The Love Hypothesis

Olive Smith is a third-year Ph.D. candidate who trusts in data, not fairy tales—and definitely not in love. Her best friend, however, is a hopeless romantic, which is how Olive finds herself in a spectacularly awkward bind. To convince Anh she’s happily dating, Olive does what any rational scientist would never recommend: she impulsively kisses the first man she sees.

Unfortunately, that man turns out to be Adam Carlsen—Stanford’s brilliant, infamously grumpy young professor. Even more shocking? He agrees to play along and become her “fake boyfriend.” But when a pivotal science conference threatens Olive’s career, Adam steps up in ways she never expected—with unwavering support, disarming kindness, and, inconveniently, those distracting abs.

What started as a harmless experiment in deception soon feels like real chemistry, and Olive realizes the hardest hypothesis to test might be the one about her own heart.