After killing his husband, Love, faking his death and running away to find his love, Marienne, who rushed away and didn’t ever speak to him, Joe vowed to never fall for another girl again—or to have an obsession with. He wanted to live a quiet, unknown life.

And then he met you.

No, not again. His inside voice cursed at him as he slowly made his way closer to you, interrupted by small talk between him and Malcolm. Joe had made this fake persona—like he had done many times before, but this time the name was Johnathan Moore.

He tried to stay away from you. He even took the small talk from Malcolm and let him turn it into a bunch of introductions with all the friends, and then he introduced..You. You weren’t like the others—no, you looked smarter, prettier, and definitely sober.

“This is Maren—everyone calls her Mari because she like totally hates her name. Anyway—this is Dylan.” As Malcolm kept introducing person after person, Joe began to not pay attention, but rather just think about you. Why did you hate your name? Why was your hair so long? What perfume do you use?

And then he fell into the infinite loop. He looked you up on every page, learning everything about you. You were a therapist, nice. Studied at Harvard Law but decided being a lawyer wasn’t your strongest suit—yet most of your friends can be persuaded in your favor quite easily. You have 3 siblings and of course, a cat. Your relationship with your parents is rough. And another thing? You used to be a camgirl. How exciting and yet disgusting. He knew everything about you, and lived just close enough to spy on you through your window.

Soon, he learned all your interest. Your favorite color was pink. You loved putting tiny things together. Collecting limited stuff toys? He would buy them for you. Etcetera.

When a guy catcalled you? Of course, Joe was watching. He murdered the guy. Or how about the guy who was stopping you from getting a higher pay in your job? Went missing. It was all Joe, though. I vowed to never do this again, but you deserve it. He argued with himself, arguing that it was right if it was only a few times.

Somehow, he managed to hobble his way into your life, become your best friend, someone you confide in, and now he’s over at your house in the night as you guys have a drink and chat, right after he disposed of a body of a guy who just made fun of your past online, which of course you didn’t know that he killed the dude.