What's In A Name?

Etta glanced at her watch and let out an annoyed sigh. Where the hell are these potential buyers? It was currently 18 minutes past when they had agreed to meet. Time was money and these people were officially wasting hers.

The faint chime of her cell phone interrupted her thoughts. She frowned as she pulled it out of her purse. As a habit she kept it on vibrate, but maybe she forgot to switch it off this morning.

Collin: Let me know how the showing goes!

Etta raised an eyebrow. It was rare that Collin would text her during the day. He was usually so busy seeing patients he didn’t have much time for anything else, let alone stopping to send his wife a random midday text. But he had been making an effort to be more present lately. He’d even stopped by her office for lunch last week. Thinking about it, she smiled. It actually meant a lot that he had remembered she had a major showing today, and even more that he wanted to hear how it went.

Etta: Buyers are 20 minutes late and I haven’t heard from them. I hate when this happens, it eats up so much of my day and I get nothing in return.

Collin: Maybe he’ll feel badly enough it’ll be an easy sell.

Etta: How do you know it’s a he?

Collin: Educated guess. Every woman I know is punctual as fuck.

At that Etta let out a dry laugh. If she was known for anything, it was for being on time.

Etta: You’re hilarious. Hopefully they show up soon. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Collin: Good luck! See you tonight.

Taking another look at her watch, she decided to give the buyers five more minutes before calling their agent. She sat at the dining room table and pulled out her phone. Checking her Instagram notifications, she replied to a few of the comments on her latest post. With 103k followers, she was the most popular real estate agent in the state. She had closed over $65 million in sales, and while people loved getting an inside look into the real estate market, it didn’t hurt that she was hot and had great legs. Her latest post was a candid shot of her working at her desk, the legs on full display.

Scrolling through the comments, one in particular caught her eye.

Can’t wait to see you tonight!

She frowned. Random DMs often showed up in her inbox. Most of them were a variation of:

Do you want a sugar daddy?

What’s your bra size?

Can you PLEASE start selling your gym socks on eBay?

She was used to weirdos on the internet, but for some reason this comment jumped out at her. It seemed as though this person was actually expecting to see her tonight. As far as she knew, the only plans she had for tonight was ordering takeout and soaking in a hot bath. The profile picture was a sports car, and the account had zero followers. Stupid bots. She swiped out of the app and dialed the buyer’s agent.

Later that afternoon as she sat at her desk working on a purchase agreement, Mason, her broker, walked over with a giant grin on his face. “‘Ello, love!” He was laying the English accent on thick, which meant he was about to say something she wasn’t going to like.

She closed her eyes, “Don’t ’ello, love’ me, Mase. What is it I don’t want to hear that has you acting extra British?”

Mason laughed. “The buyers that ditched you this morning? Their agent just called, apologizing seven ways to Sunday. Apparently the buyer got the days mixed up and thought the showing was tomorrow. They’re asking if you can meet tonight.”

“Are you kidding me?! I wasted almost an hour waiting around for them. Don’t forget it’s a 40 minute drive to get there and back. Why did they want to meet without their agent to begin with?”

Mason shrugged. “Apparently they want to look at potential investments without feeling the pressure from their agent to buy. It’s a $3 million contract, you and I both want this to work.”

“How do we know this is a legit buyer? What if it’s just some idiot wasting our time?”

Mason raised his hands in surrender, “Agent sent proof of funds. The buyer is serious, he just put the wrong day in his calendar.”

Etta crossed her arms. “You owe me lunch tomorrow.”

Mason grinned, “Done.”

“When are we meeting?”

At that, Mason flinched slightly. “About that… They were hoping to meet around… seven?” He said the last part as a question, knowing he was pushing the limit on her patience.

Her eyes widened. “Are you kidding?! Seven? As in seven o’clock tonight? This evening? PM?!”

Mason sat on the corner of her desk. “Come on, Hen. It’s $3 million. I’ve worked with this agent, he wouldn’t have asked if it weren’t the real deal. We’ve been trying to move this house for 2 months and this is the first ....”

“Yeah, yeah.” Etta waved her hand interrupting him. She leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling. Mason was the first person to start calling her ‘Hen’. With a name like Henrietta Odette Prescott, her collection of nicknames was endless. Most of her coworkers had picked up the nickname and referred to her as ‘Hen’, but she really only heard it from Mason as a last resort. It was his flirty little way of getting her to do something she would never do for any of the other brokers.

She groaned. “Ugh, fine. But now you owe me lunch for a week.”

Satisfied, Mason backed away from her desk. “Thanks, love. Make sure you close this one, yeah?”

Rolling her eyes, Etta went back to her purchase agreement. When she was finished, she sent a text to Collin.

Etta: Hey, babe. Buyer that ditched me this morning wants to reschedule for tonight. I won’t be home for dinner.

A minute later her phone vibrated.

Collin: Want me to meet you at the house? We can have a late dinner after.

Etta: Don’t worry about it. I’ll grab something at home before I head down there.

Collin: Are you sure?

Etta: Yeah, go join the ortho bros at Lindsey’s. I know it’s been a while since you’ve gone out.

Lindsey’s was the bar up the street from the hospital where Collin worked. He practiced family medicine, but had gone to medical school with most of the doctors in orthopedics. They had somehow all ended up in the same hospital after residency and often hung out at Lindsey’s after their shifts.

Collin: Good idea. See you later tonight xoxo

Packing up her things, she headed to the elevator. She had enough time to run home, feed and walk the dog, and fix a quick dinner before she met up with her inconsiderate buyer.

“Ettie! Ettie, wait!”

Etta groaned as the owner of the shriek hurried toward her. Sara Walker was the last person she wanted to talk to right now.

“It’s Etta, Sara.” Etta had been called Ettie before, but coming from Sara it was annoying.

“But Ettie is more fun to say! Don’t you think so? Anyway, some of the girls are going out for drinks tonight. We wanted to know if you wanted to join?”

Etta had known about the drink plans. The girls had invited her days before, but she had declined the invitation long before the mishap with her buyer. It had been a long week and she just wanted to go home. Sara always showed up to these things even though no one officially invited her, because none of the other women in the office actually liked her. There was a rumor going around that she was having an affair, but no one had been able to pin down who it was with.

“Not tonight. Thanks for the invite though.”

Sara smacked her forehead, “Oh my gosh I totally forgot, you have that thing with the house in Bells End.”

Etta frowned. “How do you know about that?”

“Mason told me about it. He really thinks you’ll be able to close it!”

The eye roll was coming, but Etta stopped herself. Of course Sara knew about the MIA buyer. Sara knew everything about everyone, even though hardly anyone could stand her. How she got her information would forever be a mystery.

“Amazing. Well, I’m headed home to take care of a few things. I’ll see you next week, Sara.” The elevator doors closed and Etta sighed with relief. That woman was a nuisance. Fifteen minutes later she pulled into her driveway. After taking care of the dog, she decided preparing something for dinner sounded like too much work. She grabbed a protein shake and a banana and sat at the kitchen table. Sitting at the kitchen table she pulled out her phone. She took a picture of her meal and posted it to her story, along with the caption ‘girl dinner’ along with a crying laughing emoji. She finished her meal while scrolling, and just as she was about to put her phone away, she got a message from the same account that had commented on her picture earlier that day.

Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you’re fed later! ;)

What a creep. She blocked the account and shrugged it off. Forty minutes later she arrived at the house. Sitting in the driveway, she texted Mason.

Etta: If this buyer flakes again, I’m going to kick your ass.

Mason: lol their agent just emailed and said they’re headed your way. Thanks again, Hen. You’re a real peach x

Etta: And you’re insufferable.

Mason: ;)

Etta walked through the house turning on all the lights. It was starting to get dark and with that weirdo messaging her earlier, she was starting to get anxious. Satisfied once the house was lit up, she waited to hear from the buyer. A few minutes later she heard a knock on the door. Before she could open it, the knob turned and in walked her buyer. She couldn’t help but notice how good looking he was. Smiling brightly, she stuck out her hand. “You must be my buyer. It’s nice to meet you! I’m Henrietta Prescott.” The man smiled back. “Oh, right. I’m Evan West. It’s so nice to officially meet you.” He put an odd emphasis on the word ‘meet’ as if this weren’t their first time seeing each other. Etta ignored the weird greeting and turned around, walking toward the kitchen. “Well, let’s get to it! I’m assuming you’ve looked at the listing online and have a good idea of what the house looks like?”

“Sure, yeah, of course. Kitchen, dining room, office, 5 bedrooms, 6 baths, finished basement, etc.” He sounded bored, as if he’d rather be talking about anything else.

“Amazing, would you like to take a walkthrough?”

Evan sighed. He seemed… annoyed? “Sure.”

“Alright… Well, here’s your main living space. Plenty of room for entertaining…”

“Actually, let’s cut the charade. We both know why we’re here, so let’s just get to it.”

Etta shook her head, “What are you talking about?”

“Come on, Henry. Let’s not play games.”

At that, Etta froze. Only one person had ever called her Henry.

“I-I’m sorry…” she stammered, thrown off by what must have been an insane coincidence. “Do I know you?”

Evan rolled his eyes and started walking toward her. “Stop the act, Henry. You know who I am.” Etta stepped back. “I can assure you, I do not.” She told herself to remain calm. This man was obviously crazy and she needed to keep a clear head. “Why do you think we know each other? And why are you calling me Henry?”

“Because that’s what you told me to call you.” He took another step toward her. She felt the wall behind her. She was about to scream when she heard the front door open and a familiar voice called out,

“Henry? Are you here?”

Etta cried out with relief, “Collin! I’m in the front room!” Wait, what was Collin doing here? Evan looked down at her, confused. “Who’s Collin? I didn’t sign up for a group thing. If you’re into that, cool, but I’m more of a one on one type guy.” What the hell was this man talking about? Trying to get around the looming figure that had her backed up against the wall, she caught sight of Collin walking in, “Oh Collin, thank God you’re here! I- wait, what the hell are you doing?” she looked at the gun in his hand. Evan started to turn around, but before he could, she heard the gunshot. She screamed as she watched Evan’s body slump to the floor. She looked back at her husband to find he now had the gun aimed at her. “Collin, what is going on?”

“You know, I found the websites. The weird fetish stuff you’re into. The men you’ve been messaging. How many have there been? How many ‘showings’ have actually been meetups with these creeps from the internet?”

Etta could barely think straight. “What on earth are you talking about? You think I’m cheating on you? I’m not-”

“Oh I know,” Collin interrupted. He was slowly walking toward her. “But that’s what I’m going to tell the police when they ask what happened. I had a suspicion you were stepping outside our marriage, so when you told me you were going to be late showing a house, I decided to investigate and found you with another man. That man shot you, and I shot him. Pretty convincing, right?”

Etta began to put the pieces together. “Did he,” she pointed to the body on the floor, she could see the slight rise and fall of his chest. “Did he think he was talking to me online? Did you tell him to call me Henry?”

At that, Collin laughed. “That was my bad. I slipped up in one of the messages and used that stupid nickname. Doesn’t matter though, because-” suddenly the gun dropped from Collin’s hand. He grabbed at his throat. Something was wrapped around it, choking him. After what seemed like a lifetime, he too fell to the floor. Henrietta stared at the body. He was still breathing. Finally, she looked up to see Mason. He looked back at her as he started to put his tie around his neck. Tying it, he grinned.

“‘Ello, love. Think it’s about time we call the police?”