Fantasies

Four hands lifted her above the sand while the whole circle held its breath, waiting to see how far she would dare to go that afternoon.

Behind every mask was an invitation no one dared say out loud, and that night you chose to accept it without asking me.

She had never crossed the threshold of a circle like that, but that afternoon, with her skin covered in oil and salt, Daniela understood that certain desires only exist when shared.

I locked the door, and it was like flipping a switch: for the first time I was going to strip in front of the camera so someone on the other side could desire me.

I booked two seats in an almost empty theater and gave one to a stranger who read me. I didn’t know if she’d come until I saw her find her seat in the dark.

The mirror in the dressing room reflected a woman she didn’t recognize. In a few minutes, dozens of strangers would see her naked. And still, she chose to step through the curtain.

When the elevator doors closed, nobody was pretending anymore. Marina found my hand and guided it under her skirt while you kissed me without taking your eyes off them.

Marcela looked at me through the rearview mirror with a smile that was nothing like a calm mother’s. I didn’t know that afternoon would change everything between us.

I walked into the room blindfolded, nearly naked under my coat, not knowing who was waiting for me on the other side of the music. Only my husband’s voice guided me.

I knelt in front of the window, never imagining that one of them had already gone around the house and was watching me in silence from the back door.

I took the first motorway exit without thinking. What she’d just told me made it impossible to keep driving, and I still hadn’t confessed what I really wanted.

When we got back to the room, we couldn’t wait any longer. Then there was a knock: the gift I’d prepared for her had just arrived, and you knew nothing.

We’d been drinking for two hours when I half-jokingly blurted out what I’d been imagining for years. He laughed. I didn’t.

I danced pressed against a masked stranger until his voice asked in my ear if I still remembered him. And my body answered before I did.

I was lightly dressed, wearing almost nothing, when something huge and wet burst out of the undergrowth and seized my arms before I could scream.

“There’s only one way to find out,” he said as he moved toward the examining horse. I had come to have the carrot removed, not to orgasm in front of a stranger in a lab coat.

When I saw her photo, I knew I wouldn’t sleep that night: I undressed her in my mind and let my imagination cross the kilometers my body couldn’t.

I ran through the downpour to my door thinking I was safe. I didn’t realize he had come in behind me until I felt his hand on my back.

It was almost closing time when the bell rang. He and she came in, asked for black lace, and, without knowing it, offered me the afternoon I’d spent months fantasizing about alone.

I know I shouldn’t, but every time I walk home alone in the early hours I look for him: that stranger who’ll pin me to the wall and not ask permission.