Deceit

He had gone weeks without news of her since discovering what had happened between his stepmother and him. When he came through the door, he carried a suitcase and an unreadable expression.

My boyfriend used to call the electrician who fixed the wiring “Mustache.” That afternoon, when everyone left, I was the one who asked him for forgiveness in the living room.

When I looked up from the sofa, Bruno and Damián were standing in front of me with their cocks out. I didn’t make it to the door.

Mateo nodded toward me and went upstairs. I followed without thinking, knowing his girlfriend was my best friend and that nothing could stop us anymore.

When she approached with a cigarette in hand and tattoos gleaming in the sun, I knew I’d answer her messages even with my husband sleeping beside me.

When I saw them come out of the elevator together, I knew that afternoon was going to be very different from all the others I’d had with him.

When Sofía walked into the living room and found the loan shark tied up and her husband holding a shotgun, she knew her lie had reached its end.

They fought over a shitty pizza. He went into the shower. When the delivery guy rang the bell, she’d already decided to settle the score in the worst way.

While rain beat against the windows, my wife’s friend drank my vodka and asked the exact questions that made me reveal everything I’d kept silent.

I left the bathroom door half open on purpose and knew, from the mirror’s reflection, that he was watching me. That day I accepted the five hundred soles and everything that followed.

I went down the bathroom corridor when no one was looking. I heard his voice first, then hers. I didn’t open the door. I stood there, listening to my life break.

I climbed into a van full of foreign guys without thinking twice. My boyfriend would be back from the supermarket in ten minutes. I only needed one.

I went barefoot down to the bathroom and the half-open door let me see him in the shower. What happened that night on the living-room mattress was my first time with another man.

He was forty, with rough hands and a mustache I’d never liked. Until I found him lying in the bed in my son’s empty room.

The phone rang, I said I was going running, and drove to his house. When I came back to my block, the sirens were already waiting for me.

When the referee blew the final whistle, I knew there was no turning back: I’d have to pay up on the bet in front of my friend, right at the bar.

The doorbell rang after midnight and I opened it expecting pizza. It was a stranger with a bottle in his hand and the truth about my wife on his lips.

I went to the bar to forget what I saw, and woke up naked in the bed of the girl who had despised me most in class. That same morning I’d be getting three million.

When she came to sweep the empty house, I told her to go back to her town спокойно. Three hours later we were in my bed, and my wife still hadn’t landed.

The door opened just as Carolina crossed the hall naked, with another man behind her. That night I learned my silence would have a price I never imagined.