He’s actually looking. Respectfully.
It’s embarrassing as hell, but also kind of… nice.
He touches one of the drawings with his fingertip, like he’s checking something.
"What are you doing?" I laugh.
"I wanna see if it rubs off. There’s no way you did these."
"Why ‘no way’?" I protest. "You think I’m useless or something? I like drawing."
He looks at me for a second. "Can you draw me?"
I freeze. Just… stare at him.
Me. Drawing Gio Fontana. He’s askingmeto drawhim. My throat goes dry and I swallow hard.
"Uh… now?"
"Now," he says. I stare at the pencils in my bag for a second. Then I look back at him. "You’ll have to sit still for a long time," I warn. "I’m not fast…"
"I don’t mind," He says immediately. "I’ve got as long as you need. All night."
"I don’t know if it’ll turn out good, though," I mumble. "I might make you ugly."
He snorts. "You’renotgonna make me ugly, I’m sure. From what I saw, you knowexactlyhow to draw faces. You’re good. Please draw me."
That "please" hits way too hard. I laugh a little. "Okay," I say quietly. "I’ll try."
I get up and grab my pencil case from the suitcase.
Am I nervous? Absolutely. I’m terrified, actually. I don’t want to mess it up and have him laugh.
I’m going to use every single brain cell and neuron I have for this. I come back to the bed, clutching my stuff.
"Are we doing it here?" I ask, pointing at the mattress.
"You’re the artist," he says. "You decide."
I give him a tiny smile and look around the room. My eyes land on the small table with the two chairs. "There," I say, nodding toward it. "Come here." I sit in one chair and motion for him to sit in the other, directly across from me.
"You need to be close, so I can see the details."
He leans forward immediately, resting on his elbows, and just… looks at me. Straight into my soul.
"Is this okay?" he asks.
Yeah. If you want medead. I swallow it down and just nod.
"Yeah. It’s good," I say. I open the sketchbook.
"Okay, what do I do now?" he asks.
"Just… stay like that," I say quietly. "Don’t move too much." My fingers are already tense around the pencil. I hate him a little bit for how calm he looks.
I sketch the outline of his head first. Easy stuff. If I pretend it’s some random model from Pinterest, my heart doesn’t beat this fast.
But then I look up, and it’s not Pinterest. It’s Gio. I’ve never done it on someone who’s looking straight back at me like that.
