Cheating

When he rolled down the window and I heard his voice, the five years we hadn’t seen each other vanished in an instant and I knew I would get in without asking where we were going.

I agreed to my husband’s fantasy on one condition: I would choose how, where, and with whom. What he didn’t know was that I already had someone in mind.

I went up to change into something more daring while they showered. By then I already knew that if I went downstairs to the kitchen, I wouldn’t be able to hold myself back.

She used to tan topless by the pool, sure no one could see her. Until she felt his gaze fixed on her naked skin.

The elevator was old and narrow, and she was right in front of me. I only had to slide my hand around behind her and pray her husband kept his eyes on his phone.

In the elevator he brushed my arm as if by accident and smelled of expensive cologne. That same night, while I dressed in the dark, he was already planning how to leave Tomás.

I’d been crossing paths with her in the lobby for months, avoiding her gaze. That afternoon, trapped in the elevator with her drunk husband beside us, I stopped avoiding her.

I went over just to watch the final. When the whistle blew, a hand sank into my ass and I knew the real plan was starting then and there.

When I opened my suitcase at the cabin, there was nothing of mine inside—just lace thongs, short skirts, and makeup. Carla looked at me calmly and said this was my only chance.

The key was still warming my pocket from the night before. I knew she’d be awake, waiting for me, with her robe open and the coffee maker on the stove.

Two hours before the vows, I wanted to steal one last kiss as fiancés and crossed the woods to his cabin. The back window showed me something I would never forget.

When the landline rang that afternoon, I never imagined the call would take me to a downtown hotel, to two men wanting me, and to a version of myself I didn’t know.

When she opened the door in that short robe with the sheer nightdress underneath, I knew the afternoon wasn’t going to be just about installing a TV.

We were alone in the office at seven. By ten Camila was leaning against a shelf in the archive and I couldn’t think about the client anymore.

Yesterday I slept with my ex-wife, and it was by far the sanest thing I did all week. What happened the other four days is not something I should be telling you, but here I am.

I arrived determined to behave. When the lights went down and that stranger’s body started moving among us, I knew something was about to spiral out of control.

The other side of the bed was untouched, and on the fruit bowl sat an envelope with my name in my husband’s square handwriting.

She wore the tightest yellow dress in her closet and her head was full of arguments against that woman. An hour later, she didn’t know if she hated her or wanted her.

Carla whispered her darkest fantasy to me, and weeks later I saw her on her knees before the man we had both chosen without saying it out loud.

I was married and alone at the town festival when my two exes showed up the same night. First they hated each other. Then they decided to share me until dawn.