Aunt Nephew

The robe barely covered her legs when she approached the sofa. Tobías was no longer pretending to sleep, and everything I’d been keeping quiet for months was showing.

She lived two floors above me, and every time I ran into her in the elevator I thought the same thing: you’re going to be mine. That afternoon, with a rose in my hand, I asked her to come down for coffee with me.

Nineteen years old, a 100-degree afternoon, and my aunt by marriage mopping my room in tight jeans. That afternoon I couldn’t hold back anymore.

When I saw him get off the train, he was no longer the boy I remembered. In that moment I thought my husband would have to learn to share, even if he never knew how.

When I woke on the wet stone and saw her slipping off her swimsuit, I knew that blow to the head had taken me somewhere I’d never come back from the same.

My cousin had gone to the beach with her friends. When I rang the bell, my aunt opened the door wearing her apron and a smile I’d never seen before.

I had been fantasizing about her for weeks, but the snowstorm and that couples’ motel finally broke down the barriers between us.

When I told my husband what I wanted for my birthday, he smiled and started making calls. A private casino night changed everything between us.

When I entered that room and saw my mother riding my best friend, I knew nothing would ever be the same. What happened next shattered every rule I knew.

When he confessed his fetish that night, I knew I could never look at him the same way again. I told him it would happen only once. We both knew that was a lie.

We’d been locked up for days when the conversation turned dangerous. His confession in the dark ended with my hands on him.

When I covered her with the blanket and my hand brushed the curve of her hip, I knew it would take me a long time to pull it away.

If they had told us that morning we would end up in a room with a mirror on the ceiling, neither of us would have believed it.