Cheating

My boyfriend was snoring like a log in the back room when she came up to me. Her southern accent and those black eyes told me everything before her hands did.

I entered the office with a dry throat. I didn’t expect her to ask me to close my eyes and describe, word for word, what I had been hiding for months.

My wife came back from that visit with a different gleam in her eyes. Her cousin was the only witness, and she took months to tell me what really happened.

Two months ago I started dating a girl who truly loves me. And yet, the moment she leaves, I open the contacts site and look for what she can never give me.

It was six in the morning and the bar was empty. He poured me a tequila, looked at me the way he’d been looking at me all night, and told me he wouldn’t let me leave so soon.

The old neighbor gave me the betrayal photo before I said goodbye. I could only think about Sofía’s door and whether she’d let me back into her house.

We climbed the rusty stairs and heard moans behind the curtain. I couldn’t stop watching—or feeling my best friend pressed against my shoulder.

We started with stupid stickers at the end of the shift. Then came the nickname. Then the fantasy. That night he texted that my place was closer, and I couldn’t say no.

When I arrived at the restaurant in my black dress and lace lingerie, I already knew I wouldn’t leave as the faithful wife I pretended to be.

I’m married. I’m straight. That was me when I walked into the mall bathroom. What I was fifteen minutes later, I’m not so sure anymore.

She wore a dress she’d never have worn in front of my son, and after the second glass of wine she told me she preferred mature men in bed.

From my wheelchair, I watched my wife step out of the car on my boss’s arm. And I knew, somehow, that I was about to be superfluous in my own marriage.

Camille came into the office with two coffees and the hallway door was already locked. That night Elena discovered how much freedom she had given her husband.

When she quickened her pace on the trail and caught up with him with a smile too wide for that hour, Mateo knew the sunrise would not be the only thing he saw at the summit.

I met her long before I met her sister, my wife. Ten years after that hotel, I saw her come out of the water at the beach and knew the story wasn’t over.

When she leaned over my desk to show me the file, her skirt rode up two inches. I couldn’t hide a thing anymore. She didn’t want me to.

I parked three streets away, climbed to the sill, and slipped into the room where she was sleeping with her husband. I only put a finger to her lips.

When they knocked to say our ten minutes were up, I was already face down on the artist’s bed, trembling, his body pressed against mine.

Diego’s voice in the audio sounded defeated. When I heard her name, I knew he’d been cheating on me from his office for months.