“No, that was amazing. About Holden. He really is insufferable.”
“He grows on you, after a decade or so.”
“Does he?”
“Nah. Not really.”
“Poor Holden.” She huffed out a small laugh. “You weren’t the only one who remembered, by the way.”
He glanced at her. “Remembered what?”
“Our meeting. The one in the bathroom, when I came to interview.”
Olive thought that maybe his step faltered for a split second. Or maybe it didn’t. Still, there was a tinge of uncertainty in the deep breath he took.
“Did you really?”
“Yup. It just took me a while to realize that it was you. Why didn’t you say anything?” She was so curious about what had been going on in Adam’s head in the past few days, weeks, years. She was starting to imagine quite a bit, but some things . . . some things he’d have to clear up for her.
“Because you introduced yourself like we’d never met before.” She thought maybe he was flushing a little. Maybe not. Maybe it was impossible
to tell, in the starless sky and the faint yellow lights. “And I’d been . . . I’d been thinking about you. For years. And I didn’t want to . . .”
She could only imagine. They’d passed each other in the hallways, been at countless department research symposiums and seminars together. She hadn’t thought anything of it, but now . . . now she wondered what he had thought.
He’d been going on and on about this amazing girl for years, but he was concerned about being in the same department, Holden had said.
And Olive had assumed so much. She had been so wrong.
“You didn’t need to lie, you know,” she said, not accusing.
He adjusted the strap of her suitcase on his shoulder. “I didn’t.”
“You sort of did. By omission.”
“True. Are you . . .” He pressed his lips together. “Are you upset?”
“No, not really. It’s really not that bad a lie.”
“It’s not?”
She nibbled on her thumbnail for a moment. “I’ve said much worse, myself. And I didn’t bring up our meeting, either, even after I made the connection.”
“Still, if you feel—”
“I’m not upset,” she said, gentle but final. She looked up at him, willing him to understand. Trying to figure out how to tell him. How to show him. “I am . . . other things.” She smiled. “Glad, for instance. That you remembered me, from that day.”
“You . . .” A pause. “You are very memorable.”
“Ha. I’m not, really. I was no one—part of a huge incoming cohort.” She snorted and looked down to her feet. Her steps had to be much quicker than his to keep up with his longer legs. “I hated my first year. It was so stressful.”
He glanced at her, surprised. “Do you remember your first seminar talk?”
“I do. Why?”
“Your elevator pitch—you called it a turbolift pitch. You put a picture from The Next Generation on your slides.”
“Oh, yes. I did.” She let out a low laugh. “I didn’t know you were a Trekkie.”
“I had a phase. And that year’s picnic, when we got rained on. You were playing freeze tag with someone’s kids for hours. They loved you—they had to physically peel the youngest off you to get him inside the car.”
“Dr. Moss’s kids.” She looked at him curiously. A light breeze rose and ruffled his hair, but he didn’t seem to mind. “I didn’t think you liked kids.
The opposite, actually.”
He lifted one eyebrow. “I don’t like twenty-five-year-olds who act like toddlers. I don’t mind them if they’re actually three.”
Olive smiled. “Adam, the fact that you knew who I was . . . Did it have anything to do with your decision to pretend to date me?”
About a dozen expressions crossed his face as he looked for an answer, and she couldn’t pick apart a single one. “I wanted to help you, Olive.”
“I know. I believe that.” She rubbed her fingers against her mouth. “But was that all?”
He pressed his lips together. Exhaled. Closed his eyes, and for a split second looked like he was having his teeth and his soul pulled out. Then he said, resigned, “No.”
“No,” she repeated, pensive. “This is my place, by the way.” She pointed at the tall brick building on the corner.
“Right.” Adam looked around, studying her street. “Should I carry your bag upstairs?”
