The Birthday Gift I Tried in Front of My Friends

There are five of us in my group, and we all share the same curiosity about sex, without taboos or shame. We talk about everything when we get together: men, what we like, what we’ve never dared to do. Last year, between laughter and a couple of drinks too many, we came up with an idea: to give each other sex toys for every birthday. I was going to be the first to kick off the tradition, because my birthday came before the others’.

That day I woke up to my phone vibrating nonstop. Messages from half the world, birthday wishes from people who hadn’t written in months, and above all the usual chaos of the group: voice notes, old photos, plans changing every five minutes. They’d organized a dinner to celebrate, and I spent the morning nervous, answering calls and eating cake with my family, unable to get that damn tradition we’d promised ourselves out of my head.

In the afternoon I took a shower longer than necessary. I shaved, put on lotion, dried my hair calmly. I chose a black dress that clung just where I wanted and did my makeup carefully, looking at myself in the mirror longer than I’d ever admit to anyone. By eight I was already at our usual bar, the one we’d been going to since we were twenty and where the bartender already knew our names.

—The birthday girl is finally here! —Lucía shouted as soon as I walked in, and the others all turned at once.

We spent a couple of hours having drinks, snacking on everything they ordered, and laughing at things only we understood. At one point, the four of them got up without warning and sang Happy Birthday at the top of their lungs, right in front of the whole bar. I wanted to crawl under the table from sheer embarrassment, but I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes.

—This is nothing —Marta warned me with a crooked smile—. The good part comes at home.

We’d set up the dinner at Carla’s place, since she had the biggest apartment and she cooked best. The five of us walked there, bundled up, through the dry cold of the night and streets that were half empty. On the way they kept dropping hints about the gift, about the promise, about what I’d have to tell them afterward. I played dumb, but inside I was starting to feel a tingle that wasn’t just from the wine.

When we walked into her place, I was speechless. Carla had set the table like something out of a magazine: cloth tablecloth, candles, proper glasses, a string of lights hanging from the shelf. That woman has gone overboard, I thought, and I got a lump in my throat from pure emotion.

—Don’t say anything —she cut me off before I could open my mouth—. Sit down and enjoy it; this is your night.

We had dinner amid laughter, remembering parties from years ago, trips that went wrong, and one-night stands that ended up becoming lifelong anecdote material. Nuria told, for the umpteenth time, the story of the guy in Lisbon, and we kept interrupting her to correct the details she exaggerated. I’d completely forgotten about the gifts until Lucía tapped her glass with a fork.

—Solemn moment —she announced—. Tradition number one. Someone hand her the bag.

Carla disappeared for a second and came back with a shiny paper bag. Inside was a box wrapped with a ribbon. I took it out carefully, feeling four pairs of eyes fixed on my hands, and tore the paper slowly to make them suffer a little.

It was a clit sucker. A good one, too, the kind they advertise everywhere. I went red right up to my ears and they all burst out laughing.

—A promise is a promise —Marta said, pointing at me—. You have to tell us how it works.

—With all the details —Nuria added.

—I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you —I replied, putting the box back in the bag, not yet imagining how far the night was going to go.

***

The hours and the bottles kept passing. At some point we left the table and spread out around the living room: two on the sofa, one in the armchair, one on the floor on some cushions. The music was low, the candles were still lit, and the atmosphere had turned intimate, the kind where you say things nobody repeats the next day.

—Hey —Lucía blurted out suddenly, her eyes bright from the wine—. What if we try it now?

—What? —I asked, though I knew perfectly well what she meant.

—The gift. I want to see how it really works, not in an ad.

Carla laughed and gave her a smack on the arm, but she didn’t contradict her. Marta sat up on the sofa with an eyebrow raised, and Nuria, from the cushions, was smiling like a little girl with a secret.

—Come on, it’s your night —Lucía insisted—. Use it in front of us. Anyway, there’s nobody else here.

I stayed silent for a couple of seconds. Normally I would have laughed and changed the subject, but the drinks I’d had had silenced that cautious voice that usually holds me back. I felt the heat climbing up my neck, my heart speeding up, and a strange mix of embarrassment and excitement that surprised even me.

—All right —I said, and my own voice sounded чужда to me.

The living room fell silent for a moment, as if none of them could believe I’d said yes. Then came nervous laughter and a rustle of cushions as they settled in.

—Sit on the floor, in front of the sofa —I asked, trying not to let my voice shake—. And don’t laugh, or you’ll throw me off.

The four of them obeyed as if it were the most natural thing in the world. They sat in a semicircle on the rug, looking up at me, glasses in hand. I stood in the middle of the living room, with all those eyes on me, and put my hands on the straps of my dress.

I let it fall slowly. The black fabric slid to the floor and I was left in my underwear in front of them, wearing a lace set that, luckily, I’d put on that morning with no ulterior motives. No one said a word. I only heard Nuria swallow.

I sat on the sofa, opened my legs just enough for them to get a good view, and took the clit sucker out of its box. My fingers trembled a little as I searched for the button. When I switched it on, it let out that deep, soft hum I could feel vibrating in the palm of my hand.

—Oh my God —Marta murmured.

I started moving it over my body slowly, almost to stretch out the moment. Over my neck, over my collarbone, over the lace. I could feel myself heating up, not so much from the toy as from four pairs of eyes following every movement. I moved slowly down to my stomach and, when I reached my crotch, I realized the thong was in the way.

Before I could take it off, Carla got up on her knees and came over to the sofa.

—Leave it, I’ll help you —she said softly.

She pulled my thong down carefully, sliding it along my legs, and before going back to her place she leaned in and gave me a soft kiss right there, between my thighs. It was only a brush of her lips, but it brought a smile to my face I couldn’t hide. She went back to sit on the rug as if nothing had happened, biting her lip.

***

I placed the sucker directly over my clit, at the lowest setting. The first wave ran through me and a sigh slipped out. I started to feel myself getting wet as the intensity rose, one notch at a time, and little by little I forgot where I was and who was watching me.

I turned it up one more notch. Then another. With my free hand I unclasped my bra and squeezed one breast, playing with my nipple while the hum grew stronger between my legs. The moans started coming out on their own, first restrained, then without any filter at all. I tipped my head back against the sofa and closed my eyes.

In my head there was no living room, no friends, no candles. I was alone in the bed in my room, surrendering to that rhythmic suction that dragged pleasure up through me without letting me breathe. I bit my lip, arched my back, turned up the intensity again because my body was only asking for more. The sound of my own breathing filled my ears.

—Don’t stop —I heard someone say, very far away.

I had no intention of stopping. I stayed like that for a good while, feeling the tension gather in one single point that grew and grew until it became unbearable in how good it felt. And then I came. I came harder than I had in ages, with a shiver that ran down my legs and left my knees weak, clutching the cushion with my free hand and my mouth open, hardly any sound coming out.

It took me a while to come back down. I set the switched-off sucker on the sofa, my chest rising and falling, and opened my eyes slowly, still halfway between pleasure and reality.

What I saw finished waking me up.

The four of them were still on the floor, exactly where I’d left them, but they weren’t just watching anymore. Lucía had her skirt hiked up and her hand between her thighs. Marta had unbuttoned her jeans. Nuria, eyes closed, was rubbing herself over her underwear, and Carla, the one who’d taken off my thong, was looking straight at me while touching herself shamelessly, biting her lip just like before.

None of them had been able to hold back. They had come, or were about to, all at the same time, watching me unwrap the gift they’d bought me themselves.

I was speechless, still trembling, feeling my heart speed up again for a completely different reason. Carla was the first to smile.

—Well —she said, her voice husky—. I think we know how it works now.

And we all laughed, this time in a different way, knowing that that tradition had just turned into something a lot more interesting than we’d planned. There were four birthdays left to celebrate. And I was already dying for the next one to come around.