Erika_traviesa

Renata slept pressed against my back in a thong while I was naked. When she opened her eyes, I knew that morning wouldn’t end as it should.

When she moved into the apartment across from mine, I never imagined that one afternoon, while her son slept, her hand would climb up my thigh and I’d spread my legs without thinking.

She had spent years going to that club alone, waiting for a glance that would stay on her. That night, unknown fingers took her hand and dragged her into the dark.

“Normally, you’d have to kneel and wait in silence,” she said as she fitted the collar around my neck. She didn’t know I’d be the one ending up in charge.

I hadn’t felt anything for months. Then she came in behind me in the stall, locked the door, and everything I thought I knew about myself came crashing down.

My hands were ice-cold in the boarding lounge, but it wasn’t the weather: in a few hours I’d see her again, and I didn’t know whether I’d run to her or hide.

Bruno had broken my heart again, but the one waiting for me at that house on the edge of town wasn’t him — it was his mother, in a dress that left nothing to the imagination.

I went down to the study that night only to discover the plan they had for me. And instead of running, I knelt and said yes to everything.

The store was closed, and she had the whole morning free. The driver noticed before she did, and the smile in the mirror made her think things she shouldn’t.

I knew exactly what I was doing when I put on the gown the wrong way. What I didn’t know was how far that stranger would let himself explore me that afternoon.

He had a meeting and left me alone all afternoon. Bored, I opened a folder on his computer I had no business opening… and couldn’t stop looking.

I crossed the parking lot, hungry and harboring a refined hatred of humanity, and then I saw her fall to the pavement from a punch. She was my boss.

I had never taken my blouse off outdoors. My pulse was racing and my hands were trembling, but something in me needed to know what it felt like for a stranger to be able to look at me.

He asked from the screen, and I obeyed: opening the window, dropping my clothes, and letting those men watch me shamelessly.

Marina turned off the television to sleep. Then the sounds above her head began, and she knew that night she wouldn’t be getting any rest for a very different reason.