.

– Jest takie pytanie. Konkretne pytanie, które mnie nurtuje. I chcę znaleźć na nie odpowiedź, a do tego potrzebne są rzetelne badania akademickie. – Proszę. Odpowiedziała. To był jej powód. – To coś, co może pozostać nieodkryte, jeżeli ja się tym nie zajmę.

Poczuła ruch powietrza i zdała sobie sprawę, że mężczyzna oparł się o zlew.

– Tak. – Zaschło jej w ustach. – To coś, co jest dla mnie ważne. Nikt inny tego nie zrobi. Do tej pory nikt się tym nie interesował. I to ja muszę się tym zająć. Bo…

Bo wydarzyło się coś złego. Bo chcę zrobić wszystko, co w mojej mocy, by nie wydarzyło się ponownie.

To było zbyt ponure wspomnienie. O takich rzeczach lepiej nie myśleć w towarzystwie nieznajomych i z zamkniętymi oczami. Dlatego Olive zmusiła się, by je wreszcie otworzyć. Wszystko w dalszym ciągu było rozmazane, ale przynajmniej pieczenie już prawie ustało. Facet patrzył wprost na nią. Zarys jego sylwetki był ciągle lekko rozmyty, ale stał tam i czekał na dalszy ciąg.

– To dla mnie ważne – powtórzyła. – Badania, które chcę przeprowadzić.

Olive skończyła dwadzieścia trzy lata i nie miała na świecie nikogo bliskiego. Nie potrzebowała wolnych weekendów ani wysokiego wynagrodzenia. Jedyne, czego chciała, to cofnąć się w czasie. Chciała przestać być samotna, ale to było niemożliwe, więc musiała zadowolić się próbą naprawienia tego, na co miała jeszcze wpływ.

Mężczyzna pokiwał głową, ale nic nie powiedział. Wyprostował się i podszedł do drzwi. Wychodził.

– To jak z tym moim powodem? Jest wystarczająco dobry, żeby podjąć studia doktoranckie? – wołała za nim Olive, nienawidząc się za to, jak bardzo przez jej słowa przebijała potrzeba akceptacji. Może nie zdając sobie z tego sprawy, przeżywała właśnie kryzys egzystencjalny?

Mężczyzna zatrzymał się i odwrócił w jej stronę.

– To najlepszy powód, jaki istnieje. – Uśmiechał się. Chyba. – Życzę powodzenia na rozmowie, Olive.

Już niemal wyszedł i zniknął za drzwiami.

– To do zobaczenia na zajęciach – wyparowała, rumieniąc się. – Jeśli się dostanę. I jeśli ty nie zdasz.

– Zobaczymy – odpowiedział, znikając w korytarzu.

I tyle. Facet sobie poszedł. A Olive nie poznała jego imienia. Kilka tygodni później, kiedy została przyjęta na Wydział Biologii Uniwersytetu Stanforda, bez wahania zdecydowała się na rozpoczęcie kariery naukowej.

HIPOTEZA: Jeżeli mam do wyboru A (lekko niewygodną sytuację) i B (totalny bajzel, którego konsekwencje zrujnują mi życie), z jakiegoś powodu zawsze wybieram B.

Dwa lata i jedenaście miesięcy później

W obronie Olive należy zaznaczyć, że mężczyzna nie wydawał się specjalnie oburzony pocałunkiem.

Chwilę mu zajęło pozbieranie myśli, ale to zrozumiałe, biorąc pod uwagę okoliczności. Wszystko trwało może minutę i było wyjątkowo niezręczne, niekomfortowe i nawet dość bolesne. Olive przylgnęła ustami do jego ust, wpijając się w nie mocno i stając na palcach, by jej twarz znalazła się na podobnym poziomie co jego głowa. Czy on musiał być tak wysoki? Dla postronnych pocałunek zapewne wyglądał jak jakiś pokraczny cios głową. Przez chwilę Olive bała się, że nie zdoła doprowadzić całej operacji do końca i jej przyjaciółka Anh, którą Olive wypatrzyła kilka sekund wcześniej, szybko się zorientuje, że Olive i Pan Całuśny wcale nie są parą na randce.

I wtedy ta paskudnie ciągnąca się chwila wreszcie minęła, a pocałunek… zmienił się. Mężczyzna gwałtownie wciągnął powietrze i pochylił lekko głowę, sprawiając, że Olive przestała czuć się jak leniwiec wspinający się po drzewie. Dłonie Całuśnego – duże i przyjemnie ciepłe, kontrastujące z chłodnym strumieniem powietrza wydmuchiwanego przez klimatyzator – objęły Olive w talii. Przesunęły się kilka centymetrów w górę, zatrzymując się na wysokości jej klatki piersiowej i zamykając Olive w pewnym chwycie. Nie za blisko, ale też nie za daleko.

Po prostu idealnie.

Ich pocałunek był tak naprawdę trwającym tylko minutę buziakiem, ale za to bardzo przyjemnym buziakiem. Na kilka sekund Olive zapomniała o wszystkim innym – na przykład, że stoi właśnie wtulona w jakiegoś nieznajomego, jak i o tym, że zanim wpiła się w jego usta, zdążyła ledwie wyszeptać: „Czy mogę cię pocałować?”. Przede wszystkim jednak zapomniała, że ta historia rozpoczęła się od chęci oszukania jej najlepszej przyjaciółki Anh.

Tak właśnie działają dobre pocałunki – pozwalają na chwilę zapomnieć o całym świecie. Olive poczuła, że się rozpływa. Przylgnęła do szerokiej, twardej klatki piersiowej mężczyzny. Jej dłonie objęły jego wyraźnie zarysowaną szczękę, a palce wplotły się w zaskakująco gęste i miękkie włosy Pana Całuśnego. Z ust Olive wydostało się westchnienie. Traciła dech. Wtedy też uświadomiła sobie bardzo ważną rzecz i… Nie.

Nie. Nie-e. Ani dudu.

Nie mogła czerpać z tego przyjemności. To był zupełnie przypadkowy gość! Olive złapała haust powietrza i odsunęła się od mężczyzny, szukając wzrokiem Anh. W niebieskawym świetle jarzeniówek w korytarzu laboratorium biologicznego nie dało się jej jednak wypatrzeć. Dziwne. Olive była pewna, że kilka sekund wcześniej widziała zbliżającą się przyjaciółkę.

Pan Całuśny stał przed nią z lekko rozchylonymi ustami. Jego pierś unosiła się i opadała, a w oczach czaiły się dziwne ogniki. I wtedy dopiero do niej dotarło, co tak właściwie przed chwilą narobiła. Kogo obrała za cel ataku.

Co za koszmar. Pieprzony życiowy niefart.

Pocałowała doktora Adama Carlsena – słynnego na cały wydział dupka.

Status nielubianego chama nie był sam w sobie niczym szczególnym – w świecie akademickim utrzymanie jakiejkolwiek posady powyżej stopnia doktoranta (czyli pozycji Olive) przez dłuższy okres wymagało bycia dupkiem. A stanowisko etatowego wykładowcy plasowało się na samym szczycie piramidy dupkowatości. Doktor Carlsen w chamstwie nie miał jednak konkurencji. Przynajmniej takie krążyły o nim opowieści.

To przez niego współlokator Olive, Malcolm, musiał porzucić dwa projekty badawcze, co najprawdopodobniej opóźni termin ukończenia przez niego studiów o cały rok; to Carlsen sprawił, że Jeremy zwymiotował z nerwów podczas egzaminu, i to tylko przez niego połowa studentów musiała przekładać terminy obrony swoich prac doktorskich. Joe – kolega z grupy Olive, który co czwartek wyciągał ją do kina na dziwaczne europejskie filmy z mikroskopijnymi napisami – został asystentem w laboratorium Carlsena. Wytrzymał sześć miesięcy, po czym zrezygnował ze studiów, nie podając powodu. Może to i lepiej – asystenci Carlsena trzęśli się z nerwów i wyglądali, jakby w ogóle nie sypiali.

Doktor Carlsen był największą gwiazdą świata akade­mic­kiego i złotym dzieckiem wydziału biologii, ale był też złoś­liwym, krytykującym wszystko i wszystkich chamem. A z je­go sposobu bycia aż biło przekonanie o własnej wyż­szości. Carlsen uważał, że jest jedyną osobą na całym Wydziale Biologii Uniwersytetu Stanforda (a może i na całym świecie), która wykonuje wartościową pracę. Był humorzasty i nieuprzejmy. Słowem – kutas.

A Olive właśnie go pocałowała.

Nie umiała określić, ile czasu trwała cisza, która nastała po ich pocałunku, ale była pewna, że to nie ona ją przerwie. Carlsen stał naprzeciwko Olive, górując nad doktorantką dobre pół metra i wbijając w nią swoje ciemne oczy. Zmarszczył brwi, dokładnie jak podczas seminarium.

Znała ten grymas. Zazwyczaj poprzedzał ciętą uwagę Carlsena, gdy ten dostrzegł niewybaczalny błąd w czyjejś wypowiedzi.

„Adam Carlsen. Niszczyciel karier akademickich”. Jak go określiła kiedyś jej promotorka.

To nic takiego. Wszystko w porządku. Będzie dobrze. Udam, że nic się nie stało, skinę facetowi głową i pójdę dalej w swoim kierunku. To dobry plan.

– Czy ty właśnie… Czy ty mnie właśnie pocałowałaś? – zapytał z niedowierzaniem Carlsen. I chyba brakowało mu tchu. Jego usta były pełne i miękkie, i… O Boże! Pocałowała go. Olive wiedziała, że nie ma szans, aby uszło jej to na sucho.

Musiała się ratować.

– Nie – powiedziała po prostu.

I to podziałało.

– A, no dobra. – Kiwnął głową i obrócił się ze zdezo­rientowaną miną. Zrobił kilka kroków wzdłuż korytarza i wyciągnął rękę w kierunku wodotrysku.

Olive zaczynała już wierzyć, że się jej upiekło, kiedy Carlsen przystanął i ponownie się do niej odwrócił. Na jego twarzy gościł grymas niedowierzania.

– Jesteś pewna?

– Ja… – Ukryła twarz w dłoniach. – To nie tak, jak doktor myśli.

– Okej. Słuchaj, okej – wycedził powoli. Miał niski, donośny głos. I brzmiał, jakby za chwilę miał się rozzłościć. Może już był zły. – O co tu chodzi?

Nie dało się tego racjonalnie wyjaśnić. Nikt normalny nie przyjąłby wytłumaczenia, jakie szykowała Olive, a już na pewno nie Adam Carlsen. Ten człowiek empatię uważał za błąd ewolucji, a nie naturalną ludzką cechę. Olive opuściła ręce i wzięła głęboki oddech.

– Nie chcę być nieuprzejma, ale to nie pana sprawa, doktorze.

Carlsen gapił się na nią przez chwilę, po czym skinął głową.

– Jasne. Rozumiem. – Chyba odzyskiwał panowanie nad sobą, bo ton jego głosu wracał do normy. Stawał się oschły. – Wrócę więc do swojego biura i po prostu napiszę skargę w związku z naruszeniem ustawy dziewiątej.

Olive odetchnęła z ulgą.

– O, tak. Tak będzie najlepiej. W końcu… czekaj. Jaką znowu skargę?

Przekrzywił głowę.

– Ustawa dziewiąta prawa stanowego mówi o ochronie przeciwko napastowaniu seksualnemu na uczelniach.

– Wiem, o czym mówi ustawa dziewiąta.

– Świetnie. Czyli naruszyłaś jej postanowienia z premedytacją.

– Co? Nie. Niczego nie naruszyłam!

Carlsen wzruszył ramionami.

– Aha, czyli po prostu coś mi się pomyliło? Napastował mnie ktoś inny?

– Napastował? Nie napastowałam doktora!

– Właśnie mnie pocałowałaś.

– Ale tak na niby!

– Nie pytając mnie najpierw o zgodę.

– Pytałam! Spytałam, czy mogę pana pocałować.

– Po czym zrobiłaś to, nie czekając na moją odpowiedź.

– Co takiego? Przecież pan się zgodził.

– To jakiś żart?

– Zapytałam, czy mogę cię pocałować, a pan odpowiedział, że tak.

– Nieprawda. Zapytałaś, czy możesz mnie pocałować, a ja chrząknąłem.

– Jestem pewna, że powiedział pan „tak”.

Uniósł jedną brew, a Olive odczuła przemożną potrzebę uduszenia kogoś. Doktora Carlsena. Albo siebie samej. Obie opcje wydawały się kuszące.

– Naprawdę bardzo mi przykro. To wyszło dziwnie. Możemy po prostu o tym wszystkim zapomnieć?

Przez dłuższą chwilę wpatrywał się w nią z poważnym wyrazem twarzy. W jego spojrzeniu kryło się coś, czego Olive nie była w stanie zidentyfikować – przede wszystkim dlatego że znów złapała się na myśleniu o tym, jaki wysoki i szeroki w barach był ten mężczyzna. Był ogromny. Olive – drobna i szczupła, niemal wychudzona. Przy wzroście ponad stu siedemdziesięciu centymetrów rzadko czuła się niska, jednak w porównaniu z Adamem Carlsenem była liliputem. Wiedziała, że jest wysoki. W końcu widywała go w budynku biologii i na kampusie. Czasami jechali tą samą windą. Ale nigdy nie rozmawiali. Nigdy nie byli tak blisko.

Poza tą sytuacją sprzed chwili, Olive. Kiedy wsadziłaś mu język do ust.

– Coś nie tak? – Przez moment doktor Carlsen wyglądał na prawie zmartwionego.

– Słucham? Nie, to nic takiego.

– Pytam – ciągnął – bo całowanie obcej osoby w środku nocy w laboratorium biologicznym może być znakiem, że coś jest nie tak.

– Wszystko gra.

Carlsen skinął głową w zamyśleniu.

– Dobrze. W takim razie w ciągu kilku dni otrzymasz oficjalne pismo. – Ruszył przed siebie, mijając Olive.

Po chwili doktorantka zawołała:

– Nawet nie spytał pan, jak mam na imię!

– Jakoś do tego dojdę. Żeby wejść do laboratorium po godzinach, musiałaś użyć karty magnetycznej. Dobranoc.

– Chwila! – Olive podbiegła i zatrzymała go, łapiąc go za rękę. Carlsen stanął jak wryty, mimo że uwolnienie się z jej uścisku nie sprawiłoby mu żadnego kłopotu. Wbił wzrok w palce Olive zaciśnięte na jego nadgarstku, tuż pod zegarkiem, który pewnie kosztował więcej, niż ona zarabiała w ciągu roku.

W odpowiedzi Olive natychmiast go puściła i zrobiła krok wstecz.

– Przepraszam. Nie chciałam.

– Pocałunek. Wytłumacz się.

Przygryzła wargę. Tym razem naprawdę narobiła sobie kłopotów. Musiała mu wyznać prawdę.

– Chodzi o Anh Pham. – Spojrzała dookoła, aby się upewnić, że Anh naprawdę zniknęła. – Dziewczynę, która nas mijała. Jest doktorantką na biologii.

Carlsen nie dał po sobie poznać, czy kojarzy Anh.

– Anh ma… – Olive odgarnęła niesforny kosmyk włosów z czoła. Ta historia była upokarzająca. Skomplikowana i dziecinna. – Spotykałam się z jednym facetem z wydziału. Nazywa się Jeremy Langley. Ma rude włosy i pracuje u doktora. – Przerwała na sekundę. – Tak czy inaczej, spotkaliśmy się kilka razy, a potem wzięłam go ze sobą na urodziny Anh. Od razu przypadli sobie do gustu i…

Zamknęła oczy, co nie było najlepszym pomysłem. Teraz jedyne, co widziała, to jej najlepsza przyjaciółka i jej chłopak, którzy rozmawiali ze sobą w kręgielni, jakby znali się od lat. Mieli wspólne tematy i podobne poczucie humoru. A potem Olive przypomniała sobie, jak Jeremy wodził za Anh wzrokiem. Nie było wątpliwości, kim tak naprawdę się interesował. Olive machnęła ręką i zmusiła się do uśmiechu.

– Żeby nie przedłużać, rozstaliśmy się z Jeremym, po czym on zaprosił Anh na randkę. Ona odmówiła, bo taki już nasz dziewczyński kodeks honorowy. Wiem, że Jeremy naprawdę się jej podoba, tylko Anh boi się, że urazi moje uczucia. Mówiłam jej tysiąc razy, że nie mam nic przeciwko, jeśli chcą się spotykać, ale ona i tak nie wierzy.

Kilka dni temu podsłuchałam, jak Anh zwierzała się ze swoich rozterek Malcolmowi: że chciałaby się spotykać z Jeremym, ale jednocześnie boi się, że ja poczuję się zdradzona. Jej głos brzmiał tak smutno. Była zawiedziona i niepewna. Całkiem nie jak ta pewna siebie, zawsze uśmiechnięta Anh, do jakiej przywykłam.

– Więc skłamałam, że mam już nowego chłopaka. Anh jest moją najbliższą przyjaciółką i nigdy wcześniej nie widziałam, żeby ktoś tak się jej podobał. Chcę, żeby się zeszli z Jeremym, bo wiem, że Anh na to zasługuje, a chcę dla niej wszystkiego, co najlepsze. I jestem pewna, że ona dla mnie zrobiłaby to samo… – Olive nagle zdała sobie sprawę z tego, że gada bez ładu i składu. A Carlsen i tak pewnie miał jej historię gdzieś. Zamknęła więc usta i przełknęła ślinę, próbując zwilżyć zaschnięte gardło. – Dzisiaj. Powiedziałam jej, że mam randkę dzisiaj.

– Rozumiem – odpowiedział. Jego twarz nie zdradzała żadnych emocji.

– Tylko że tak naprawdę nie mam dzisiaj żadnej randki, więc postanowiłam popracować do późna nad moim eksperymentem. Ale Anh też przyszła do laboratorium, choć miała być gdzie indziej. I szła w naszym kierunku korytarzem. Spanikowałam. – Olive otarła twarz dłonią. – Nie myślałam.

Nic nie odpowiedział, ale w jego oczach widziała nieme potwierdzenie: „To oczywiste, że nie myślałaś”.

– Chciałam tylko, żeby Anh uwierzyła, że jestem na randce.

Doktor Carlsen pokiwał głową.

– Więc pocałowałaś pierwszą osobę, którą spotkałaś na korytarzu. Logika godna mistrza.

– Może rzeczywiście nie było to zbyt mądre.

– Ale zdarzało mi się robić gorsze rzeczy! A poza tym Anh chyba nas widziała. I pomyśli, że byłam z panem na randce. Miejmy nadzieję, że wreszcie pozwoli sobie na spo­tk­anie z Jeremym. – Pokręciła głową. – Proszę posłuchać. Naprawdę mi przykro z powodu tego pocałunku.

– Mógłby pan nie pisać tej skargi? Naprawdę myślałam, że się pan zgodził. Nie chciałam.

Nagle Olive pojęła, co narobiła. Pocałowała kompletnie losową osobę, a traf chciał, że tą osobą był najbardziej nielubiany wykładowca na całym wydziale biologii. Niemalże zaatakowała go na korytarzu, odebrała jego prychnięcie jako przyzwolenie, a teraz stała tu jak słup soli, podczas gdy on świdrował ją tym dziwnym, pełnym zadumy wzrokiem – taki wysoki i tak bardzo blisko.

O cholera!

Może to była kwestia późnej pory, a może tego, że ostatnią kawę wypiła dobre szesnaście godzin temu. Ewentualnie przyczyna mogła tkwić w spojrzeniu Carlsena, a raczej w sposobie, w jaki na nią patrzył. W każdym razie, zupełnie niespodziewanie, cała ta sytuacja przerosła Olive.

– Ma pan rację, doktorze. Bardzo przepraszam. Jeżeli poczuł się pan napastowany, proszę napisać na mnie skargę. Zasłużyłam. Zrobiłam coś niewybaczalnego, choć naprawdę nie chciałam cię… Nie. Moje intencje nie mają tu żadnego znaczenia. Tu bardziej chodzi o to, jak mógł pan odebrać to, co zrobiłam.

Cholera, cholera, cholera!

– Dobrze, po prostu zamknę się już i sobie pójdę. Dzięki i… Jeszcze raz bardzo przepraszam. – Olive obróciła się na pięcie i pomknęła przed siebie korytarzem.

– Olive! – zawołał za nią Carlsen – Olive, poczekaj.

Nie zatrzymała się. Popędziła schodami w dół, na parter, a następnie wybiegła z budynku i przemknęła alejką skąpanego w półmroku kampusu Uniwersytetu Stanforda, mijając dziewczynę wyprowadzającą psa na smyczy i grupę uśmiechniętych studentów rozmawiających przed biblioteką. Biegła, aż stanęła przed drzwiami swojego apartamentu. Zatrzymała się na sekundę, by je otworzyć, po czym śmignęła do sypialni. Nie chciała spotkać współlokatora ani kogokolwiek, kto przyszedł do niego na noc.

Kiedy opadła bez sił na łóżko i wpatrzyła się w świecące w ciemności gwiazdy przyklejone do sufitu, zdała sobie sprawę, że zapomniała sprawdzić, co u jej myszy doświadczalnych. Zostawiła też laptopa i sweter w laboratorium i zapomniała wpaść do sklepu po kawę, którą obiecała Malcolmowi.

Masakra. Co za koszmarny dzień.

W całym tym chaosie Olive nawet przez chwilę nie pomyślała o tym, że doktor Adam Carlsen – największy dupek na wydziale – zawołał ją po imieniu.

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The Love Hypothesis Kindle Edition

• Print length 383 pages
• Language English
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publisher Berkley
• Publication date September 14, 2021
• File size 3306 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
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Chapter One

Hypothesis: When given a choice between A (a slightly inconveniencing situation) and B (a colossal shitshow with devastating consequences), I will inevitably end up selecting B.

In Olive's defense, the man didn't seem to mind the kiss too much.

It did take him a moment to adjust-perfectly understandable, given the sudden circumstances. It was an awkward, uncomfortable, somewhat painful minute, in which Olive was simultaneously smashing her lips against his and pushing herself as high as her toes would extend to keep her mouth at the same level as his face. Did he have to be so tall? The kiss must have looked like some clumsy headbutt, and she grew anxious that she was not going to be able to pull the whole thing off. Her friend Anh, whom Olive had spotted coming her way a few seconds ago, was going to take one look at this and know at once that Olive and Kiss Dude couldn't possibly be two people in the middle of a date.

Then that agonizingly slow moment went by, and the kiss became . . . different. The man inhaled sharply and inclined his head a tiny bit, making Olive feel less like a squirrel monkey climbing a baobab tree, and his hands-which were large and pleasantly warm in the AC of the hallway-closed around her waist. They slid up a few inches, coming to wrap around Olive's rib cage and holding her to himself. Not too close, and not too far.

It was more of a prolonged peck than anything, but it was quite nice, and for the life span of a few seconds Olive forgot a large number of things, including the fact that she was pressed against a random, unknown dude. That she'd barely had the time to whisper "Can I please kiss you?" before locking lips with him. That what had originally driven her to put on this entire show was the hope of fooling Anh, her best friend in the whole world.

But a good kiss will do that: make a girl forget herself for a while. Olive found herself melting into a broad, solid chest that showed absolutely no give. Her hands traveled from a defined jaw into surprisingly thick and soft hair, and then-then she heard herself sigh, as if already out of breath, and that's when it hit her like a brick on the head, the realization that- No. No.

Nope, nope, no.

She should not be enjoying this. Random dude, and all that.

Olive gasped and pushed herself away from him, frantically looking for Anh. In the 11:00 p.m. bluish glow of the biology labs' hallway, her friend was nowhere to be seen. Weird. Olive was sure she had spotted her a few seconds earlier.

Kiss Dude, on the other hand, was standing right in front of her, lips parted, chest rising and a weird light flickering in his eyes, which was exactly when it dawned on her, the enormity of what she had just done. Of who she had just-

Fuck her life.

Fuck. Her. Life.

Because Dr. Adam Carlsen was a known ass.

This fact was not remarkable in and of itself, as in academia every position above the graduate student level (Olive's level, sadly) required some degree of assness in order to be held for any length of time, with tenured faculty at the very peak of the ass pyramid. Dr. Carlsen, though-he was exceptional. At least if the rumors were anything to go by.

He was the reason Olive's roommate, Malcolm, had to completely scrap two research projects and would likely end up graduating a year late; the one who had made Jeremy throw up from anxiety before his qualifying exams; the sole culprit for half the students in the department being forced to postpone their thesis defenses. Joe, who used to be in Olive's cohort and would take her to watch out-of-focus European movies with microscopic subtitles every Thursday night, had been a research assistant in Carlsen's lab, but he'd decided to drop out six months into it for "reasons." It was probably for the best, since most of Carlsen's remaining graduate assistants had perennially shaky hands and often looked like they hadn't slept in a year.

Dr. Carlsen might have been a young academic rock star and biology's wunderkind, but he was also mean and hypercritical, and it was obvious in the way he spoke, in the way he carried himself, that he thought himself the only person doing decent science within the Stanford biology department. Within the entire world, probably. He was a notoriously moody, obnoxious, terrifying dick.

And Olive had just kissed him.

She wasn't sure how long the silence lasted-only that he was the one to break it. He stood in front of Olive, ridiculously intimidating with dark eyes and even darker hair, staring down from who knows how many inches above six feet-he must have been over half a foot taller than she was. He scowled, an expression that she recognized from seeing him attend the departmental seminar, a look that usually preceded him raising his hand to point out some perceived fatal flaw in the speaker's work.

Adam Carlsen. Destroyer of research careers , Olive had once overheard her adviser say.

It's okay. It's fine. Totally fine. She was just going to pretend nothing had happened, nod at him politely, and tiptoe her way out of here. Yes, solid plan.

"Did you . . . Did you just kiss me?" He sounded puzzled, and maybe a little out of breath. His lips were full and plump and . . . God. Kissed. There was simply no way Olive could get away with denying what she had just done.

Still, it was worth a try.

Surprisingly, it seemed to work.

"Ah. Okay, then." Carlsen nodded and turned around, looking vaguely disoriented. He took a couple of steps down the hallway, reached the water fountain-maybe where he'd been headed in the first place.

Olive was starting to believe that she might actually be off the hook when he halted and turned back with a skeptical expression.

"Are you sure?"

"I-" She buried her face in her hands. "It's not the way it looks."

"Okay. I . . . Okay," he repeated slowly. His voice was deep and low and sounded a lot like he was on his way to get ting mad. Like maybe he was already mad. "What's going on here?"

There was simply no way to explain this. Any normal person would have found Olive's situation odd, but Adam Carlsen, who obviously considered empathy a bug and not a feature of humanity, could never understand. She let her hands fall to her sides and took a deep breath.

"I . . . listen, I don't mean to be rude, but this is really none of your business."

He stared at her for a moment, and then he nodded. "Yes. Of course." He must be getting back into his usual groove, because his tone had lost some of its surprise and was back to normal-dry. Laconic. "I'll just go back to my office and begin to work on my Title IX complaint."

Olive exhaled in relief. "Yeah. That would be great, since- Wait. Your what?"

He cocked his head. "Title IX is a federal law that protects against sexual misconduct within academic settings-"

"I know what Title IX is."

"I see. So you willfully chose to disregard it."

"I- What? No. No, I didn't!"

He shrugged. "I must be mistaken, then. Someone else must have assaulted me."

"Assault-I didn't 'assault' you."

"You did kiss me."

"But not really ."

"Without first securing my consent."

"I asked if I could kiss you!"

"And then did so without waiting for my response."

"What? You said yes."

"Excuse me?"

She frowned. "I asked if I could kiss you, and you said yes."

"Incorrect. You asked if you could kiss me and I snorted."

"I'm pretty sure I heard you said yes."

He lifted one eyebrow, and for a minute Olive let herself daydream of drowning someone. Dr. Carlsen. Herself. Both sounded like great options.

"Listen, I'm really sorry. It was a weird situation. Can we just forget that this happened?"

He studied her for a long moment, his angular face serious and something else, something that she couldn't quite decipher because she was too busy noticing all over again how damn towering and broad he was. Just massive. Olive had always been slight, just this side of too slender, but girls who are five eight rarely felt diminutive. At least until they found themselves standing next to Adam Carlsen. She'd known that he was tall, of course, from seeing him around the department or walking across campus, from sharing the elevator with him, but they'd never interacted. Never been this close.

Except for a second ago, Olive. When you almost put your tongue in his-

"Is something wrong?" He sounded almost concerned.

"What? No. No, there isn't."

"Because," he continued calmly, "kissing a stranger at midnight in a science lab might be a sign that there is."

"There isn't."

Carlsen nodded, thoughtful. "Very well. Expect mail in the next few days, then." He began to walk past her, and she turned to yell after him.

"You didn't even ask my name!"

"I'm sure anyone could figure it out, since you must have swiped your badge to get in the labs area after hours. Have a good night."

"Wait!" She leaned forward and stopped him with a hand on his wrist. He paused immediately, even though it was obvious that it would take him no effort to free himself, and stared pointedly at the spot where her fingers had wrapped around his skin-right below a wristwatch that probably cost half her yearly graduate salary. Or all of it.

She let go of him at once and took one step back. "Sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"The kiss. Explain."

Olive bit into her lower lip. She had truly screwed herself over. She had to tell him, now. "Anh Pham." She looked around to make sure Anh was really gone. "The girl who was passing by. She's a graduate student in the biology department."

Carlsen gave no indication of knowing who Anh was.

"Anh has . . ." Olive pushed a strand of brown hair behind her ear. This was where the story became embarrassing. Complicated, and a little juvenile sounding. "I was seeing this guy in the department. Jeremy Langley, he has red hair and works with Dr. . . . Anyway, we went out just a couple of times, and then I brought him to Anh's birthday party, and they just sort of hit it off and-"

Olive shut her eyes. Which was probably a bad idea, because now she could see it painted on her lids, how her best friend and her date had bantered in that bowling alley, as if they'd known each other their whole lives; the never-exhausted topics of conversation, the laughter, and then, at the end of the night, Jeremy following Anh's every move with his gaze. It had been painfully clear who he was interested in. Olive waved a hand and tried for a smile.

"Long story short, after Jeremy and I ended things he asked Anh out. She said no because of . . . girl code and all that, but I can tell that she really likes him. She's afraid to hurt my feelings, and no matter how many times I told her it was fine she wouldn't believe me."

Not to mention that the other day I overheard her confess to our friend Malcolm that she thought Jeremy was awesome, but she could never betray me by going out with him, and she sounded so dejected. Disappointed and insecure, not at all like the spunky, larger-than-life Anh I am used to.

"So I just lied and told her that I was already dating someone else. Because she's one of my closest friends and I'd never seen her like a guy this much and I want her to have the good things she deserves and I'm positive that she would do the same for me and-" Olive realized that she was rambling and that Carlsen couldn't have cared less. She stopped and swallowed, even though her mouth felt dry. "Tonight. I told her I'd be on a date tonight ."

"Ah." His expression was unreadable.

"But I'm not. So I decided to come in to work on an experiment, but Anh showed up, too. She wasn't supposed to be here. But she was. Coming this way. And I panicked-well." Olive wiped a hand down her face. "I didn't really think."

Carlsen didn't say anything, but it was there in his eyes that he was thinking. Obviously.

"I just needed her to believe that I was on a date."

He nodded. "So you kissed the first person you saw in the hallway. Perfectly logical."

Olive winced. "When you put it like that, perhaps it wasn't my best moment."

"But it wasn't my worst, either! I'm pretty sure Anh saw us. Now she'll think that I was on a date with you and she'll hopefully feel free to go out with Jeremy and-" She shook her head. "Listen. I'm so, so sorry about the kiss."

"Please, don't report me. I really thought I heard you say yes. I promise I didn't mean to . . ."

Suddenly, the enormity of what she had just done fully dawned on her. She had just kissed a random guy, a guy who happened to be the most notoriously unpleasant faculty member in the biology department. She'd misunderstood a snort for consent, she'd basically attacked him in the hallway, and now he was staring at her in that odd, pensive way, so large and focused and close to her, and . . .

Maybe it was the late night. Maybe it was that her last coffee had been sixteen hours ago. Maybe it was Adam Carlsen looking down at her, like that. All of a sudden, this entire situation was just too much.

"Actually, you're absolutely right. And I am so sorry. If you felt in any way harassed by me, you really should report me, because it's only fair. It was a horrible thing to do, though I really didn't want to . . . Not that my intentions matter; it's more like your perception of . . ."

Crap, crap, crap.

"I'm going to leave now, okay? Thank you, and . . . I am so, so, so sorry." Olive spun around on her heels and ran away down the hallway.

"Olive," she heard him call after her. "Olive, wait-"

She didn't stop. She sprinted down the stairs to the first floor and then out the building and across the pathways of the sparsely lit Stanford campus, running past a girl walking her dog and a group of students laughing in front of the library. She continued until she was standing in front of her apartment's door, stopping only to unlock it, making a beeline for her room in the hope of avoiding her roommate and whoever he might have brought home tonight. It wasn’t until she slumped on her bed, staring at the glow‑in‑the- dark stars glued to her ceiling, that she realized that she had neglected to check on her lab mice. She had also left her laptop on her bench and her sweatshirt somewhere in the lab, and she had completely forgotten to stop at the store and buy the coffee she’d promised Malcolm she’d get for tomorrow morning. Shit. What a disaster of a day. It never occurred to Olive that Dr. Adam Carlsen— known ass— had called her by her name.

Product details

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08T6XN4FP
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Berkley (September 14, 2021)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 14, 2021
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 3306 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 383 pages
• Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1408725762
• #31 in Workplace Romance eBooks
• #43 in Workplace Romance
• #320 in Romantic Comedy (Kindle Store)

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About the author

Ali hazelwood.

Ali Hazelwood is a multi-published author—alas, of peer-reviewed articles about brain science, in which no one makes out and the ever after is not always happy. Originally from Italy, she lived in Germany and Japan before moving to the U.S. to pursue a Ph.D. in neuroscience. She recently became a professor, which absolutely terrifies her. When Ali is not at work, she can be found running, crocheting, eating cake pops, or watching sci-fi movies with her two feline overlords (and her slightly-less-feline husband).

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The Love Hypothesis

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The love hypothesis.

Now see Adam pine for Olive in a special bonus chapter!

The Instant New York Times Bestseller and TikTok Sensation!

As seen on THE VIEW!

A BuzzFeed Best Summer Read of 2021

When a fake relationship between scientists meets the irresistible force of attraction, it throws one woman’s carefully calculated theories on love into chaos.

As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn’t believe in lasting romantic relationships - but her best friend does, and that’s what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.

That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor - and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford’s reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive’s career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding...six-pack abs.

Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.

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The Love Hypothesis

Quick recap & summary by chapter.

The Quick Recap and Chapter-by-Chapter Summary for The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood are below.

Quick(-ish) Recap

Three years prior, Olive Smith talks to a guy when she's in the bathroom fixing her contacts (and can't see) after her Ph.D. candidate interview. She tells him about her passion for her research. She doesn't catch his name but remembers the conversation distinctly and wonders about the guy she met.

In present day, Olive is a biology Ph.D. student researching early detection methods for pancreatic cancer. She kisses a guy randomly in order to trick her best friend into thinking she's dating someone (so that her best friend Anh won't feel bad about dating Olive's ex). That guy turns out to be Dr. Adam Carlson , a young, handsome and highly-respected tenured faculty member in her department. He's also known for being hypercritical and moody.

Meanwhile, Adam's department chair is worried that he's planning on leaving for another university and has frozen some of his research funds. So, Adam he agrees to pretend to be in a relationship with Olive in order to give the impression he's putting down "roots" here, in hopes they will unfreeze the funds.

As Olive and Adam fake-date, they get to know each other. Olive sees that Adam is demanding and blunt towards his students, but not unkind or mean. Olive confides in him about her mother getting pancreatic cancer, which is why she's doing her research.

Olive soon realizes that she has feelings for Adam, but she's afraid to tell him. When he overhears her talking about a crush, she pretends it's about someone else. Olive also hears someone else refer to a woman Adam's been pining after for years and is surprised at how jealous she feels.

In the meantime, Olive needs more lab space and has been talking to Dr. Tom Benton for a spot at his lab at Harvard. When Tom arrives in town, it turns out he's friends with Adam. Adam and Tom are friends from grad school, and they have recently gotten a large grant for some joint research that Adam is excited about. After Olive completes a report on her research for Tom, he offers her a spot in his lab for the next year.

Olive and Adam's relationship continues to progress until they attend a science conference in Boston. Olive's research has been selected for a panel presentation, while Adam is a keynote speaker. There, Olive is sexually harassed by Tom, who makes advances on her. When she rejects him, he accuses her of someone who sleeps around to get ahead. He also says that he'll deny it if she tells anyone and that they won't believe her.

While Olive does finally sleep with Adam at the conference, she soon tearfully breaks things off since she doesn't want to complicate things with Adam's joint research project with Tom. Adam is also in the process of applying for a spot at Harvard.

Olive is certain no one will believe her about Tom until she realizes that the accidentally recorded the conversation where he made advances and threatened her. Meanwhile, Olive's roommate Malcolm has started seeing Dr. Holden Rodriguez, a faculty member who is a childhood friend of Adam's. Olive and Malcolm turn to Holden for advice, who encourages them to tell Adam about the recording. He points out that he thinks the main reason that Adam is considering a move to Harvard is because Olive is supposed to be going there.

Olive finds Adam and shows him the video. He is incensed at Tom and reports it to their faculty. When Adam returns from Boston, he reports that Tom has been fired. Meanwhile, Olive has been reaching out to other cancer researchers for spots at other labs, and she's gotten promising responses. Olive tells Adam that she loves him and that she never liked anyone else. Adam admits that he remembered her from the day he met her in the bathroom and that she's the one he's been interested in for years.

Ten months later at the anniversary of their first kiss, Olive and Adam re-create the kiss to mark their anniversary.

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Chapter-by-Chapter Summary

Olive Smith is an applicant for Stanford’s biology Ph.D program. After the interview with Dr. Aysegul Aslan , she ends up in a bathroom nearby unable to see and trying to wash out her eyes because she put in expired contacts.

She meets “The Guy” there, who she assumes is a Ph.D student there. As they strike up a conversation, she tells him that her name is Olive and talks about why she’s applying to the program. She tells him that she wants to do it in order to research a specific topic.

A few weeks later, Olive is accepted into the program.

Years later, Olive is now 26 and a Ph.D. student in Dr. Aslan’s lab. Olive has just kissed a random stranger (in order to trick her best friend, Anh , into thinking she’s on a date) — only to realize that the “stranger” is actually Dr. Adam Carlson , a 34-year-old tenured and highly-respected professor in her program with a reputation for being notorious moody, mean and hypercritical.

After they pull away, Adam accuses her of assaulting him. Olive insists she asked him and he said yes, but he says he merely snorted. Finally, she explains that her friend Anh had hit it off with a guy she’d been dating, Jeremy. Olive broke things off with Jeremy, but Anh felt too bad to go out with Jeremy. To make Anh feel better about it, Olive lied to Anh about dating someone and being on a date tonight. When Anh showed up at the lab, Olive needed to kiss someone so Anh would believe she was on a date.

Finally, Olive apologizes and leaves. She doesn’t notice that Adam had called her by her name (which she hadn’t brought up in this conversation).

A few days later, Olive is still embarrassed by what happened. However, she figures that she’d never crossed paths with Adam before then, so perhaps she wouldn’t cross paths with him again. Meanwhile, Olive is preoccupied with needing to find more lab space for her research on early detection of pancreatic cancer. Today, she also finds out Tom Benton , a well-known cancer researcher and an associate professor at Harvard, is interested in potentially allowing her to carry out her research at his lab at Harvard. He’s going to be in town in two weeks and wants to meet with her.

When Anh sees her, she confronts Olive about kissing Adam Carlson. Olive thinks back to how they met since they were the only two non-cis-white-male students in their class. Beyond that, Anh was her biggest support and best friend.

Today, Anh demands to know why Olive is dating Dr. Carlson. This conversation is interrupted when Adam walks in. He plays along and pretends that he and Olive are together. After they make formal introductions, he tells her to call him Adam, in case her friend Anh is around. Later, when Olive talks to Anh again, Olive continues to pretend she’s dating Adam, and she once again encourages Anh to date Jeremy.

On campus, Olive starts to notice that people are treating her differently and with some level of curiosity. When her roommate, Malcom , demands to know why she didn’t tell him about dating Dr. Carlson, Olive realize that everyone know about her lie. Olive goes to Adam’s lab to tell him what’s going on, and she apologizes to him for it.

Olive notes that he seems very at ease with everyone believing that they’re dating, and she wonders why. Finally, he admits that Stanford considers him to be a “flight risk” (that he wants to leave them for another institution) and that they’ve frozen some of his research funds because of it. Part of the issue is that he’s recently gotten a large grant with one of his collaborator’s at another institution, and the department is worried he’s planning on moving there. He hopes that the dating rumors will make them think he’s more likely to stick around since he’s dating someone here.

A few days later, Olive goes to Adam’s office and tells him she wants to proceed with pretending that they’re dating. Olive notices that she’s been treated much better by everyone since the rumor started. (Apart from Malcom, who dislikes Adam Carlson, and has been shunning her.) Adam explains that he’s looked into it and there’s no issue with it, though he can’t serve in any supervisory capacity for her or serve on her thesis committee or be a part of any decisions if she’s nominated for a fellowship or other awards.

They decide to set some ground rules for their fake-dating arrangement. They decide to be fake-dating while on-campus only, so no personal engagements. Olive stipulates that there’ll be no sex. They also agree not to date others in the interim, since it will make things messy. And they agree that they should get coffee or something regularly to make things believable.

They plan to continue their fake-dating until September 29, roughly a month from now, which is the day after the department’s budget review. Their first coffee “date” is planned for Wednesday at 10 AM.

Later, Olive talks to Malcom, who is still upset with her. Malcom comes from a long line of well-known scientists, and he dislikes that Adam Carlson’s criticism of his research had made his life so difficult. Olive confides in Malcom that they’re merely fake-dating and that she barely knows Adam. She says that he’s just helping her out with the Anh/Jeremy situation (and she doesn’t mention Adam’s reasons for participating).

On Wednesday, Olive and Adam have their first fake-date at the coffee house. They ask each other some basic questions, and Adam pays for her order.

The next week, they meet up again, though Olive is running late since she was getting ready for a meeting she has with Tom Benton later that day. Meanwhile, Adam is a little moody because his department chair has still not agreed to release his research funds. They discuss attending the fall biosciences picnic together so that his department chair can see that they’re together.

They’re interrupted when a friend of Adam’s walks in and greets him warmly. Adam introduces the man to Olive as his friend and collaborator — who turns out to be Tom Benton.

Dr. Benton reveals that he’s heard about Adam’s romantic exploits all the way at Harvard, and he’s surprised to hear the rumors about Adam’s new girlfriend being true. Olive also awkwardly tells Dr. Benton that they have a meeting planned for later that day. Tom is delighted to find out that his meeting is with Adam’s new girlfriend.

The three of them sit down to chat. As Tom asks her about her research, Adam rephrases it to help Olive organize her thoughts when he sees that she’s struggling to come up with an answer. Olive then tells Tom about her research on biomarkers in order to more easily and cheaply diagnose pancreatic cancer. As Tom inquires about her reasons for doing her research, Olive reluctantly admits that it’s because her mother had pancreatic cancer.

Finally, Tom asks Olive to spend two weeks writing up a report on the current state of her research. He says that he’ll make a determination of whether to give her the lab space and cover her research expenses depending on what he reads in that report.

When Tom steps away, Olive and Adam discuss that if she decides to go to Harvard then she needs to keep it a secret until the end of their arrangement, otherwise it’ll make Adam look worse. They also agree not to tell Tom that they’re only fake-dating.

The next day, Olive attends a well-attended talk that Tom is giving on campus. The auditorium is so packed that there’s no space anywhere. Anh convinces Olive to sit in Adam’s lap for the duration of the talk.

Afterwards, Olive and Anh head back to the biology building. Olive talks about the report she’s preparing for Tom and the presentation she needs to work on for a conference (the “SBD Conference”) coming up in Boston. Meanwhile, Anh is working on organizing an outreach event for BIPOC women in STEM for the conference.

As they walk back, they see that there’s a traffic jam involving a stopped car blocking an exit. Then they see Cherie , the department secretary, talking to Adam. Adam then proceeds to physically push a car out of the way to relieve the jam. Anh encourages Olive to go over and give him a kiss for his efforts. After some awkward negotiation with Adam, they kiss.

Olive is working on her report for Tom when Greg Cohen , one of Dr. Aslan’s other Ph.D. candidates, barges in, clearly agitated. Chase , another one of their lab mates, walks in uneasily after him. When Olive asks Greg what’s wrong, he angrily responds that Carlson is on his dissertation committee and he failed his proposal. They ask Olive whether she knew he was going to fail Greg, and Olive insists she didn’t know. Greg then yells at Olive and calls her selfish for not caring how Adam makes everyone’s lives miserable. Greg then storms off.

Later that day, Olive texts Adam. She asks him about failing Greg. She argues that he should be nicer, but Adam is unapologetic. He insists that his job is to make sure that students produce useful research. Olive gets frustrated texts profanity at him, and he doesn’t respond.

A few days later, Olive is on her way to the biosciences picnic, where she’ll be seeing Adam after their tense exchange. She, Anh, Jeremy and Malcom go together and are quite late. When they arrive, they see Adam playing Ultimate Frisbee shirtless, showing off his six-pack. Olive is surprised to find herself “viscerally attracted” to Adam.

As they put on sunscreen, Anh gives Olive way too much sunscreen. Meanwhile, the frisbee from the game lands near her. When Adam comes over to retrieve the frisbee, Anh offers Olive’s excess sunscreen to Adam. He accepts, and Olive rubs the sunscreen on him. Olive also apologizes for what she texted him the other day.

Tom then comes over and brings up that Adam will be going to Boston soon for a few days.

Olive is in the break room at night when she runs into Adam next. Olive is working on her report for Tom, but there’s a section she’s having trouble with since her lab equipment seems to be messing up. They chat and share snacks. Olive finds herself wondering why he’s single.

Olive also finds herself telling him about her mother and her death. She describes how, when she was 15, her mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer too late and only had a few weeks left to live by then. Olive also says that her father was never in the picture and her grandparents were deceased, so she was sent into the foster system until she was emancipated at 16.

When she mentions needing to get back to work, Adam offers to let her use his lab equipment if she needs it. He also gives her some advice on the Western blot she’s working with to make sure she’s doing it correctly. Before Olive leaves, she asks Adam why he’s single, but before he can really answer, Jeremy walks in and interrupts them.

On Saturday, Olive sends in her report to Tom. He responds by asking her to meet to talk about it at Adam’s house (where he’s staying) on Tuesday before he leaves for Boston. At Adam’s house, she and Tom chat about her report for about 20 minutes. Before she leaves, Tom offers her a spot at Harvard for the next year, and Olive is thrilled.

Adam gives her a ride back to campus. He talks about how excited he is about the research he and Tom are working on. As they chat, Adam says something that The Guy she’d met in the bathroom all those years ago had said to her. Olive realizes then that Adam was The Guy she’d met. She marvels at how she’d wondered about The Guy for years. Olive then suggests that go celebrate her lab spot and him and Tom’s grant.

They agree to get coffee. Before then, she convinces him to go with her to get flu shots at the setup on campus, all the while she teases him for his fear of needles.

On Wednesday, Olive and Adam are texting and teasing each other when Anh comes in and comments on how in love with Adam she is. Anh says that she feels better about dating Jeremy, since she sees how much Olive likes Adam. As Anh leaves, it dawns on Olive that Anh is right.

Olive soon texts Malcolm asking to talk. When they get together, she tells him about how she thinks she’s fallen for Adam. She also tells him that she thinks that Adam was The Guy that she met all those years ago. Malcolm suggests that perhaps Adam feels the same way. Olive doesn’t think that’s the case, but moreover, she says scared of being vulnerable and possibly giving up the friendship she and Adam currently have if she’s wrong. Olive also says that everyone she cares about ends up leaving her — citing her mother, father and grandparents.

Olive says she’s certain she doesn’t want to say anything to Adam about her feelings — but then she turns around and sees Adam standing there.

When Adam acknowledges that he overheard her, Olive quickly lies and said she was talking about some other guy she has a crush on. Their conversation is interrupted by Dr. Holden Rodriguez , who is going to Boston with Tom and Adam. Dr. Rodriguez knows Olive since he was on her graduate advisory committee her first year.

As they talk, Holden explains that he and Adam are old friends. They grew up together because their parents were all diplomats. Holden tells Olive about how his boyfriend dumped him just before prom, so Adam went as his date instead.

After Holden leaves, Adam comments that Holden speaks highly of Olive and her research. Adam also explains a comment Holden made about Tom, saying that the two don’t really get along. He then tells Olive that she should just tell Jeremy how she feels, incorrectly assuming that the mystery crush Olive was referring to is Jeremy.

Malcolm continues trying to convince Olive to admit her feelings to Adam, but Olive refuses. With Adam out of town, she feels his absence. When Adam finally texts her on Sunday, she feels even worse about her stupid lie about liking someone else.

On campus, she runs into Holden, who mentions how glad he is that Adam and Olive got together. Holden days that Adam had talked about someone he wanted to ask out for years, and he’s glad Adam finally did it. When he says that, Olive thinks about how there must be someone else out there that Adam likes, then, since they only really met a couple weeks ago.

Holden also warns her to watch out when it comes to Tom and to watch Adam’s back, since he doesn’t trust Tom.

A little later, Olive is informed that her research has been accepted for the SBD conference as a panel presentation with faculty. Olive feels overwhelmed, since graduate students very rarely are selected for oral presentations. She goes to her advisor, Dr. Aslan, and explains that she’s terrible at talking. Of course, Dr. Aslan just gives her some encouragement and tells Olive she’ll help her practice her presentation.

Afterwards, Olive tells Malcom and Anh, who also volunteer to help her practice. They also mention, however, that they each got invited to stay with people in Boston for the conference (Anh with Jeremy and Malcolm with some friends who had a spare room), so they won’t be rooming with Olive. Anh says she figured Olive would stay with Adam.

Olive is trying to sort out some living arrangements for Boston when Adam, who is back in town now, comes up to her. She tells him about having trouble finding accommodations in Boston. Adam comments that there’s probably not anything left in the vicinity by now, but she could stay in his room at the conference center. He adds that he has the room for the whole conference, but he will only be using the room two nights, so they’ll only overlap for one night most likely.

When she tells him about her presentation, he offers to look over her slides. She also invites him to her talk, and she thinks about how one of the reasons she likes him is that she always feels like he’s on her side.

At the hotel in Boston, Olive takes the empty bed, and she rehearses the talk she’s about to give in a few hours. When Adam arrives, she thanks him for all the help he gave regarding her presentation.

He asks when her presentation is so he can attend, but it turns out it overlaps with the Keynote speech, which he is giving along with two other people. She offers to show him the recording of it afterwards.

When Olive goes to do her panel presentation, she sees that Tom is on the same panel. She gives her portion of the talk, and it goes well. Malcolm and Anh are there to cheer her on.

Afterwards, the room empties out, and it’s just her and Tom. As they talk, she notices him moving closer until he tries to kiss her. When she pushes him away, he keeps trying. Finally, he says that she’s clearly someone who sleeps around to get ahead, and so they both know she’ll sleep with him, too, for the same reason. He also says that she only got on this panel because someone wanted to kiss-up to Adam Carlson.

He also says that Adam is the reason he accepted Olive into his lab. When Olive threatens to tell Adam about this, he says that Adam won’t believe her word against his. Olive also says she won’t go work in his lab, but Tom says she knows it’s the best option for her, and if she doesn’t then he’ll just replicate her research since he already knows all about it.

When Adam gets back to the hotel, Olive is crying. She tries to pretend nothing is wrong, but fails at it. Finally, she lies and tells him that she’s upset because she overheard someone saying that her research was “derivative” and that she was only chosen because of Adam.

Adam comforts her, and then he says he has an idea for where they should go instead.

Holding her hand, they walk past all the people at the department social and instead head out to dinner. Adam asks what she wants to eat, and Olive sees an all-you-can-eat sushi place and wants to go.

After dinner, as they head back, Olive’s heels are hurting her, so Adam gamely picks her up and brings her to their room. She then suggests that they watch a movie. Olive goes to grab a quick shower, and Adam offers her a t-shirt since she forgot to pack pajamas.

When Olive’s mind wanders back to being called mediocre (by Tom, though she doesn’t tell Adam that), Adam tells her about how his advisor had once told him he wouldn’t amount to anything because of a mistake he made. He says that he had started preparing applications for law school as a result, since the comment shook his confidence. However, Holden and Tom (who also trained under the same advisor) convinced him to stick with science.

Adam says that later he realized that his advisor was abusive and a bad mentor who created a toxic environment. Comparatively, Adam says that he is critical since he wants students to be better, but it isn’t about belittling them as people or cutting down their self-worth. Adam also says that no one ever reported his advisor’s behavior because he was short-listed for a Nobel Prize, and they didn’t think anyone would listen. Adam also mentions how Tom had helped mediate thing with him and his advisor, so he was grateful to Tom for that.

Adam then tells Olive that the abstracts submitted to SBD go through a blind review process, so they definitely didn’t choose her because of him.

Finally, Olive moves to kiss Adam, but before anything can happen, he stops her. He points out that she’s upset and staying in his room and that the situation feels coercive to him. When Olive says she’s fine, he points out that she said she was in love with someone else and that he doesn’t want to regret this later.

Olive convinces him that she’s fine with the situation, and soon things get intimate.

They have sex.

Afterwards, Olive asks Adam about a book he’s reading. He says it’s in Dutch and that he learned it as a kid. He also says that his parents were busy all the time and that he was mostly raised by au pairs. They then talk more about their childhoods.

As they chat, Adam finally tells Olive that he might be going to Harvard. The reason he’s leaving the conference early is to go interview with them. He thinks that working together with Tom in the same lab would make them much more productive. He also mentions that he could show her around Boston when she’s there.

Olive wakes up to a barrage of texts from Anh and Malcolm. When she finally talks to them, it turns out the Malcolm hooked up with Holden at the department social. Malcolm also says that Holden mentioned that Adam’s funds had been released (though Adam hadn’t mentioned it to Olive).

That night, Olive meets up with Adam. He wants to go out and have dinner, but Olive breaks things off with him, since she doesn’t know what to do about the Tom situation. She thinks that taking herself out of the equation is the best thing for him.

As she starts to leave, they end up kissing, but he pulls away, and she leaves.

Olive spends the next day crying. Then, determined not to send up at Harvard, Olive takes Adam’s advice to reach out to people through her advisor and asks Dr. Aslan to e-mail various people she’d met at the conference to see if they’d be interested in her research.

Dr. Aslan agrees, and also asks to see her speech. As Olive edits the video recording, Malcolm talks about how he went on a first date with Holden, but they ended up running into his entire family (since they are all science junkies who attend science conferences).

As she’s editing, Olive realizes she recorded her upsetting conversation with Tom. Malcolm and Anh hear her listening to it. Once they’ve listened to the whole thing, they insist that Olive needs to tell Adam about it. Finally, Malcolm fills Anh in on what was really going on with Olive and Adam. However, they both agree it’s clear that Olive has feelings for Adam and that Adam would want to know about this. Still, Olive knows how important the collaboration with Tom is to Adam, and she is reluctant to complicate things for him.

They decide to call Holden to ask for advice. Olive asks Holden what he thinks about Adam moving to Boston and working with Tom. Holden says that he doesn’t trust Tom. He says he thinks there was a weird dynamic where Tom was secretly sabotaging Adam during grad school and then defending him. He thinks that Tom likes Adam’s loyalty towards him and having influence over him. Holden also tells them that he thinks Tom and Adam’s collaboration benefits Tom more than Adam. Finally, Holden implies that he thinks the only reason Adam is considering leaving Stanford is because Olive is going to Harvard.

Olive tracks down Adam’s location at a dinner with some Harvard people, including Tom. When he sees her, he gets up and asks what’s wrong. Tom comes over to try to get Adam to sit back down, but Adam insists on talking to Olive. Finally, Olive starts playing the video. Adam grows furious as he realizes what happened. He tells Tom that he’s going to kill him and goes after him, but Olive tells Adam that he’s not worth it.

As the Harvard people demand an explanation, Adam ignores them and kisses Olive. He then tells Olive to send him the recording immediately and then goes to talk to the Harvard people.

A few days later, Olive is back home, and Adam is on his way back to San Francisco. Meanwhile, Olive has received responses from four cancer researchers who are all interested in her research.

When Adam gets back, Holden insists on a double date. Adam reluctantly agrees. When they all sit down, they address the fact that Malcolm still has misgivings about Adam because of Adam’s harsh criticism of his work. Adam tells Malcolm that it wasn’t personal.

As they joke around about pumpkin spiced flavored foods, Holden mentions how Adam has liked Olive for years. Olive corrects him, saying they’ve only been dating for a few weeks, but Holden says that they met three years ago and that he’s liked Olive ever since. Olive then realizes that Adam was definitely the The Guy (from three years ago) and that he did remember her.

After dinner, Olive and Adam head home. Adam tells Olive that Harvard is going to fire Tom and that there will be other disciplinary actions. Olive then tells Adam that she remembered him, too, from all those years ago. But she didn’t piece it together until later, and she admits that she didn’t say anything once she figured it out.

Finally, she tells him that she loves him (in broken Dutch).

Ten months later, it’s the 1-year anniversary of their first kiss. Olive and Adam go to the lab and recreate and their kiss at precisely the same time as last year.

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As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn't believe in lasting romantic relationships--but her best friend does, and that's what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.

That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor--and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford's reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive's career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding...six-pack abs.

Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.

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For Chapter 16, I think it’s important to include the part where Olive comes out to Adam as demisexual. But other than that this is a great summary.

this book is so good i couldn’t put it down. the only i wish is it was both POVS i would of loved to see what adam was thinking during all of this or have his thoughts on when they met each other during the bathroom scene. and i would of loved to see him actually hurting tom for saying that stuff to olive.

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The love hypothesis, common sense media reviewers.

Uneven romance has explicit sex, features women in STEM.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

An author's note explains Title IX and offers webs

You have to be strong and tough to make it in the

Olive and Ahn are good models of women in STEM. Th

Olive reads as White, is from Canada, and is very

An incident of verbal sexual assault with an attem

Other than a few kisses and some romantic tension,

"Bulls--t," "clit," "clusterf--k," "c--k," "d--k,"

A few food and beverage brands, and a couple of en

All characters are adults of legal drinking age in

Parents need to know that Ali Hazelwood's The Love Hypothesis is an adult romance set in the higher levels of academia at Stanford University. Ph.D. candidate Olive starts a fake relationship with a professor in hopes of inspiring her best friend to go for the man she's really interested in. Other than a few…

Educational Value

An author's note explains Title IX and offers websites supporting women and BIPOC women in STEM academic fields. The overall story provides insight into graduate and post-graduate academic life and careers, especially in STEM fields.

Positive Messages

You have to be strong and tough to make it in the academic world, especially in STEM fields. Don't be afraid to speak up when you've been harmed or you learn about something unethical. Your web of lies will eventually come to light, and when it does it may cause more hurt than being truthful from the start would have.

Positive Role Models

Olive and Ahn are good models of women in STEM. They're extremely loyal and supportive of each other, and Anh creates chances to support other women, especially BIPOC women in STEM. Adam is very protective and kind on a personal level toward Olive, but to his students he's harsh, uncompromising, and seems uncaring. Olive makes a grand gesture out of compassion for Anh, and models perseverance in advancing her research and career.

Diverse Representations

Olive reads as White, is from Canada, and is very slim. Adam implies he's Jewish and is very tall and powerfully built. Best friend Anh's family is from Vietnam and she identifies as a woman of color. Roommate Malcolm reads as White, dates men, and enters a romantic relationship with another man. Olive wonders if she's asexual.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

An incident of verbal sexual assault with an attempted kiss and coercion. An excerpt at the end from a future book has sexual harassment and cyberbullying. A man pins another against a wall by the collar and threatens to kill him.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Other than a few kisses and some romantic tension, there's only one sex scene but it's extended, explicit, and meant to arouse. Oral and genital sex, manual stimulation, genital penetration, sucking nipples and genitals, and orgasm are described in detail with some crude words like "clit" and "c--k." Good examples of consent are modeled, and birth control and being "clean" are talked about. A few times adults talk about sex or sex acts like sixty-nining, butt stuff, and getting a "hand job."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"Bulls--t," "clit," "clusterf--k," "c--k," "d--k," "f--k," "f--king," "holy crap," "holy s--t," "pr--k," "s--t," "s--tshow," ass," "assness," "bitch," "bitching," "butt," "crap," "crapfest," "dammit," "Goddamned," "hell," "jackass," "Jesus," "pee," "smart-ass."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

A few food and beverage brands, and a couple of entertainment franchises to establish character and setting.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

All characters are adults of legal drinking age in California, where the story's set. Very little actual drinking is depicted, but there are mentions of past drunkenness, a weekly beer and s'mores night, and taking advantage of free alcohol at academic meetings and conferences.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Ali Hazelwood's The Love Hypothesis is an adult romance set in the higher levels of academia at Stanford University. Ph.D. candidate Olive starts a fake relationship with a professor in hopes of inspiring her best friend to go for the man she's really interested in. Other than a few kisses and some romantic tension, there's only one sex scene but it's extended, explicit, and meant to arouse. Oral and genital sex, manual stimulation, genital penetration, sucking nipples and genitals, and orgasm are described in detail with words like "clit" and "c--k." Main character Olive experiences verbal sexual assault, and an excerpt from another book in the back has sexual harassment and cyberbullying. Strong language includes "c--k," "d--k," "f--k," "pr--k," "s--t," and more. Adults mention past excessive drinking, look forward to free alcohol at university events, and have a weekly "beer and s'mores night." Two characters remember one of them projectile vomiting after eating bad shrimp, but it's not described. Olive is an orphan with no family. Her mother died of pancreatic cancer, so grief and loss are important themes, along with the struggles women still face in STEM-related fields.

Where to Read

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What's the Story?

THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS is about Stanford graduate student Olive, who needs to convince her best friend Anh that it's OK for Anh to date a guy Olive had recently been seeing but wasn't really interested in. So she hatches a plan to "fake date" none other than the Biology department's most prestigious professor, Adam Carlsen, who's also a huge jerk. As Olive and Adam's ruse gets harder and harder to keep up, Olive starts to feel like she wishes their dating wasn't actually fake. Will she be able to untangle her web of lies without ruining everything, for everyone?

Is It Any Good?

This romance set in the lofty world of a prestigious graduate school program has its ups and downs. It's refreshing to see women in STEM represented and important to highlight how much many women struggle in that world. The Love Hypothesis has some funny banter, especially with colorful supporting characters. Readers who enjoy very familiar rom-com tropes will feel at home here, because this story is chock full of them. The one explicit sex scene is easy to skip for those who aren't interested. A big drawback is Olive's truly bad and unrealistic decision making, which strains believability and takes the reader outside the story.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the graphic sex in The Love Hypothesis . Is it over the top? Realistic? Is reading about it different from seeing it in movies, videos, and other media?

What are some concerns about reading or watching explicit sex ? Do you compare yourself or your body to the characters? Does it make you afraid, creepy, or unsure about what sex is like for real people?

What about all the strong language? Is it realistic? Is it a big deal? Why, or why not?

Talk about women studying and working in STEM fields. What are some of the challenges Olive and Ahn face? How do they deal with them? Who supports them? What can men do to make STEM fields more welcoming and inclusive?

Book Details

• Author : Ali Hazelwood
• Genre : Romance
• Topics : STEM , Friendship , Great Girl Role Models
• Character Strengths : Compassion , Perseverance
• Book type : Fiction
• Publisher : Berkley
• Publication date : September 14, 2021
• Publisher's recommended age(s) : 18 - 18
• Number of pages : 400
• Available on : Paperback, Audiobook (unabridged), iBooks, Kindle
• Last updated : April 2, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS

Bonus scene.

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The Love Hypothesis

48 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-8

Chapters 9-11

Chapters 12-13

Chapters 14-15

Chapters 16-19

Chapter 20-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 16-19 Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 16 summary.

Adam rips his shirt off and pulls Olive to him, kissing her and running his hands over her body. The touches spark a range of sensations Olive’s never felt before, making her squirm. Adam tries to slide one finger inside her, but her tightness makes it difficult. She admits to having sex only a few times in college, which makes Adam recoil because she’s practically a virgin. She babbles on about how virginity works, which makes him laugh and draw her in for another kiss. Less flustered, Olive explains that she doesn’t “feel any sexual attraction unless I actually get to trust and like a person” (267), and he’s the first person she’s gotten close enough with to want sex.

Since Olive is inexperienced and tight, Adam starts by giving her oral sex until she orgasms. It takes some more work to get her open enough for intercourse, but once she is, they make fast, desperate love. Adam climaxes while muttering about how long he had wanted this and how he can never let Olive go. Olive climaxes right behind him, shivering with pleasure.

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Helpful Book Guide: The Love Hypothesis Spicy Chapters List and Review

Posted on Published: July 27, 2023  - Last updated: October 23, 2023

Categories Book Guide , Spicy Chapters

What are The Love Hypothesis spicy chapters? Well, this guide is for you! Though this book is not very spicy, it is still my responsibility to squeeze out the spiciest The Love Hypothesis spicy chapters possible for you. It’s also a book I recommend with the ‘who did this to you” trope!

Table of Contents

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

When a fake relationship between scientists meets the irresistible force of attraction, it throws one woman’s carefully calculated theories on love into chaos.

As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn’t believe in lasting romantic relationships–but her best friend does, and that’s what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.

That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor–and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford’s reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive’s career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding…six-pack abs.

Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.

The Love Hypothesis Review

The Love Hypothesis is a captivating and heartwarming romance that delves into the complexities of academia and love. The story revolves around Olive Smith, a dedicated PhD student, and Adam Carlsen, a charming and cocky professor. Both characters are beautifully crafted with depth and vulnerability, making them relatable and endearing to readers.

The romance between Olive and Adam is a slow-burn delight, filled with moments of vulnerability and tenderness that will leave you swooning. Their undeniable chemistry and emotional connection create an engaging and satisfying love story. The witty banter between the two adds a delightful touch to their interactions.

Ali Hazelwood’s writing is both engaging and emotionally resonant, effortlessly drawing readers into the world of academia and scientific research. The novel’s exploration of the characters’ hidden depths and vulnerability adds layers to the story, making it a truly captivating read from beginning to end. “The Love Hypothesis” is a must-read for anyone looking for a heartwarming and well-developed romance that will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page.

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This book was cute to read! Also have the only one bed trope and enemies to lovers (of course).

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Gorgeous, cocky, and fast on his way to becoming a hotshot doctor, Josh Chen has never met a woman he couldn’t charm—except for Jules f**king Ambrose.

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No jealousy.

No strings attached.

And absolutely no falling in love.

Outgoing and ambitious, Jules Ambrose is a former party girl who’s focused on one thing: passing the attorney’s bar exam.

The last thing she needs is to get involved with a doctor who puts the SUFFER in insufferable…no matter how good-looking he is.

But the more she gets to know him, the more she realizes there’s more than meets the eye to the man she’s hated for so long.

Her best friend’s brother.

Her nemesis.

And her only salvation.

Theirs is a match made in hell, and when the demons from their past catch up with them, they’re faced with truths that could either save them …or destroy everything they’ve worked for.

Twisted Hate is a steamy enemies with benefits/enemies to lovers romance. It’s book three in the Twisted series but can be read as a standalone.

Abou t The Fine Print by Lauren Asher

A typical billionaire romance that is quite popular. It’s one of the more famous ones of the genre, especially on Kindle Unlimited.

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project – a literal dream come true – Marie would accept without hesitation. Duh. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward.

Sure, Levi is attractive in a tall, dark, and piercing-eyes kind of way. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school – archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away.

But when her equipment starts to go missing and the staff ignore her, Bee could swear she sees Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas… devouring her with those eyes. The possibilities have all her neurons firing.

But when it comes time to actually make a move and put her heart on the line, there’s only one question that matters: What will Bee Königswasser do?

It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey

Piper Bellinger is fashionable, influential, and her reputation as a wild child means the paparazzi are constantly on her heels. When too much champagne and an out-of-control rooftop party lands Piper in the slammer, her stepfather decides enough is enough. So he cuts her off, and sends Piper and her sister to learn some responsibility running their late father’s dive bar… in Washington.

Piper hasn’t even been in Westport for five minutes when she meets big, bearded sea captain Brendan, who thinks she won’t last a week outside of Beverly Hills. So what if Piper can’t do math, and the idea of sleeping in a shabby apartment with bunk beds gives her hives. How bad could it really be? She’s determined to show her stepfather—and the hot, grumpy local—that she’s more than a pretty face.

Except it’s a small town and everywhere she turns, she bumps into Brendan. The fun-loving socialite and the gruff fisherman are polar opposites, but there’s an undeniable attraction simmering between them. Piper doesn’t want any distractions, especially feelings for a man who sails off into the sunset for weeks at a time.

Yet as she reconnects with her past and begins to feel at home in Westport, Piper starts to wonder if the cold, glamorous life she knew is what she truly wants. LA is calling her name, but Brendan—and this town full of memories—may have already caught her heart. 

Romance between a sunshine fashionable “it” celebrity girl with grumpy sea sailor local. Bright cheerful icon x cold ordinary sailor combo meal.

The Love Hypothesis Spicy Chapters

As many readers may know (especially romance book readers), oftentimes we like to seek out book tropes and read romance books that include the book tropes we usually like and the book tropes we want to read at the moment. It’s what drives a lot of book recommendations and is a common way we seek out books to read. If you are a reader who is interested in:

• Tracking tropes that you have already read
• Tracking tropes that you would want to read in the future
• Collect original trope ideas that you came up with (and haven’t come across before)

Then this book trope reading journal is perfectly made for you!

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