Olive drifts off for about a half hour. When she wakes, Adam offers her a glass of water, and Olive takes it, feeling a bit awkward. She wonders if Adam wants space after sex and suggests moving to the other bed. Adam shakes his head “no” with “an intensity that suggested that he didn’t want her to go, not anywhere, not ever” (277). Olive brings him to orgasm with oral sex, and they manage to get a little sleep.

Later, Olive and Adam share stories from their childhoods. As the child of busy parents, Adam basically grew up alone, and Olive had her mother as company until she died from the cancer. Olive misses snow. Adam reassures her there will be snow in Boston and offers to show her hiking trails. Olive argues he’ll be in California, and Adam is quiet for too long, tipping Olive off that the reason he won’t be at the conference hotel this week is because he’s interviewing at Harvard for a job. Olive feels her heart breaking at the idea of Adam moving to Boston now that she’s decided not to join Tom’s lab. She curls up against him. She’s determined not to sleep at all because this will be “their perfect night. And their last” (290).

The next morning, Adam is gone, and Olive wakes to over 100 missed text messages from Anh and Malcolm. They come to her room and tell her Malcolm hooked up with Holden, which Malcolm is thrilled about. They wonder if Olive and Adam celebrated last night because Adam’s funds were released, which stops Olive short. She realizes today is September 29 and makes plans to see Adam that night to break things off with him for good.

Olive goes to Adam’s new hotel. After talking about Malcolm, the conversation gets around to Olive’s reason for seeing Adam. Though it kills her inside, she ends things, not mentioning Tom or any of the real reasons for needing their relationship to end. They kiss a final time, both barely able to pull away. Finally, Olive leaves, and the door closing behind her feels “like falling from a great height” (305).

Olive spends the following day in her room, alternatively crying and sleeping. The day after, she’s numb to everything and comes to terms with her situation. She’s sad but feels she did the right thing for Adam. She can let that decision lie but refuses to let “Tom Fucking Benton take credit for a project she had worked on for years” (307). She asks Dr. Aslan to follow up with other cancer researchers and educates herself about plagiarism and ethics, forming a plan to make sure her work is credited to her.

Halfway through day two, Anh and Malcolm come to Olive’s hotel room. They want to do something together. Olive reluctantly agrees, but she first needs to send Dr. Aslan an email with her list of researchers and lecture recording. She accidentally left her phone on record for hours after her talk and works on cutting it while Anh and Malcolm talk about his date with Holden. In the middle of Malcolm’s retelling, the recording plays part of Tom’s insults. Concerned, Anh and Malcolm ask what happened, but Olive only bursts into tears.

When she stops, she goes into the bathroom while Malcolm and Anh listen to the recording. Anh is adamant Olive needs to tell Adam and report Tom. Olive hesitates, prompting Anh to insist, and the entire fake-dating story comes out. Anh understands and appreciates everything Olive did for her happiness, but she still insists Olive do something about Tom. The group decides to ask Holden for advice about what to do and how to handle the situation with Adam. 

Holden doesn’t really hate Tom. Rather, he’s suspicious because of the pattern of abuse in grad school. It always seemed like Tom would report Adam’s mistakes to their advisor, who would then belittle Adam, and Tom would step in at the precise moment to defend Adam’s actions. Holden presented the coincidences to Adam, who shrugged them off because he was loyal to Tom. Olive asks Holden if he would tell Adam about Tom if he had proof of how Tom really is. Holden replies with three things for Olive to consider: use good science and consider all evidence; Tom is replaceable on the research he and Adam are doing; Adam only agreed to interview at Harvard after Olive decided to work there. With this, Holden leaves, telling Olive to “make of that what [she] will” (320).