Page 83 of Lessons in Chemistry

“When I was seven, I decided I wanted to be left-handed. I’ve been to a charity ball at The Berkeley in Knightsbridge, and I got selected for Crystal Palace’s junior football squad but turned it down.”

Emory tilts his head. His concentration face is back. He’s so adorable.

“The third one is the lie,” he says.

“Correct. I hate football.”

“How can you decide to be left-handed?”

“You can’t, but I was seven, so what did I know? I thought it would be cool to be left-handed. I spent a week writing with my left hand, but then one of my teachers called my parents, and they yelled at me about it. Or rather, Dad did. Mum was out of the country. And he yelled at me on the phone. He was too busy to come to the boarding school because of something like messy handwriting.”

Emory squeezes my knee. “I’m sorry.”

“My parents suck. I’ve come to terms with that. The plus side is that I get to be a spoilt brat.”

Sadness fills Emory’s eyes.

“If you didn’t know, The Berkeley is a posh hotel in London. Dad gets invited to charity stuff quite a bit. It’s one of the perks of owning a highly successful business, I guess. When I was younger, he dragged me to them if they were for family-orientated charities. It made him look good to have a cute, well-behaved kid in tow.”

“You were well behaved?”

“You’re questioning that, but not whether or not I was a cute kid?”

He leans forward. “I can imagine you being a cute kid. Well behaved? Not so much.”

I snort-laugh and then kiss him. “Your reward. Your turn. Take it seriously.”

He folds one arm across his chest, rests his other elbow on it, and taps his chin. “My favourite scientist is Albert Einstein. I’ve never had any pets, and my first celebrity crush was on Zac Efron.”

“High School Musicalguy?”

“You’ve seen it?”

“No, but I can imagine you crushing on him hard, so that’s not the lie. You must love Einstein, so that can’t be a lie either. You’ve never had a pet.”

“Nope. You’re wrong.”

I gape. “You didn’t crush on Zac Efron?”

He laughs. “I did. Hard. My favourite scientist isn’t Einstein.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes. I admire him, but my top spot goes to Alan Turing. He invented the first computer to crack the Enigma Code, but no one knew that until the nineteen seventies because the files were classified. He created the first computer chess programme and is the father of artificial intelligence. Ever watched a sci-fi movie where they talk about the Turing Test?”

I nod.

“And he was gay.” Emory frowns and sighs heavily. “But homosexuality was illegal then. He was arrested in 1952 because he was in a relationship with a man. He was chemically castrated instead of being sent to prison.”

“That’s awful.”

“It’s how it was then. It broke him. He received a pardon years after his death, and now everyone knows how brilliant he was, but it doesn’t make up for it, you know?”

“Yeah.” I stroke the back of his hand. “Yeah. I’m glad we live in different times.”

“Me too.”

“Is that why he’s your favourite scientist? Because he was gay?”