“Yo soy Pablo,” he said.

I said nothing for a moment.

“I wanted to talk to you,” I spoke in English, “but I wasn’t quite sure how to arrange it.”

“I’ve dropped by your house a few times,” he said. I had never heard him speak English before.

“I’d like to see you,” I said. And then I stopped. I had not been listening properly: “You called around to my house?”

“I wasn’t sure which bell it was, and so I tried them all. Then a woman told me which was yours, and I tried that again, but there was no reply.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”

“Where are you now?” he asked.

“At home.”

“Can I come around?”

“When?”

“Now. I hate Sunday here.”

I wanted time to prepare for him. After all the waiting, I felt a strange resistance, as though I were happier thinking about him than I was facing the possibility of meeting him.

“What about later on?”

“Okay. Like what time?”

“Six, say, or seven.”

“Between six and seven, where?”

“What about the bar of the Sheraton Hotel?”

“I’ll come in on the train. That’s good. I’ll see you there.”

In English he sounded like a different person, friendly, with no hang-ups. I wished that the shops were open so that I could buy a new shirt. I tried to picture myself sitting at the bar when he came in. I did not know what I should wear. I thought about a tie and then dismissed the idea immediately. Maybe he was going to say that he would be glad if I did not tell his family he was gay. Maybe that is why he had called, and why he was now so eager to meet me. I did not know what was going to happen, but when I turned from the phone I jumped in the air as though I had just won money.

I went down to the bar in the street and had a sandwich and then a cup of coffee. Every thought was rushing. I was sure that my heart was beating faster. I am like a girl, I said to myself and smiled. The barman saw me smiling and he smiled too. I had another coffee and wondered what I would do for the afternoon. I thought suddenly that he might telephone now to cancel everything and I would not be there, and I would end up waiting in the hotel bar for hours. I am really like a girl, I thought again, and once more could not restrain a smile.