A Year Without Her and Fate Crossed Us on the Street

The afternoon heat beat down mercilessly on the streets of downtown Seville as I wandered aimlessly, lost in memories I still couldn’t let go of. Nearly a full year had passed since the last time I saw Naty, and it still hurt like the first day. This wasn’t just any story. What we had was one of those things that gets under your skin and never leaves.

Everything had fallen apart overnight. After that last night, the one the three of us shared, her husband included, something shifted. She disappeared without explanation. She blocked me on every social network, left my messages unread, erased herself from my life as if she had never existed. And I was left with one question stuck in my head: what did I do wrong?

I thought a thousand times that maybe he had forbidden her to see me. That he had locked her in a cage of jealousy. But I never had a way to know, and over time I learned to live with that doubt like someone lives with a scar.

Until that afternoon.

I turned a corner without looking, lost in thought, and my body slammed straight into someone. We both nearly fell.

“Sorry, sorry!” I blurted, instinctively grabbing her arm.

I looked up and the world stopped. It was her. Naty, eyes wide open, as stunned as I was. Time froze between us, and that attraction I thought I had buried hit me in the chest again with the same force as always.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, and her cheeks flushed instantly.

She was more beautiful than I remembered. She was wearing a fitted summer dress that traced every one of her curves, the same curves that had filled so many of my nights with dreams. I smiled, my pulse racing.

“I could ask you the same thing,” I replied. “What a surprise.”

She stayed silent for a second, biting her lip, and then everything came out at once.

“Why didn’t I hear from you anymore? Why did you block me? I wrote to you, I saw you read my messages and didn’t answer, I thought I’d done something wrong. What was all the mystery about?”

I froze. I had been the one I thought had been erased, and she thought exactly the same thing about me.

“Wait,” I said. “You were the one who disappeared. I wrote to you everywhere and never got a reply.”

She lowered her gaze. She took a breath before speaking.

“It was because of Bruno. That last time he got insanely jealous seeing how into it I was. When we got home he was fired up, he wanted to be with me, to prove something to me. I went along with it to calm him down, but it wasn’t the same anymore. The passion wasn’t there. I couldn’t stop thinking about what we had lived through together. —She paused.— From that day on everything changed. He started controlling me. The phone, the messages, social media, everything. I feel like he watches my whole life. That’s why I cut myself off from you. I’m truly sorry.”

I listened in silence, understanding everything. The rage I had carried for months suddenly dissolved.

“Don’t worry,” I told her softly. “I figured something like that. And look at you now... the years have been far too kind to you.”

I took her by the hand and slowly spun her around, like an improvised dance right there on the sidewalk. The dress opened for a moment with the movement, and I got to see again those curves I knew by heart and that seemed even more generous than the last time.

Naty bit her lip. Her brown eyes darkened in a way I recognized instantly.

“I’ve thought about you so many times, Diego,” she said, her voice hoarse, almost breathless. “I wondered what would have happened if we hadn’t broken apart.”

I took another step closer. I wrapped my hand around her waist, feeling the heat of her body through the fabric.

“Then let’s not waste this chance,” I murmured near her ear. “Come back with me, even if it’s only for a while. I want to find you again in every possible way.”

She trembled under my touch. She closed her eyes for a moment and then nodded, determined.

“Yes,” she said quietly. “I thought you’d never ask. But I don’t have much time... two hours at most. After that I’ll see what I can make up when I get home.”

“Relax,” I answered. “We’re going to make the most of those two hours.”

***

The hotel where I was staying was three blocks away. We covered them almost running, hands searching for each other and lips meeting in hurried, feverish kisses, as if we were afraid the moment might evaporate. The second we crossed the room’s threshold, our clothes started hitting the floor. We tore them off each other between laughter and broken breaths, devoured by a hunger we had been holding back for a year.

I laid her on the bed and stopped for a second to look at her. Her naked body stretched out in front of me was an image I had missed every single night.

“You’re even more spectacular than I remembered,” I told her, climbing slowly on top of her.

She wrapped her legs around my waist and pulled me toward her without patience. I could feel the heat she radiated, the built-up need, the same urgency as mine.

“Then show me how much you missed me,” she panted, moving her hips against me. “Don’t hold back.”

She didn’t have to say it twice. I entered her slowly at first and then all the way, and both of us let out a moan at once. Our bodies fit together immediately, remembering a rhythm they had never forgotten. Each thrust made her arch, dig her nails into my shoulders, cling to me as if her life depended on it.

“Yes, like that,” she cried, tightening around me. “Harder. Don’t you dare stop. I needed this so much...”

I turned her carefully so she ended up on top of me. I fell back onto the mattress and guided her by the hips while she took control. The view from below left me speechless: her body swaying, skin shining with sweat, total surrender written on her face.

“Like this, my love,” she moaned, planting her hands on my thighs as she moved forcefully. “Faster.”

I matched her movements, lifting my hips to meet her, and a wave of pleasure washed over both of us at the same time. She threw her head back, lost in the sensation.

“I love the way you move,” I managed to say, breathless.

One of her hands slid down to her own body, searching for the right spot. Her movements became frantic, uncoordinated, desperate.

“God, I’m so close,” she gasped. “Come with me. Please, come with me.”

I couldn’t resist. With a few more thrusts, deep and firm, we both fell into the same abyss. Naty let out a cry that surely went through the walls, not caring about anything, and collapsed onto my chest panting, trembling, while the aftershocks of pleasure shook us in waves. I wrapped my arms around her and left little kisses on her damp skin.

“I missed this,” I murmured, my voice thick. “I missed you.”

She lifted her head and stroked my cheek.

“I don’t want us to be separated again,” she said firmly. “Whatever happens, we belong to each other.”

I nodded, knowing she was right. No matter how hard life tried to keep us apart, I always found the way back to her.

***

The minutes slipped through our fingers, but we stretched each one as far as we could. We lost ourselves completely in each other, tracing every inch of skin with our hands, our lips, our tongues, drawing the other’s body from memory in case life decided to separate us again. I had her in a thousand ways: on top of me, underneath me, on her side, open so I could reach deeper, on her back so I could hold her while I made her mine. Every position was a discovery, a piece of lost time we reclaimed by force.

Drenched in sweat and trembling from the effort, we let ourselves fall together when the clock no longer gave us any mercy. The late afternoon light slipped through the blinds, splitting her face into golden bands. Naty curled against my chest, and little by little our hearts found their rhythm again.

“No more goodbyes,” I whispered, kissing her forehead. “Now you’re mine, and you always will be.”

“Good,” she whispered back with a smile. “Because I’m not letting you go again.” Then something changed in her face and she sat up abruptly. “But I have to go now. I need to come up with something, I’m terribly late, or Bruno will kill me.”

She jumped out of bed in one leap. There she was again: the woman who, when she returned to reality, filled with nerves and started doing everything in a rush, as if time would never be enough.

I stayed lying there, enjoying the show. I watched her move around the room, gathering up the clothes we had tossed everywhere, with that adorable urgency only those four walls ever witnessed.

“Why are you staring at me so much?” she protested. “I’m a mess. You make me nervous.”

“You’re gorgeous,” I laughed. “But you, as always, get rattled the second your time runs out. You’re my own personal Cinderella: as soon as the clock strikes, you take off running.”

“Don’t make fun of me,” she said while fixing her dress. “You know I get like this, and Bruno is very jealous.”

“Relax, my love. I know the rules now. I’ll hold back from writing you. But you can: send me a message, a sign, anything, so I know you’re okay. I don’t want to lose you again.”

She came closer to the bed with shining eyes. She cupped my face with one hand and gave me a long kiss, one of those that stays stuck to your mouth for hours.

“I love you,” she said. “I’m going to do everything I can so we see each other again. I promise.”

“I’ll be here,” I replied. “Waiting to hear about you.”

She gave me one last kiss and left almost running, closing the door behind her. Her perfume lingered in the air, filling the room with her.

***

About half an hour passed. I was still lying there, replaying every moment, when I got a message from the number that had me blocked:

“I’ve had the best day of my life. With you it’s always different. Sometimes I think about what our life together would have been like... but I don’t regret anything. I’m grateful fate crossed our paths again. I don’t want you to stop being part of me, even if I can’t write to you whenever I want. One more thing: go to the bathroom, I left you a keepsake. Keep it so you don’t forget me. I’m already getting home, don’t answer, let me do it. Take care.”

I stared at the screen, surprised she had risked writing to me. But I respected her request and didn’t reply. I sprang up and went to the bathroom. There, hanging on the shower door, I found her intimate garment, still warm, with her scent soaked into the fabric. I didn’t hesitate for a second: I brought it to my face and let myself be wrapped in that smell of hers, the one that had had me spellbound from the very first time.

Then I understood her last sentence before leaving, when she told me laughing that she was going away wet. I smiled to myself in the middle of the bathroom, imagining her hurrying down the street with that feeling.

It didn’t take long for me to get aroused again. With her memory in my hands and her scent flooding my senses, I let myself go one last time, in honor of the woman fate had given back to me when I had already given her up for lost.

I hope, dear readers, that those who made it this far enjoyed this reunion as much as I did. I’m still waiting for Naty to write me, for fate to be generous once more and grant us another adventure, one of those that stay tattooed on the soul forever.