Desire

I came to that dinner expecting a glass of wine and an escape to the countryside afterward. I ended up kneeling in front of a stranger while my lover watched.

We were tousled and makeup-free when Daniela reminded me of that time. I didn’t imagine that, before nightfall, they’d be watching us from the half-open door.

For years we mentioned it over laughter and drinks without daring to try. That night, someone wrote our names on slips of paper, and everyone stopped talking.

When Marina took off her last piece of clothing in the warm water, the four of us knew that night no one would be sleeping on their own side of the bed.

The guest bathroom was occupied, so I walked into the bedroom without thinking. Damián was there, alone, looking at me like someone who’d been waiting for that moment for weeks.

She kissed my neck, looked me in the eye, and let out the sentence she’d been holding back for weeks. It wasn’t a question: it was an invitation to break every rule.

While I spread on the sunscreen, she moved her hips slowly against the sand. I could only think about how to convince her to cross into the other hotel.

We shared a table with a couple we had just met. Three hours later, in their living room, a deck of red cards erased every line we thought we had.

“The decision is yours, you decide.” I couldn’t get that phrase out of my head all week, while my body had already decided for me.

We had talked for weeks by message, but nothing prepared me to have them both before me by the sea, with all the rules ready to be broken.

They had never met in person, only photos and messages charged with desire. But she was coming to his city, and this time fantasy threatened to become real.

She came home with news that would change the rules between us: a brand wanted to photograph her in lingerie, and the idea turned her on far more than I expected.

For months I’d whispered the same fantasy in her ear. That afternoon, in a deserted cove, I stopped imagining it and watched it come true in front of me.

When Damián slid his fingers over her hips, Marina understood that her husband wasn’t watching her with jealousy, but with a desire she had never known from him.

He climbed those five floors to confront his girlfriend’s mother. He had no idea her husband was home, or what proposal would come out of his mouth that afternoon.

I went out to clear my head with a bottle of tequila still in my hand. I had no idea that crossing paths with him in the hallway would change everything that night.

When he brushed her forearm as he left the restaurant, Marina knew it hadn’t ended at the table. He was her husband’s best friend.

The emergency door was locked and my wife was trapped on the other side with him. Only a plaster wall separated us. Then I started hearing.

Take down the photos, hide my clothes, conceal the webcam, and hide in the ironing room: that night my wife would bring home a stranger and I’d be the only witness.

When Diego pulled over beneath the neon lights, I knew our bet over laughter and kalimotxo would become the night my wife and I had secretly imagined for months.