Brendon or Brandon

A new secretary now works at Brendon’s office. He walks into the office and notices her, her glares at her, then looks down. He continues to walk to his cubicle. All-day he thinks about her, her body, her black pencil skirt, and gray suit jacket.

Later, he sees her in the break room. She sits alone eating a Caesar salad and he tries to talk to her, but he just sits down at a table far away. He eats his sandwich and watches her. A man from sales asks to sit with her. She lets him.

“Hi, I’m James, but you can call me Jim.”

“I’m Courtney.” They shake hands and continue to eat.

“So, where are you from?” Jim asks.

“Seattle,” Courtney replies.

“You?” Courtney asks.

“I was born and raised here,” Jim responds. Jim finishes his pasta salad and says, “Bye,” to Courtney.

That night, Brendon looks behind him and sees Courtney walking behind him. This is my chance to talk to her, he thinks. But he doesn’t, he just rushes into his apartment building.

A month later, in the morning, Brendon opens his mailbox in the mailroom. He turns his head and glimpses at her. She’s wearing a black dress and he could see every curve and crevice. He quickly grabs his mail and dashes back into the hallway and into his apartment. She lives in my building, I must know more about her, he thinks. He walks outside and crouches down to look into her window. He only sees a TV, a couch, and photographs in frames on the wall in the living room. He sees her walk into her new apartment, put down her mail on the kitchen counter, and walks out of view.

Later, at the office, he sees her on the phone at her desk. He again glances at her luscious body. He can’t stop thinking about her. Attraction soon turns into a crush as he finds out more about her through her conversation with Jim. A crush turns into obsession. He looks into her window every morning and rummages through the dumpster, looking through her garbage.

Months later, he discovers Jim and Courtney are dating. Once he returns home, he destroys his living room in anger. He throws vases on the floor, rips his TV out of the wall and smashes it onto the floor. He throws pictured frames at the wall. He then walks into his closet (his shrine to Courtney with photos of her taped and tacked onto the walls and a lock of her hair hangs from the ceiling). He sits on the floor and cries. I need her, I want her, and I have to be with her. If I can’t ask her out, then I make her love me, he thinks.

Over the next few weeks, he plans and schemes about ways of how to get her.

One morning, he grabs a frying pan and walks over to the mailroom. He looks through the little window in the door and sees her. He opens the door and she looks at him. He lifts the pan over his head and she yells, “Ahhhhhhh! What are you doing?!” He hits her in the head with the frying pan. A bump forms, she collapses onto the floor, and she goes unconscious. He then picks her up and carries her to his apartment. He ties her up to a chair and waits for her to wake up, which took hours.

Once she opens her eyes, he asks her, “Do you love me?”

“Uh…,” she says,

touching the bump on her head. “Answer the question, Courtney!” he yells.

“Do I know you? Brendon or Brandon from the office?” Courtney replies.

“Yes, now, do you love me?” Brendon asks again getting angrier.

“No, I have a boyfriend,” Courtney responds.

“And do you love him?” he questions.

“Of course,” she says. “Well, if I can’t have you, then no one can,” he yells.

He rushes over to his kitchen drawer and grabs a steak knife. He then stabs her in the heart. She bleeds out and he laughs and screams until the cops come to arrest him.