Outside Starbucks, Tom Benton recognizes Olive as Adam’s alleged girlfriend and, surprised, connects her to their scheduled meeting. He invites Olive and Adam inside for an immediate discussion about her project. Adam reluctantly joins, and the three sit together, with campus gossip about Adam’s new girlfriend clearly having spread to Harvard.

When Tom asks what’s “cool” about her work, Olive freezes. Adam reframes the questions into concrete research prompts, helping Olive explain her blood-based biomarkers for early pancreatic cancer detection. Tom pushes on her motivation; Olive reveals her mother died of cancer, and Adam intervenes to stop further prying, adopting a protective stance.

Impressed by the project’s promise, Tom proposes terms: if Olive submits a comprehensive report in two weeks detailing protocols, findings, and challenges, he will consider fully supporting her for a year in his Harvard lab. He mentions his talk the next day and that he’s staying with Adam, signaling close collaboration between them.

While Tom gets coffee, Olive and Adam debrief. She worries about favoritism; Adam assures her Tom is blunt and independent. Adam asks Olive to keep any Harvard plans secret until the end of September to avoid jeopardizing his budget review optics. She agrees, and Adam promises to email Tom’s talk details.