Cousins

I asked for a foot massage almost as a joke. I never imagined that night, by the fire and with wine in me, my father and my cousin would stop holding back.

When I saw her come down through the lobby at six in the morning, with a suitcase bigger than she was, I knew that summer would be unlike any other.

I closed my eyes to imagine him watching me. When hands grabbed my waist from behind, I thought I knew whose they were. I was completely wrong.

I’d spent months avoiding coming back, but that afternoon my sister put a video on the screen and nothing in our family was ever the same again.

What began as an awkward talk about toys in the back seat ended up becoming the darkest secret that family would ever tell.

I got off the train with one idea in my head, and when I crossed the door of his apartment I knew neither of us was going to pretend this was a family visit.

When my aunt asked if I already had a girlfriend, everyone laughed. My cousin Camila didn’t. Beneath the tablecloth, her bare foot slid up my leg and I knew the night was only beginning.

When I looked up and saw her sweeping the living room, I knew my cousin was the only one who could save me. I never imagined how far we’d go that afternoon.

Marisol thought her son was only watching his cousin. But that night, in the same dress and with the same curves, she realized the real temptation was her.

I thought I had the whole house to myself for four days. I didn’t count on him having keys, cameras, and a curiosity he’d never confessed.

Every time we went back to Grandma’s old house, the same game started all over again: one hand brushing another and nobody watching.

For four days the little paper with his number burned in my pocket. Every night I remembered that wetness dripping out, and I knew I was going to call.

We’d spent years summering together, seeing each other topless without thinking anything of it. Until that first day at the beach, when her hand slipped inside my bikini and everything changed.

I left my father’s villa for my grandparents’ house in the village. I had no idea my aunt, the most devout woman in town, would end up naked in my bed for an envelope full of bills.

My niece climbed into my bed with an indecent proposal, and I never imagined my son would be spying on us from the hallway door.

When Valeria told me her three cousins were waiting to celebrate, I never imagined the celebration meant finding out whether I was good for more than balancing their accounts.