Adam goes away for a few days to work on research with Tom. While he’s gone, Olive spends time with her friends, works, and tries to forget about her emotions. Anh and Olive get together for beer and smores, and Anh lays out her plans for the future. Despite all the struggles, she wants to stay in academia and carve out a place for women while Jeremy goes into industry and makes better money. Olive feels both proud and a little jealous that Anh is figuring out her life, which gives her a pang in her stomach “in that spot that seemed to feel Adam’s absence most acutely” (191).

A couple of days later, Adam texts Olive a picture of a pumpkin drink at a coffee shop, which makes her happy until she remembers the lies that she told him. Later, she runs into Holden, who asks if she’s been talking to Adam. When she says they’ve been texting, he nods knowingly and explains how Adam’s gotten much less sullen since they started dating. He’s glad Adam finally asked her out because he’d been “going on and on about this ‘amazing girl’ for years” but never did anything about it (194).