Desire

We arrived exhausted and fell asleep wrapped around each other in our underwear. Three days later, the apartment owner came in with breakfast and a look that changed everything.

Fresh out of the shower, I looked in the mirror and realized I couldn’t keep waiting. I took a sheet of paper and started writing down everything I’d wanted for years and never dared to do.

Damián came every three days; Adrián showed up Friday on his motorbike. That week I found out just how far I could go when nobody was looking.

No one at the party suspected a thing: to everyone we were just friends. But that dawn Adrián took the road to the hillside estate, and I knew we were done pretending.

I saw his name on the screen and knew I shouldn’t answer. But I did, and the moment I heard his voice I was again the woman I swore I’d never be.

I parked next to her car, not knowing that my free afternoon would end with her climbing into mine, in the darkest corner of the parking lot.

I told him I’d come in sweaty and needed a shower. He carried me to the sofa and whispered that, with my scent, he liked me even more.

I thought it was an innocent game of glances at the traffic light. I never imagined that on a Saturday morning I’d knock on his door with the most foolish excuse in the world.

I never promised you more than I gave you, and maybe that’s why you came back. This is the story of the woman I never truly got to know.

We’d had one clear rule for years, but that morning I understood that renewing the contract meant climbing onto the notary’s table in front of everyone.

I walk between the lockers with a towel over my shoulder and I feel every gaze. They pretend not to look, but their bodies answer me before their words do.

He insisted so much on walking me to the entrance that I ended up inviting him up. At eight in the morning, his phone rang and everything I believed changed in an instant.

When I got into the car and saw that man in the front seat, I had no idea my lover had brought me there to hand me over to someone else.

I bought that toy almost out of shame, hidden behind a screen. I never imagined the body I’d hated so much would teach me how to love myself.

I picked up the fork she had dropped and, bending under the table, discovered something none of the adults suspected. That night everything changed.

I let my guard down the moment he stepped into the stall. I hadn’t come looking for any of that, but his voice ordered me to kneel and I no longer knew how to say no.

The first time I heard her through the partition, I lay perfectly still, holding my breath, pretending to be asleep while she believed she was completely alone.

I recognized the basket of clothes that wasn’t mine, and before I could think, my hand was already buried in his things. What happened next changed me from the inside.

I heard him on the phone say, “This old lady is ready.” I should have been offended. Instead, I felt myself get soaked right there against the bar.

I found her panties on the hallway floor, with a note on top. From that night on, we played a game neither of us wanted to end.