I am very much on the go. Probably 7-8 months a year. Mostly on business but quite a bit on my own, too. Travel is exciting, rite?
It really all started when I was barely 20 and got a very swell summer job and checked myself into one of the 'grand hotels', here in Europe. The guy who delivered my bags must have been my age and was a total eye-candy. The fact that I did not jump him right there and then is a small miracle in itself. Few people I have seen are drop-dead gorgeous, and the dude was one of the top 3 in the last 25 years or so of my looking.
So, he looked, I looked, he smiled and I smiled and gave him a triple tip or something to that effect. More looks, more smiles, a lot of 'Thankyous' and that was it. Nope, I was not going to give up on that guy that easy.
Service still meant something in those days, so I rung him up, few minutes later (himself being an acting Bell Captain) and asked him to come up to my room and bring down some of my paperwork to the desk. He showed up in absolutely no time, while I was still messing around with the paperwork. This gave me an opening and I said, I was going to ask the Concierge to book me a table at the nicest downtown restaurant for that evening. He volunteered that, yeah, the place was superb, very nice, very expensive, and all. Cool, I said, we are going there. I had known the place well. Obviously, he did not quite get the meaning of 'we'. So, I said, book a table for two and meet me in front of the restaurant at 8 sharp.
He was not even half-way as surprised as you would think, he'd be. (All those looks and smiles... the guy was getting it on all frequencies loud and clear...)
Indeed, we had a great dinner. He was studying philosophy, was fluent in English, German, etc.. The dude had the mind to match the looks. We ended up at his tiny studio for one of those nights, I shall never forget. The guy knew his stuff, no doubt. We did not get a wink of sleep that night.
The only thing he asked was that I made absolutely sure no one figured out what we were up to at the hotel. His job was at stake and I did not want the rumors anyway.
I stayed there for three months. We met almost every night and spent practically every weekend together. We were insatiable.
We kept in touch for a while and had more time together whenver that was possible. But I had to move on and so did he.
He graduated a year later than myself, got married and after his first daughter was born asked me to understand his decision to end up our 'friendship' as he called it. Both of us knew that, if we ever saw each other again, nothing would have stopped us and his future would have been at stake. This wasn't easy. But I clearly saw his point. He has made his decision and wanted to stay with his wife. We parted as friends.
KD
