As we walked up past Corrientes we passed the shopping mall.

“Let’s go down there for a minute,” he said.

“There’s nothing open.”

“I know. That’s why I want to go down there.”

We walked down the mall, idling as though we were here just to look in shop windows. In the entry to one of the shops we stood facing each other. He smiled and put his warm, soft lips against mine. His tongue was strong and supple in my mouth. I shuddered as he pushed himself against me.

“Be careful,” I said. “Someone will come.”

“I will come,” he said.

“Don’t come yet,” I said. He laughed.

I put my hands on his waist. I could feel his shape, and I wondered if it was like this here, what would it be like when we were at home?

“I want to go,” I said.

We walked along the last few streets saying nothing.

“Is kissing safe?” I asked as we got near the apartment.

“Are you worried about it?”

“I don’t know much about AIDS. There’s been very little in the papers down here. I read a few pieces in the New York Times.”

“Yeah, kissing’s safe, and as long as you use condoms everything else is okay.”

He said nothing about the apartment. He went to use the bathroom and I sat at the window in the long hallway waiting for him. When I heard the toilet flushing I thought he would come out and say that this place was in urgent need of someone to dust it and clean it. But he simply asked where the bedroom was and grinned as he gestured to me to follow him there.

At first, he took control. He held me in his arms. Then after we had kissed for a while he quickly took his shoes off and pulled mine off as well. I could not believe how beautiful he was like this, how earnest and concentrated. I took my jacket off and he opened the buttons on my shirt. He knelt up and looked at my bare chest without speaking, as if he were in a trance. He opened the clasp on my trousers and pulled down the zip and then slowly undressed me. He kept his own clothes on.

“And I thought you were such a jerk when I met you first,” he said.

“I thought you were wonderful.”

We lay together for a long time saying nothing, not moving. After a while he turned off the lamp.

“Are you not going to take your clothes off?”

“I’m going to take my socks off,” he said.

“More.” I put my hands under his shirt and felt his skin. He lay still.

When we spoke again it was after eleven o’clock.

“I’m going to have to go,” he said.

“Was it not okay?”

“It was great,” he leaned over and tossed my hair, “but I have to go.”