Short Story: I Must Have Her

Edward took out his phone. He had to take a picture of her before she walked off. Once he had it, he crossed the street and joined her at the bus stop.

She gave him a quick smile, and then looked away, waiting for the bus.

He wanted to talk to her, but he was too shy.

The bus arrived, and they both boarded.

‘Lucky I left for the store early today,’ he thought, smiling as he sat alone in his seat, staring at the woman a few rows up, memorizing every detail he could.

As he got off the bus at the stop in front of the grocery store, he gave her a passing glance, but she was looking at something on her phone. Though he was disappointed, he couldn’t blame her, since she didn’t know him yet.

Throughout the whole day, he replayed that smile she had given him over and over through his mind. While at first it had appeared to be just a friendly smile, the more he replayed that moment, the more he focused on her eyes.
Her eyes told the truth. It wasn’t just a friendly smile, it was a ‘come hither’ smile.

He now knew she was interested in him. Even though he was too shy to approach her himself, he also knew that women loved when a man knew everything about her and could impress her with how much they knew.

Since he didn’t know her name, he knew he was going to have to start off the old fashion way. Following her and taking notes.

The next day, as he watched her at the bus stop, he took out a notepad and wrote down what time it was.

‘Looks like she boards at the same time every morning,’ he thought. ‘She must live around the area. I’ll come back later to see where she lives.’

When he figured it must be getting close to the time that she would be arriving home, he walked to the park within sight of the bus stop and his heart skipped a beat when he saw her step off the bus.

He casually got up and walked parallel to her through the park. He got excited when he saw her walk into an apartment complex.

‘I can’t believe I’ve lived this close to an angel and never knew it,’ he thought.

Though he knew where she lived, he wanted to learn everything he could about her.

The following day, he followed her on the bus, and sat a few rows behind her. He wasn’t ready to talk to her yet but wanted to be able to watch her without drawing attention to himself.

A few years prior, he had been in a car accident that left him partially disabled. The settlement allowed him to live a modest lifestyle, never having to work again.

As he watched her, he berated himself for not having thought of meeting women this way sooner. Because of his disability, he found it difficult to go out to bars to meet women. Add the fact that his mother had taught him women that hung out in bars were all whores, he decided that was not the best way to meet a soulmate.

He smiled as he remembered how wise his mother had always been. If it wasn’t for her, he wouldn’t know the first thing about women.

He knew this woman was his soulmate, so he knew that if he wanted to win her over, he would have to be patient.
The bus came to a stop, and he watched as she got up from her seat and made her way off the bus.

He took out his notebook and wrote down the stop she got off at. Tomorrow he would pick up where he left off at this stop.

The next day, he waited close to the bus stop she had gotten off the day before. He pulled out his phone and began snapping pictures as she stepped off the bus.

Fortunately, she began walking away from where he was standing. He didn’t want her to notice him standing there. He wasn’t ready to talk to her, though he knew she would be very happy if she had seen him.

He began to walk after her, snapping pictures every so often. He wanted to capture every detail of her.

She walked into the office building where she worked. He knew he couldn’t follow without drawing attention, so he instead took the time to walk around and sight see.

‘She’s going to be so impressed at how much work I put into getting to know her’, he thought.

He couldn’t wait for the day he was able to tell the story of how he had learned so much about her. He imagined this would be a great love story that they could tell their kids someday.

Now that he knew where she worked and lived, he could start to search for more information online about her. He couldn’t wait to impress her with how much he had learned about her and explain to her how he did it.

While he made his plans, he fantasized about what their sex life would be like.

He had never had sex before, but he had seen enough porn to know what to expect. Now that he had found his soulmate, he spent that night watching even more, learning everything he could about what women expected.

While the videos he watched were informative, he found that he got bored easily with the basic ways to do it, and he began delving deeper into more aggressive ways of having sex.

The next day, he watched as she boarded the bus to go to work. When it was out of sight, he casually walked to the apartment complex to see what security measures were in place.

The front entrance was locked. It looked like you had to either have a key, or page someone on the mounted intercom to have them buzz you in.

He had learned a trick from a TV show on how to get someone to buzz you in. Just press all the buttons, and hope someone was casual enough about letting people in or expecting someone. Out of all the choices, he hoped at least one person would let him in.

He didn’t want to go in just yet though. He knew it would be hard for him to remain inconspicuous for eight hours.
Instead, he walked back to the park until just before he knew she would be returning from work.

When he felt the time was right, he walked to the apartment complex and slid his hands down all the apartment buttons, causing a series of buzzes.

Almost immediately after he pushed all of them, he heard a return buzz and a click at the door. He opened it and walked inside.

He cautiously walked the main floor, hoping to see a common laundry room that he could stay in until she returned. He even brought a bag of dirty clothes that he could show if someone looked at him suspiciously.

Not long after he settled himself in the laundry room, he looked at his watch and knew she would be arriving home at any moment.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, he heard the front door of the complex open. He peeked his head outside just far enough to see but remain mostly unseen himself.

He saw her walk to the elevator, press her floor button, and then step on.

‘She lives on the 3rd floor,’ he noticed.

When the doors closed, he quickly walked to the emergency stairs, and ran up as fast as he could.

At the top, he slowly opened the stairwell door and carefully looked out, watching as she entered her apartment. He wrote down what apartment she went into and closed the stairwell door.

He gathered the bag of clothes that he had left in the laundry room, and walked back out the front door.

He contemplated the various options he had. He thought of breaking into her apartment, though he didn’t know how to pick locks, or maybe he would just surprise her at her door with flowers.

Knowing it would take longer for him to learn how to pick locks than he wanted to wait, he decided to be the hopeless romantic he knew women loved.

The rest of that night and the next day while she was at work, he spent looking online for everything he could learn about her.

He searched the company directory and found her picture. Her name was Laura and she worked in HR. Using her name, he was able to find her on Social Media. Her accounts were set to private, but he was still able to find out just enough to continue his search.

By the time he was done, he knew where she had gone to school, who she worked with, and who some of her other friends were.

He felt confident that when she saw him holding the flowers, and he revealed all he had learned about her in such a short time, her heart would melt, and she would be his.

His phone alarm went off and he realized that he only had a short time to buy some flowers, get inside the apartment complex, and be at her apartment before she arrived.

At the appointed time, he found himself hidden once again in the stairwell, waiting.

The elevator ding announced her arrival and he saw her walk to her door.

To be a complete surprise, he waited until her back was to him as she unlocked the door.

When Laura turned to close the door, she found herself looking at a stranger holding a bouquet of flowers.

She smiled as she saw him. Her ex-boyfriend Tom must have sent them to make up for the way he had treated her.

Giggling a little, she said, “Oh, hi. You shocked me.”

Edward just stood there staring at her, his heart racing.

‘She does remember me,’ he thought.

Then, confusion filled him when she asked, “Are those from Tom Perkins?”

He didn’t know how to answer.

And then he replied, “There from me.”

It was her turn to be confused.

“Do I know you?” she asked, vaguely remembering him from somewhere.

“I’m Edward,” he said, surprised she didn’t recognize her.

“Um, thank you,” she said, hesitantly. She reached out and cautiously took the flowers.

As nervousness filled her, she said, “I have some work I have to finish up on,” and tried to close the door.

Edward’s mom had warned him about women, and he now saw why. All women, except his mother, were manipulative bitches who toyed with men’s hearts.

Laura watched as his shy smile turned into a menacing one, and she instinctively tensed up.

Without noticed he pushed her into the apartment, closed the door, and as he began to scream, “Bitch!” at her, he began to repeatedly punch her in the face.

She blacked out.

Seeing that she was unconscious, he slowly got off of her.

After he caught his breathe, he dragged her through the apartment to her bedroom.

She woke to a pounding headache and feeling disoriented. She found that she could only see out of one eye, and it took her a moment to realize that she was in her own bedroom.

Her arms ached, and she quickly saw that her wrist and ankles were tied to the bed. She tried to scream, but she was gagged and only a muffled sound escaped her.

Across the room, she saw Edward sitting in a chair watching her. He seemed nervous, and angry.

Hoping to calm him enough to release her, she pleaded to him with her eyes and moans.

He seemed to notice and perked up when he saw that she was no longer struggling.

“I’m sorry we have to meet this way, but you didn’t seem to recognize me, and I know that can’t be the case,” he said. “We had a connection. I know it.”

She continued to just listen, gathering as much as she could so she could hopefully play along until he untied her.

“I followed you, and learned all I could about you,” he continued. “I knew the moment you smiled at me I had to have you and I know you felt it too.”

She nodded, hoping he would buy it.

He did.

He walked over to her side.

“If I take the gag off, do you promise not to scream?” he asked.

She nodded.

He took the gag off, ready to knock her back out if she tried to scream.

She gasped but didn’t scream. Instead, to his pleasant surprise, she smiled and said, “Thank you.”

He smiled back and moved his chair next to her.

She continued to try to show she was on his side, so she continued by saying, “Of course I remember you. Why didn’t you say hi sooner? You didn’t have to go through all this just for me.”

Inside, she was mentally throwing up, but she knew she had to play her part until she was free.

“I wanted to do it right,” he said.

“Well, you just caught me a little off guard,” she said. “I had a rough day at work.”

He nodded his understanding.

She looked at him and then at her wrist.

“You think you can let me up now, so we can get to know each other better?” she asked as politely as she could.

He wanted to believe her, but his mom had always told him not to trust women.

‘This is different,’ he thought, trying to justify freeing her. ‘She’s my soulmate, so I know she wouldn’t trick me. We’re meant to be.’

Laura could see his conflict, but relaxed a little when he hesitantly reached over and untied one of her wrist.

She thanked him with a smile, and smiling himself, he walked to the other side of the bed and untied her other wrist.

She rubbed her wrist but gave no indication that she wanted to escape.

Then she nodded to her ankles.

“Please?” she asked.

“Oh,” he replied. “Of course.”

She groaned with relief once both her ankles were untied.

“How about we go to the other room and get to know each other better,” she said. “I want to know everything about you.”

While he was filled with joy, she gathered her strength. She needed be strong enough when the time came.

He seemed to completely believe her ‘Love’ for him, and casually started to walk away towards the living room.

When he arrived at the living room, he turned to face her, but instead, found himself staring down the barrel of a gun she had taken out of her nightstand.

“Wha, what are you doing, my love?” he asked.

“Well, my love,” she replied, sarcastically. “I’m going to call the police while you sit there quietly.

“You see, I just got out of one crazy relationship. So bad, I had to buy a guy and learn how to use it.

“I even learned some Kickboxing, so I wouldn’t try anything until the police arrive.”

“But, where meant to be together,” he pleaded, confusion and anger swelling up.

“No,” she replied. “We’re not.”

Most would have froze with shock when Edward jumped, but after his initial attack at her door and waking up tied to her bed, she was past the damsel in distress phase.

She calmly fired two shots into his chest, dropping him dead.

She took a moment to pleasantly visualize that it had been Tom she had shot, bringing a smile to her face, and then she walked to the kitchen to call the police.

“I need a drink,” she said out loud, and her second glass of wine had thoroughly calmed her by the time they arrived.

Antonio Garcia