5/07/2012

That's the Point

Story Sent in by Cameron:

Sandra said that she wanted to sketch me at some point over the course of our Saturday date. We had lunch, then found a bench. She broke out her sketchbook and fished around in her bag for a pencil.

She pulled out a new pencil that hadn't even been sharpened. "This pencil hasn't been sharpened," she said.

She looked around a bit more in her bag and found another pencil, also new, also unsharpened.

"Damn it," she said, "Do you have a pencil sharpener on you? Or in your car?"

I had to laugh. "No. I don't usually carry one with me."

She didn't laugh along. "Well, you knew I'd be sketching you. Didn't seem like such a strange thing to ask about!" She stood and said, "Let's find one. Come on."

I thought that we were going to take a walk to a pharmacy or office supply store. Nope! She led me to a toy store, a diner, a bookstore, and a clothing store, none of which, oddly enough, seemed to carry a pencil sharpener.

Finally, we went to a pharmacy that had an office supply aisle, and she found a cheap green plastic sharpener. She inspected it closely, then handed it to me.

"Pay," she said.

I thought it was rude of her to ask that way, but it was less than a dollar, and she was offering to sketch me. I paid, we sat back down on the bench, and she drew.

She restarted the sketch probably close to 10 times. Finally, she said, "I'm off my game today. I'll have to do this some other time. My hand is cramping."

Disappointed after waiting for it, I said, "Okay. I'll take the pencil sharpener."

She gave me a hard stare. "But it's mine."

I replied, "I bought it. I never said it was a gift. I expected a sketch in exchange."

She said, "I think that's pretty cheap of you. Do you remember how hard it was to find it? I'm a sketch artist. You work in a hospital. What are you going to do with a pencil sharpener?"

I replied, "Not the point. I didn't buy it as a gift, I—"

"Here," she said, handing it to me. She gathered her things and said, "You just bought it again by spending me. I hope it was worth it, you cheap dick."

She left and I had a new pencil sharpener. Seemed like a fair trade to me.

13 comments:

  1. Truly the economy is in dire straits based on the ABCotD stories lately. First we have OPs complaining about splurging on "fancy rotisserie dinners" at the food court and now getting angry over the loss of 75-cent pencil sharpeners. I feel like if I were to toss a handful of change in front of some of these people, they would shove their dates out of the way in their mad scramble to get to it.

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  2. That was a pretty sketchy date.

    Yeah, I know what I did there.

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  3. Go OP! Fight crazy with crazy. I'd like to think I would do the same.

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  4. The OP will never get laid, but he will at least have a good collection of cheap crap.

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  5. She said, "Pay", so I say "keep!"

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  6. She said, "Pay", so I say "keep!"

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  7. I guess it was a good trade off. It took the OP 75cents to find out that the date was a controlling psycho

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  8. lol! really? asking someone to pay for a 75cent sharpener definitely is a sure-fire way to diagnose a controlling pycho. If she'd paid, then we'd be diagnosing her of being "too easy", eh? j/k

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    Replies
    1. I think the point is that she demanded him to pay, not asked. If she had asked nicely, then it would be a different story.

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  9. If I pay for something, it is mine. If you make me pay for something for you, we are clearly not meant to be, and I have no use for you. If you insist on paying for something for me and make me accept it, I resent you for forcing me to be in your debt and we will never be.

    Team OP, ditch the bitch.

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    Replies
    1. Let me guess: you read a lot of Ayn Rand and consider yourself a LaVeyan satanist? Boring. Also you're probably single.

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  10. It sounds to me like the whole date was some elaborate ruse on her part to procure herself a new pencil sharpener.
    Luckily, you saw right through that monkey business.

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  11. I am confused about her going to so many places that were less likely to have a pencil sharpener. I'm also confused that she thought that he would have one and as an "artist" that she wouldn't have one of her own. If she brought her sketchbook and pencils, why wouldn't she have brought pencil sharpeners. I'm also confused that OP didn't suggest right away that they go to a drug store, but allowed himself to be dragged around to the other stores. And so it goes.

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