Anal

It started with his hand inside my pants while we pretended to watch the screen. None of the four of us said a word until it was impossible to stop.

I was about to get into the jacuzzi when someone knocked on the door. It was her, with my card in hand and the smile I’d been imagining for months.

I told them my comfort was more effective than any cold drink. I took off my clothes before going in and waited for the hot water to betray me in the steam.

For twenty years behind the desk, I've learned to read people. I knew she couldn't make rent long before she dared ask me for help.

When the power went out and we were trapped between two floors, I knew those hours in the dark would change everything. And I did nothing to stop it.

They called me the old maid with the cats, but no one in the neighborhood imagined what went on in my house every morning, every afternoon, and every night since that summer Tuesday.

We hadn’t exchanged numbers, but I knew how to find him. I went back to the chat with one thought: to have him call me his kitty again.

No one answered the intercom, but the door opened anyway. That’s when I knew there was no turning back and that man was going to do whatever he wanted with me.

I’d wanted it all summer and never dared. That afternoon, with the pool silent and no one nearby, Adrián jumped in naked and looked at me from the middle.

We both wanted him from the very first class, but we never imagined he’d be the one to ask us to choose between forgetting him or moving into his house.

I had just turned twenty-two and had never been with anyone. Iván was three years younger, but one stupid bet was enough to show me who was in charge.

The metallic voice announced the next phase and, instead of panic, I felt something I shouldn’t have: a ridiculous urge for it all to start again.

The motel terrace connected to his, and from the dimness a deep voice called me “pretty.” I should have gone inside and locked the door. I didn’t.

I checked the time at half past three when I walked into that empty bathroom. I didn’t lock the door. It was the mistake —or the stroke of luck— that changed forever what I thought I knew about myself.

The arm resting across his abdomen wasn’t his girlfriend’s. It was heavy, warm, and masculine. And Bruno couldn’t remember a thing about the night before.

When I opened my eyes in the steam room, he was already looking at me. And I knew exactly who he was, even though I never thought I’d have him that close.

I left the gym with my body still burning and took the dirt track to smoke in peace. I never expected that black car to stop right behind me.

Four months alone in the mountains had left him with a hunger no whisky could soothe. That night, behind the inn’s red curtain, three boys knew exactly how to take him in.

On a Friday at ten, the gym was nearly empty and a guy who was loading twice what I was on the bench beside me. One look in the mirror was enough to send everything off the rails.

I’d swum three thousand meters flat out and only wanted hot water on my shoulders. Then he turned beneath the shower beside me, and I knew that afternoon wouldn’t end like the others.