In "The Office" by Alice Munro, the relationship between the narrator and her landlord is uncomfortable, conflicted, and increasingly hostile. While Mr. Malley appears at first to have good intentions, he gradually works his way into the narrator's life, even though he sees that she wants nothing to do with him. Despite the narrator's attempts at rejecting him, Mr. Malley continually pushes himself into her life in an effort to make her miserable.

At first, Mr. Malley starts off as an innocent man trying to be nice to his tenant. The narrator, a writer, decides "I ought to have an office." She fills this need when she sees a "For Rent" sign in an upstairs window above a pharmacy. As soon as she sees the office the Malley's had for sale, she makes an offer and gets it. The first time Mr. Malley knocks on the narrator's door...