When I went to work at Demoiselle International, I knew nothing about perfume or what was involved in the making of it, but I was hard-pressed to pay off the loans for my doctorate and they needed a synthetic chemist, so I took the job.
In the beginning, I thought that making perfume compounds couldn’t be any different than mixing synthetics for any other industry. After all it was still chemistry and chemistry I understood. It was simple and straightforward, everything had a value and for the most part a predictable outcome. That is until I started working on Compound X14, which ultimately changed everything I knew about chemistry and everything I thought I knew about myself.
I had always been the kind of woman who oozed brain cells rather than sex appeal when I walked into a room. Though I wasn’t ugly, my face certainly wouldn’t stop traffic unless it had accidentally become imbedded in the grill of someone’s car.
Overall, I wasn’t anything special. Still single and unattached to anyone at twenty-eight, I can honestly say I never really pined for the white picket fence and wedding ring. I was content being invisible and unwanted by those around me. I truly believed that relationships were just too volatile and complex. So I stuck with what I knew best…chemistry. That was the case until my little accident.
Excerpt from, 'Pheromone' by Artemis.