Would you like a portrait?

I’m sitting here in another local coffeeshop. Frantically trying to complete a paper before it is due next week, I pull out my large public administration book, take out my ridiculously large laptop and try to pound out the last of it before my coffee gets cold.

A man in a long trench coat sits across from me, drawing. He looks up and sees my large book and asks me if I am a doctor.

“Um, no. I’m in school.”

“Ahhhh. What are you doing in school?”

“Studying journalism and political science.”

“Well, let me tell you about this. . .”

He begins to tell me about how I could make a fortune if I wrote a book while I was in school. I could then enjoy my youth instead of punching the clock. I tell him, yes, I have had these same feelings before. We talk for a bit longer before I excuse myself back to my paper. He seems to be a very interesting man, but a little off.

I notice him staring at me for a bit. I become very uncomfortable and text a friend of mine. . .

“There is a man looking at me in the coffeeshop. I talked to him earlier and now he won’t stop staring at me.”

My friend is concerned and asks if she needs to come by. I tell her no, thanks, I should be okay. I’ll let her know if it gets weird.

He starts asking me about myself again and I start to get kind of scared. He hasn’t asked anything too personal or foreboding, but I’m wary with how much he keeps glancing my way. I get up refresh my cup of coffee, and text my friend saying I am definitely getting the willies and hopefully she can come soon.

I sit back down and he approaches my table. I’m afraid and I tense up when he hands me his drawing. It’s a picture of me. I’m taken aback.

“Well, if school doesn’t work out for you, you could always be a model.”

He packed up his things and left.

I felt bad that I took him to be creepy when he was drawing me a picture that he gave me. He was just being a genuinely nice person, interested in me, and creating a friendship, yet I took it to be something completely different. It saddens me that we live in a world where we think “stalker” before we think “friend.”