Andres is a warm and caring friend up to the point I have to leave to catch my train to Copenhagen. He makes me two sandwiches for the trip and breakfast before I go. I am very grateful and comfortable with his friendship. It's the same for him, I believe. I head back to my hotel to pick up my bags and bike and check out, and then return to his place to spend one last hour with him before he leaves for work. He leaves me his keys when he goes. I lie on his living room floor and listen to music on the radio until it is time to leave for the station.
I leave shortly after 2 pm to arrive half an hour early, but when I get there and buy my ticket I find out that the train to Copenhagen, which I was told yesterday by the ticket agent would be leaving at 2:56, actually left at 2:11. The information counter agent today shrugs her shoulders and says "Oh shit, uh?" I am furious and exasperated, and not sure what to do next. For some reason, I feel winded and depressed. She assures me the train tomorrow will leave at the same time and that my ticket is good for two months. That's a minor consolation. Now I have time to kill. I ride back towards Andres' place, stopping along the way to talk to a group of cyclists returning from a tour of France and Spain. I leave my bags outside of Andres' door with a brief note of explanation and ride to Mann-o-Meter. I wander around the neighbourhood looking for a coin-operated phone that isn't broken, and when I find one - the ninth one I try - I call Kresten Andersen in Copenhagen to let him know my arrival will be delayed one day.
Andres will not be off shift for a few more hours. I don't feel like sitting around in Mann-o-Meter so I go to the Apollo Sauna. It looks clean and interesting inside. The dry sauna is larger but most of the action is in the steam rooms. There are four of them that lead from one to the other, each one being progressively darker. I sit in the second one, not feeling quite ready for sex yet. An attractive younger man sits beside me. I watch him for a few minutes before letting my leg softly touch his. Slowly, cautiously, we increase our touching before we start to embrace and kiss. It is very tender and sweet.
He leads me first to the third room, then the fourth where we have sex. We get to weak from the heat of the steam to climax. We flee the room to take a cold shower together, toweling each other off playfully, tenderly, passionately like new lovers. We return to the steam room for another romp before escaping to the lounge, where we sit naked in our towels, drinking juices and talking.
His name is Hans. He's 25, shorter than me with short, soft brown hair and white skin as smooth are hard as marble. His English is quite limited but good enough to make some conversation. I can tell he is intelligent and very sweet. He has a lover who he would prefer to concentrate on, but his lover has four or five other lovers and wants him to be the same way. Hans likes me very much and would like to meet up with me later, perhaps in Egypt when he goes there next November. I have no ideas where I will be then, but promise to keep in touch when I can. We return to the steam room for another romp and then we leave together, parting outside the main door after a long, passionate kiss goodbye. I love the openness of Berlin.
Andres's apartment complex is locked after 8 pm and there is no doorbell or intercom. I am lucky to find a nearby pay phone that works, and fortunately he is at home earlier than usual. He had planned to join a friend for dinner after work but when he found my note and my bags he changed his mind. We go out for a simply sandwich dinner at a café named Brooklyn, NY, and then return to his apartment where we hang out until we go to bed.
I am relieved that Andres has taken me in but I feel embarrassed about imposing on him, too, and for trusting the ticket agent's information and asking for a printed schedule. My re-appearance required him to change his plans, and I am not sure he is with OK about this. He tells me not to worry about it. Perhaps I am also feeling a bit disloyal for having had gone to the sauna too, and having young Hans' sweetness and beauty still colouring my imagination as I lie beside Andres.
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