Cheating

I told him I wasn’t going to touch him, just look. But each folder he opened on the screen pushed me a little closer to crossing the line we’d been skirting for months.

She went down for water and found them laughing in the garden. That night, on her knees in the hallway, I decided to remind my husband who he belonged to.

When my mother opened the door and I saw who was coming to dinner, my blood ran cold: it was the man I’d been secretly sleeping with for two months.

Daniel slept in the front seat while, three feet away, his uncle and girlfriend shared the truck’s narrow bunk. And Noelia no longer wanted to sleep.

She ran her marriage, but that morning on the sand I found out how much she loved a stranger telling her who was in charge, with her husband watching.

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.

He brought homemade orujo in an unlabeled jug and got my boyfriend drunk in an hour. When Sergio started snoring, his uncle looked at me, and I knew dinner was only the beginning.

Twelve months had passed since the last time. I turned a corner downtown and collided with her: the same perfume, the same look, the same desire I thought I’d forgotten.

It was only supposed to be the cover story so his wife wouldn’t suspect. I never imagined I’d end up sitting across from them, unable to look away from what they were doing.

I had spent years sneaking onto the site just to look. That summer afternoon, I finally decided to open the door to one of them.

I put on the lingerie she’d never wear and wait for him to knock on the motel door. I know he’ll return: there’s a man starving in his home.

I was 24, with a sweet girlfriend and a doubt I’d kept quiet for years. His hand on my shoulder that night at the bar ended up answering it.

I showed up at that party in my swimwear thinking it would be just another day with my boyfriend. I had no idea I’d end up on my knees, showing another man what he was missing.

I’m a patrician used to buying everything I desire. That afternoon I discovered there are men you don’t command: you obey them.

I was only going to touch him for a moment, out of pity. I never imagined that old man with the huge hands would end up giving me orders while I obeyed without resistance.

He offered me double the salary of anyone else. What wasn’t in the contract was everything his hand on my shoulder was demanding from me.

I’d been protecting that job like gold for three months. That morning, alone with him before opening, I discovered how much I liked being told what to do.

I was never attracted to him, but every message he sent left me hotter than the last. And that night, with my husband only a few feet away, I stopped resisting.

When I sat down in front of him with the list in my hand, I already knew I hadn’t gone to check materials. My boss had sent me to get the discount, and I was the currency.

He left me alone in his living room, still trembling, and I walked out of his house without saying goodbye. That same week I understood that something inside me had ignited and I would no longer be able to turn it off.