Desire

For years I’d wanted to go to a nude beach, but none of my partners would come with me. That morning I went alone, not knowing how it would end.

She unhooked her bikini top with the natural ease of someone who has already decided everything. “You told me to feel free,” she said. And I could barely breathe.

Every night she invented a new excuse on the phone while he waited for her in the room upstairs. She knew that sooner or later everything would explode.

I was curious and a little scared, but when I knelt in front of him I knew I wasn’t going to back out. That afternoon I learned something new about myself.

I’d been watching her at the traffic light for weeks, with those denim shorts and that tired smile. That afternoon I dared to speak to her, never imagining where we’d end up.

Most of the time I’m the man I was born as. But some nights I put on the wig, look in the mirror, and let Sabrina go out looking for what she really wants.

I left home in an ordinary dress, but underneath I was wearing something only he would see. I knew what he was going to ask for, and I had already decided to say yes.

I’d been sleeping among the stars for twenty years. The first woman who smiled at me on solid ground dragged me into a bathroom before I could say no.

The auditorium was almost empty when his hand settled on the armrest. I was forty-two and thought I knew everything about desire. That night I learned I didn’t.

When Marisa caught me breathing hard and staring at her legs, she didn’t get offended: she smiled, leaned close to my ear, and told me it wouldn’t end there.

Every morning she watched people from her café table, never imagining that a man in a suit was studying her back—or the silent arrangement he was about to offer.

I told her I couldn’t think of anything to write. She got off my lap, let her clothes fall to the floor, and ordered me with a smile: “Describe me.”

The corset hugged his body like a second skin and the satin tightened around his wrists. In front of the mirror, Adrián stopped pretending and finally became who he wanted to be.

When he got out of the van with that smile, I knew the broken boiler would be the best excuse fate had given me in years.

Under the torch I go over my sketches and feel my body burning for her. My contract is ending, and I already know one thing: I’m not leaving this jungle without Yuma by my side.

That morning I woke with one fixed idea in my head, and for the first time I didn’t push it away. What I did alone is still hard to confess aloud.

I told him no woman spread her legs for him that easily. He only smiled and said, “We’ll see.” I had no idea what he was hiding behind that door.

I came home from my second date with my heart racing, never imagining that my own husband would ask me that night to tell him everything.

Everyone hurried past his kiosk so they wouldn’t have to hear his filth. One summer afternoon, Dalia stopped for an ice cream and didn’t know how to go home anymore.

I worked the night shift and had one rule: don’t get involved with the guests. I broke it the very first dawn, and then every night that impossible week.