Patrick and Tom begin their affair after a portrait session at Patrick’s flat on 19 October 1957. The event marks a shift from a relationship organized around the portrait to one of private intimacy. Its significance lies in the tension between Tom’s apparent willingness to approach Patrick and the danger that Patrick, acutely aware of Tom’s police position, associates with that approach.

Setting and Risk

The encounter takes place in Patrick’s flat, where Tom joins him after the portrait work has brought them together. As Tom settles near Patrick, Patrick thinks through the risk of being alone with a policeman. His thoughts recall warnings and earlier incidents involving Jackie Butters, Esme Owens, and a young man at the Napoleon. That recollection does not stop the encounter, but it establishes that Patrick understands the possibility of exposure and harm even as he responds to Tom’s closeness.

Before they speak openly about what is happening, the scene turns on small, observable actions. Patrick offers Tom a cigarette; the Duchess lights it for him. Tom handles the cigarette with conspicuous care, as if learning the gestures from a film. Patrick notices a bruise around Tom’s wrist, his worn jacket, and his new, pointed boots. He wonders who directed Tom to this place and whether the advice was mistaken. These details leave Tom’s route to the flat uncertain: Patrick considers both a bad recommendation and the possibility that Tom, like Patrick in the past, has taken a risk by entering a place associated with a disreputable rumour.

From Portrait to Intimacy

The portrait remains present as the language through which Patrick can address the change between them. When Tom’s arm rests along the back of the chesterfield and moves nearer, Patrick says that Tom will make a wonderful portrait. The remark keeps their existing project in view while allowing Patrick to respond to Tom’s advance without first naming its meaning. The professional pretext and the personal encounter occupy the same room; the change is registered through proximity and touch rather than a declaration.

Patrick describes the moment as a conflict between his reasoning and his physical response. He knows that Tom is a policeman and thinks of the situation as dangerous, but attends instead to the warmth of Tom’s arm beside him. Tom touches the back of Patrick’s neck. When Patrick turns, Tom appears pale and is breathing quickly. Their apprehension is visible in their bodies, while their speech remains limited. Patrick takes the initiative, asks Tom not to speak, and guides the encounter forward. In this restrained but decisive exchange, the portrait’s formal purpose gives way to mutual intimacy, though the danger that frames it has not disappeared.

Silence and Departure

Afterward, Patrick rests with his head in Tom’s lap. The curtains remain open; street lamps dimly light the room, cars pass outside, and a gull calls in the evening. Tom rests his hand in Patrick’s hair. Neither speaks for what seems to Patrick a long time. The quiet does not resolve what their closeness means or what they can safely do next. Instead, it gives the encounter an immediate aftermath in which physical proximity continues while conversation fails to arrive.

Tom eventually stands, dresses, and asks whether he should come again. Patrick understands the question as uncertain rather than as a settled refusal, and tells him that he should return. Tom pauses at the doorway and acknowledges that the situation is not simple. Patrick’s recollection of Michael leaving on Wednesday nights briefly connects this departure to an earlier pattern of men leaving without a fuller conversation; he tries to put off that conversation and wants Tom to stay longer. Tom nevertheless goes.

The Proposed Return

Unable to move, Patrick manages only to ask whether they will meet at the same time the following week. Tom has already slammed the front door. The final exchange therefore holds both an opening and a withdrawal: Patrick has welcomed another meeting, but Tom’s departure prevents the arrangement from becoming reassurance. The date attached to the account, 19 October 1957, fixes this tentative beginning within the chronology of their relationship.

The event makes the portrait project a threshold. It has brought the men into repeated contact, but the first intimate encounter changes the terms of that contact without removing its risks. Patrick’s awareness that Tom is a policeman persists alongside his desire; Tom’s hesitant question and abrupt departure sit beside his participation in the encounter. Their attempt to continue is reduced to a proposed weekly meeting, leaving secrecy, danger, and the possibility of return unresolved.