The Sketch

"The convenience store across the street," Bill responded a little more quietly. His eyes scanned around the mostly empty diner to confirm that no one was nearby or listening as he continued, "There's a security camera behind the store on the back parking lot." Sheri's smile disappeared, but he could see from her face that she still didn't understand what he was getting at. "I don't..." he began, stopping to try to collect his thoughts, then continued, "I don't want to be weird about it. I don't want to make you uncomfortable... it was hard to decide how to tell you this... I just really thought you should know that there's a security camera back there."

Bill's awkward behavior and obtuse hints tickled something at the back of Sheri's mind, though she was confused about why this stranger would be telling her about the store across the street. She still initially responded, "Why..."

Frustrated with beating around the bush, Bill finally whispered, "When you park back behind the store at night, the camera can see you."

From the way Sheri's eyes suddenly widened, and the horrified look that gripped her face, Bill knew that she finally understood. "What the..." she began to say.

"I just wanted to warn you!" Bill interrupted quickly, holding his palms hands up in front of himself defensively.

Sheri's face reddened and heated anger flashed across her pretty face as she said, "HOW DARE YOU!"

"I just wanted to warn you," Bill tried again weakly.

"How dare you... you... peep on me!!" an outraged Sheri sputtered. "What kind of creep are you?!"

"I just found out..." Bill tried, but Sheri cut him off again.

Her face was red with rage and embarrassment as she spat, "How dare you do that! Are you some kind of pervert?!" She drew herself up to her full height, unsure for a split second what to do before she turned abruptly on her heels and stalked away.

Bill deflated as he sat at his booth, not bothering to touch his food. The encounter had not gone at all how he had hoped. For a moment, Bill wondered if it would be safest to just leave some money and walk out of the diner. But Sheri came back to his seating area shortly later to wait on another table, glaring at Bill with an angry look before she walked away again. So Bill decided to eat his dinner and see if she might come back to talk to him and give him a chance to explain. Well before he was finished with his food, Sheri stalked back to his table, back straight, nose up in the air, eyes pointedly not looking at Bill. She dropped his check on the edge of the table, turned again before he could say anything, and stalked away. With a sigh, Bill paid the check, leaving an ample tip because he didn't want to wait for change, and he left the diner.

The next morning at the convenience store, Bill asked Dave if there was any chance Dave would make him a digital copy of the last couple of nights Dave had caught the couple having sex behind the store. Bill didn't want to watch the tapes. He had thought over the issue carefully and decided he needed some sort of proof in case Sheri accused him of something.

Dave seemed to consider the request carefully, scratching the side of his face as he thought about it. "I'll copy the last two nights of them to a thumb drive if you have one, but only if you pay me one hundred dollars," Dave finally said.

"Why one hundred dollars?" Bill asked.

"Come on man," Dave said finally with a slight smile. "I like you and I think I trust you, but you know I could get in trouble if the boss finds out I made copies of security video of two people doing it behind the store."

"Fair enough," Bill replied. Luckily the store also sold thumb drives, and it took Dave less than ten minutes to copy two night's worth of footage onto the drive.

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Chapter 3: Making Peace

Two days after Sheri's blow up at the diner, Bill was wearily avoiding the eatery. He stopped by the convenience store early in the evening to pick up some soda for his cabin, after eating an early dinner at the nearby fast food joint, and walked out afterwards into the still bright sunlight of early evening in the summer. Bill was surprised, as he turned towards his long walk home, to see a woman in a waitress uniform hurry out of the diner across the street. He recognized Sheri's blonde hair tied back into a tight pony tail before he could see her face, and he quickened his steps. Bill was nervous that she had spotted him and was going to yell at him again. But when Sheri broke into a quick trot to pursue Bill, he briefly considered his options before slowing back to a walk. He would look ridiculous if he ran through the small main street with Sheri chasing after him. Besides, there weren't many people around just then, and he'd rather she yell at him when there was no audience.

"Hey," she called out somewhat breathlessly as she neared Bill, slowing down to a walk herself until she had caught up with him. "I saw you coming out of the convenience store and hoped you might have a quick minute to talk."

Bill slowed to a stop on the sidewalk across from the convenience store, still so wary of what Sheri might want that he said nothing. Sheri took the opportunity to catch her breath for a moment while standing in front of him before she continued.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry for yelling at you the other day," Sheri began. Bill's eyebrows went up in surprise, and Sheri's pretty young face adopted a rueful smile. "I thought about it and realized that you were probably trying to he helpful. It was just such a shock for you to bring it up! I mean, I guess we should have been more careful, but I wasn't expecting to hear what you had to say, you know? It was a surprise."

"I can understand," Bill allowed quietly and cautiously.

"Yeah. Well anyway, I figured you could have said nothing and just gone on watching us if you wanted to, but you said something to warn me, and now that I've thought about that, I wanted to thank you," Sheri continued, finishing with a bright smile.

"You're welcome," Bill replied.

"Do you mind if I ask you a couple of quick questions about it?" Sheri asked.

"No," Bill said, wondering what questions she might have and then adding quickly, "Though I'm not sure I know all your answers."

"Well..." Sheri began tentatively, pausing in thought to wring her hands in front of her skirt, her pretty face scrunched up in concern, before she continued, "If you know about the camera and... what was going on, do a lot of people know?"

"I don't think so," Bill answered, relaxing a little. "I mean, I'm pretty sure just the few store employees who watch the security monitors at night. I only found out about it because I'm in the store early in the morning."

"Oh, well that's good, I guess," Sheri said, brightening a little. "I mean obviously we've stopped... you know.. fooling around back there, but we were really worried about who might have seen us."

"So you also told your boyfriend?" Bill asked.

"Ex-boyfriend, actually," Sheri responded sheepishly, a blush of embarrassment coloring her cheeks. "I figured he had a right to know."

"Oh sure," Bill said, "I was just wondering."

"Yeah, we broke up right after graduation because I'm going away to college and he's staying here," Sheri explained, "But we still miss each other, and a girl gets lonely, you know?"

Unsure of how to respond, Bill asked, "You said you had more questions?"

"Oh yeah!" Sheri continued, "You said it's on the security camera, so do you know if there are any... tapes or anything like that... of us?"

"I'm pretty sure there's no tapes," Bill responded, "They have some sort of internal system that you need in order to view the footage, so I think they can only watch you on their system."

"Oh, that's good," Sheri responded, her pretty smile brightening again just as Bill realized that he had lied. There were in fact tapes because he had one copy. Sheri quickly added, "Well again, sorry about the other day, and thank you for the warning. I have to get back to the restaurant, but next time you come in I'll give you a free piece of pie on the house!"

"Thanks," Bill responded. With one last smile, Sheri turned quickly and hurried back to the diner.

It was another few days before Bill finally got up the courage to go back to the diner for dinner. He was not sure what kind of trouble might come with the free piece of pie, but also decided that he couldn't just avoid the place for the rest of his time in town.

The diner was mostly empty again when Bill walked in a little before five. Sheri greeted him warmly at the door and showed him to a table in her section, looking as cheery and perky as the first time he had eaten at the restaurant. The meal was good, and business was slow enough that Sheri stopped to sit with Bill as he ate his free piece of pie for dessert.

"So the rumor around town is that you're in the stock market or something," Sheri said casually.

After swallowing a bite of delicious cherry pie with crisp, sugary, homemade crust, Bill responded, "Yup, that's right."

"And you came to town to take some sort of break or retreat?" Sheri asked.

"Yeah, needed a little time off," Bill answered before digging in for another bite of pie.

"How did you find that rental place up on the hill?" Sheri asked. "Do they advertise in the city?"

"No, just was kind of poking around online," Bill said before taking a small sip of his coffee. Then he continued, "I was looking for someplace nice and quiet and found that big, comfortable house."

Sheri smiled before saying, "Well, I should probably get back to the prep work for the dinner rush. I hope you liked your pie," and with one last flash of her smile, she was off.

Bill had not failed to note how pretty Sheri's face was while they were chatting, and as she walked away, it was burned into his memory. He had not had much of a social life for the past several months, and it had been a long time since such a young and very attractive woman had spent time talking to him. Bill had taken several drawing classes as electives in college, and an idea suddenly struck him.

Grabbing a clean, white, paper napkin and a short pencil that Sheri had left on the table, Bill began a light, basic sketch of Sheri's face. He started with her feminine, delicate, angular jaw line, and continued through her firmly tied pony tail. He sketched in her high cheek bones and small ears, and added in her sculpted eyebrows almost half way down her face. Then he spent a little time making sure he captured the bridge of her pointed nose and the little button at the end of her bridge, before moving on to his memory of her long, pale eyelashes. He tried to capture the twinkle in Sheri's dark blue eyes, but couldn't do them justice in a rough pencil sketch. Then it was the fullness of Sheri's lips, curled back and spread over a beaming, white smile of course, before he added just the hint of the dimples in her cheeks and rounded out the bottom of her chin.

By the time he looked back at his watch, he had probably spent 20 minutes on the sketch and it was far past time to leave. But he was very pleased with the product. It wasn't just a good drawing of a face, he could clearly see Sheri in it even if it wasn't a perfect likeness.

Bill wrote across the bottom of the sketch, "Consider this gift a peace offering. I hope we can be friends." Then he left his tip carefully arrayed next to the drawing, before getting up from the booth and walking out of the restaurant.

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Chapter 4: The request

It was three nights later, on a quiet and sleepy Sunday afternoon, when Bill next visited the diner for his evening meal. Any questions over whether Sheri had liked his "peace offering" were quickly answered when Sheri rushed to the hostess stand to greet Bill. Her smile was beaming, from ear to ear as she said hello.

Another waitress had been about to greet Bill, and Sheri quickly explained, "This is one of my new regulars," with a sly little wink to Bill.

As he followed Sheri to a booth in her section, Bill shook his head wonderingly that he had somehow gone from despised to a beloved regular in the span of three visits. He wondered if all young women these days were so fickle.

As soon as Bill was seated and the menu place carefully in front of him, Sheri caught Bill off guard again by immediately saying, "I LOVED that sketch you made of me, it was a sweet gift. Would you be willing to draw another one?"

"Sure," Bill replied easily, then recognizing the eagerness on Sheri's face followed up with, "Do you mean right now?"

Sheri looked over her shoulder at the mostly empty diner and then back at Bill, finally responding, "Well if you don't mind, I was thinking maybe I could sit and chat with you and model while you draw this one. If you rather not do it, don't worry about it."

"Sure," Bill said again. "I'd be happy to." It was not like he had a lot else going on.

Sheri quickly left, heading back through the swinging doors to the kitchen, but she soon returned with three full sheets of white printer paper and a pencil. Bill ordered his food, and Sheri left again to place the order. When she returned with Bill's lasagna, she took the seat across from Bill and smiled at him expectantly.

As Bill ate, he slowly studied Sheri's face and sketched a little between bites. She really was a pretty girl. Her high cheek bones were more rounded and apple like than he had remembered in his earlier drawing. And her lips were fuller, and also softer at the corner when she smiled. He had an easier time capturing the playfulness in her eyes and the button on the end of her nose with her sitting right in front of him. Sheri had to leave twice, once to greet new customers and once to take their order, but otherwise she sat with Bill while he sketched her. They made small talk about her hopes for college and her nervousness about moving away from her family, but mostly Bill focused on his sketch.

When the food was done, Bill had a rough outline and said he'd need a little time to shade in and refine some of the lines. Sheri said she had to get back to work anyway, and fetched him another piece of pie while he completed his sketch. She tried to sneak a peek at the drawing, but Bill said he wanted to wait until it was done.

The piece of pie happily finished, and some shading and erasing later, Sheri returned with the check. Bill handed her his drawing and she sank immediately back into the seat across from him. For a few seconds, Bill was worried that Sheri really didn't like the drawing. She said nothing, just sort of stared at the sketch with her mouth a little open. But when she finally looked up at Bill, a broad, bright smile slowly lit her face. She was beaming, giggling like she was giddy. Sheri looked back down at the paper, back up at Bill, and then back down at the paper.

"This is AMAZING!" she finally exclaimed. "I had no idea you could draw so well." Before Bill could even interject with some sort of modest comment, Sheri plowed on, "It totally looks like me! And you even made me kind of pretty. I LOVE it!" Sheri was positively glowing as she stared at Bill's sketch.

"Well you are pretty, so that part was unavoidable," Bill responded with a sly smile, which provoked a skeptical look from Sheri, one blonde eyebrow raised high.

"It makes..." Sheri began, staring at the picture but then trailing off without saying more.

Bill fumbled for his wallet and drew out some cash to cover his check. When he looked up and Sheri was still staring at the picture, Bill could tell that she was thinking hard about something. "What's up?" Bill asked.

"What do you mean?" Sheri asked, finally looking back up at him with her deep blue eyes. Bill could see some sort of indecision behind those eyes.

"It looks like you want to say something," Bill explained, then sat in silence waiting for Sheri to make up her mind.

"Well..." Sheri began, looking back down at the picture but then trailing off again.

"What is it?" asked Bill.

Sheri looked up at Bill again, this time with a serious look on her face. "If I tell you something, you have to PROMISE that you will never repeat it to anyone."

"What is it?" Bill asked again.

"Promise me," Sheri insisted.

"Okay, I promise. I won't repeat it to anyone," Bill agreed, now curious where this was going.

"Promise me, not to anyone," Sheri repeated.

"I did," Bill said quickly, wanting to know what Sheri was thinking. "I promise I won't repeat what you say to anyone."

Sheri glanced around the mostly empty diner to confirm that no one was near them and then, still tightly gripping Bill's sketch, leaned in to whisper. "Would you be willing to make another one of these for me?"

"Of course," Bill responded, confused about why this was a secret.

Sheri shut her eyes tightly in frustration, then opened them again looking a little irritated and continued. "Remember, you are never allowed to repeat this but... well... my boyfriend Joe has been BEGGING me to... well.. alright, alright," Sheri screwed up her face for a second, finding the courage to continue, and plowed on with, "He wants me to send him naked pictures of me. I mean, he BEGS me all the time, every time we're together. Don't judge me okay."

"No judgment," Bill offered soothingly, still wondering where this was going.

"I'm leaving for college and we're technically broken up. He keeps insisting that he wants something sexy to remember me by," Sheri continued, Bill now starting to grasp where the conversation might be leading. "He says he loves me and I kind of love him too and he insists he wants to remember something for all the great times we've had together. So he keeps asking me to take a naked selfie of myself and send it to him. He has begged me to do it when we're... naked together.

"But there is no way, NO WAY," she repeated for emphasis, "That I am letting ANYONE take pictures of me naked. I just don't want that out there anywhere, I'm sure you understand. But he begs me all the time. He says it will help him remember me while I'm away."

"Don't tell me you want me to make a naked drawing of you," Bill interjected.

Sheri's deep blue eyes widened for a brief moment. That had been where she was going, but it sounded strange coming from this man she barely knew. Eventually she answered, "Well obviously you don't have to if you don't want to. But you've already seen me naked. I mean, from the way you described that security video footage of me, I'm sure you've seen it."

Bill was taken a little aback by how direct Sheri was being, and the fact that she was right. Sheri took his silence to mean agreement and continued, "Isn't the face the hardest thing to draw? And since you've already basically seen me naked, couldn't you make a drawing from that? I wouldn't mind if he had a drawing of me naked. I mean, any good artist could probably draw something of me naked from their imagination. But you've also seen me and could do something close to the truth."

Bill responded, "Won't your boyfriend be upset that some other man drew a picture of you naked?"

Sheri didn't hesitate in replying, "I'm pretty good at drawing. I'm not nearly as good as you, but I could claim that I carefully sketched myself while looking in the mirror, all just for him." Sheri paused, hesitating again, before continuing, "Actually, I tried to draw myself once already, thinking it would be a good compromise for him, but the drawing turned out terrible. All the proportions were wrong. And when I saw your sketch of me and how good it was, and how you had already seen me naked, it kind of gave me the idea."

Bill, realizing something else, said, "So the drawing of you today was a sort of test to see if I might be able to do it."

Sheri looked down at the drawing again briefly before looking back up at Bill and saying, "It really is VERY good. But yes, I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't sure you could do it."