Looking at the sheepish college student sitting up cross legged in bed, you’d never think he was the swarthy, seasoned college professor she’d come here intent to seduce. Now that the pill had worn off for both of them, she had plenty of time to think. Her cheeks turned scarlet as the realization that her big old crush was neither of those things settled in.
“So let me get this straight— Daniel— Mr. Edwards— never existed? It’s always been you, for at least two years now?” Clarissa furrowed her brow, slack jawed.
Edwin shrugged, eyebrows knitted in apology.
“…Yeah, basically. I got an internship at Transversion Labs helping to run some tests on the early versions of the progression pills. You’re lucky you caught me now— wasn’t much to look at when I was accidentally turning 60, ha.” He laughs, but she doesn’t even blink. Edwin clears his throat.
“I had this crazy idea of seeing how far we could push the tech. See how convincing it was and observe the long term effects? I’d be back in school that fall so… With the Lab’s sign off, I applied for an open position here at the college, or rather, Mr. Edwards did. I brought the knowledge and the pill gave me the, er, experience, so to speak. I made sure none of our schedules lined up, classes on different days and all that. And of course, thanks to some hands on genetic coding courtesy of the lab scientists, we look visually distinct enough you can hardly tell we’re the same. I mean, it convinced you!— sorry about that, by the way.”
This couldn’t be! Daniel was so refined, so mature— this very apartment suited tastes that could not possibly belong to Edwin Daniels who hardly looked like he could dress himself! Ugh, it was in his name, so obvious! Clarissa buried her face in her hands— as if changing to pursue an older man wasn’t bad enough, now she had to deal with the social embarrassment of getting completely dilf-fished!
“I can’t believe this— so you just take them daily?”
“More or less. If I take them too often or too close together the effects become unpredictable, or the genes start mixing. A weird episode of heterochromia and dimorphism swore me off not taking a vacation from being the professor. But I mean, you understand why, right? How good it feels to be respected, admired…”
“Lusted after?” She scoffs and laughs.
“Y-yeah,” he admits, embarrassed. “I mean, you probably heard about Mr. Edwards’ ‘reputation’, considering where we met…”
No denying that. Clarissa snatched up the edge of the blanket as if to hide her shame. Edwin cocked his head to the side and sighed.
“So, you probably hate my guts, want to leave, and forget this ever happened, right?”