Chapter 17

I’d never been one to work on my research with anyone else, unless I had to for some reason. I preferred to work alone, without the chatter of another person filling my ear. One time, when Sophie and I had first started dating, I’d brought her to the lab to see me work, but it had ended in a fight on the way home.

You ignored me the entire time! she’d accused.

I was working!

I should’ve known at that point that things between us weren’t going to work out. Sophie needed more from me than I could give her. She wanted the kind of undivided attention that simply wasn’t possible from someone like me.

Sophie had never understood why I’d found biofuels more interesting than her. I’d tried on more than one occasion to explain exactly what my research entailed, but she’d yawned and told me she had no idea what I was talking about.

How had we dated for so long? I thought to myself. We were obviously incompatible.

After Sophie had thrown her engagement ring in my face, she’d started dating