Chapter 2
Throughout my years in academia, I experimented with various formulas, although not a genuine love potion, which always struck me as being too nonconsensual, as if the person who offered it to the object of their affection was stripping them of their free will. So the formulas I worked on were versions of #9. I just wanted someone to have enough confidence to go up to a handsome guy and strike up an intelligent conversation without having it devolve into verbal diarrhea. And I was certain success would be within my grasp in the near future.
I got my bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Harvard at twenty—all those AP classes helped—and during those two years, I used my down time to perfect various formulas. Unfortunately, what they turned out to be were perfect disappointments. H
