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I am a master illusionist.

I reinvented myself the summer before my freshman year of college. Before then, I was the geeky nobody girls ignored and boys made fun of. Last chosen for the baseball team at P.E. Last asked out for Sadie Hawkins dances. Last to be invited to anything. An awkward child at eight, I became the invisible loner at sixteen.

One summer changed all that. I entered into the newly built gym in my hometown of Seattle, Washington and little Eddie Jr. disappeared forever. Three months later, Edward Masen moved into the dormitories of Dartmouth and never looked back. Contact lenses replaced the thick eyeglasses, lean muscle mass camouflaged the lanky limbs I had yet to grow into, and a refurbished motorcycle sat in the parking space my old Buick would never inhabit.

Since no one at Dartmouth knew anything about Eddie Jr., I used college as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become the person I wanted to be. For the first time in my life, men wanted to be my friend, and women, well, they just wanted me. Gifted with a photographic memory, I drank and partied through my undergraduate years and still graduated with honors.

I entered medical school, not out of an altruistic desire to help my fellowman, but because doctors made a fuckload of money. After graduation, I decided to specialize as an OB/GYN. Once a year, I became fantasy fodder for lonely housewives, overworked, underappreciated administrative assistants, and perky young co-eds who flushed crimson under their paper gowns.

Of course, I never had a romantic relationship with any of my patients - that would be inappropriate. Besides, there were plenty of women begging to date a young, single doctor who spent his off hours perfecting g-spot detection. My motto became, "Leave them first. Leave them satisfied. Leave them whatever. Just leave them." I never felt the urge to settle down, to procreate, or to tie myself forever to one woman. Life was a game and I was determined to play hard.

Sometimes, the plan backfired. Which was why I found myself packing up and leaving the woman who will henceforth be known as CPB, or Crazy Psycho Bitch. Leaving town, bound for a new place, a new experience, and, if luck remained, new women.

Twilight Place, the perfect location for a master illusionist who could make anyone believe anything. The only downfall? I could never fool myself.