First Time

He had known for a month that he loved her as more than a friend. When she opened her apartment door, he knew he could no longer pretend.

Every night I stayed until closing just to watch him move behind the bar. I had no idea the shy boy held the woman who would change my life.

The fire burned low in the cabin when the young orphan arrived with nothing but her ragged dress. Marisol, a widow alone with her child, had no idea how hard she would find it to look at her.

A hallway bulb gave out and went dark. In the dimness, her hands circled my waist and I knew she’d been waiting years for that moment without daring to name it.

I was nineteen and thought I was untouchable, until the night a man twice my age showed me how wrong I was.

Everyone called her the easy girl at the university. I just wanted her to explain, without beating around the bush or feeling ashamed, how to take that step with my boyfriend without getting hurt.

Cris opened the fitting-room curtain half-dressed and I, instead of backing away, knelt down. What happened next changed everything that followed with Hugo.

The first time I entered his office I did it with my head down and a borrowed dress; I left feeling, at last, like myself.

My parents said that neighbor was trouble. I only knew that every time I ran into her in the elevator, I struggled to breathe and didn’t know why.

Every time we went back to Grandma’s old house, the same game started all over again: one hand brushing another and nobody watching.

When he slipped his bare foot beneath the tablecloth and brushed my thigh, I knew the boy I’d been ignoring for weeks was going to get what he’d been asking for.

I handed her a blouse one size too small without telling her why. When I heard her muffled cry from the fitting room, I knew I was going in and I wouldn't come out the same.

I wore my cowgirl hat with no intention of going home alone. I never imagined a stranger would suggest something I’d never dared to try.

When I opened the door wearing nothing but a towel, I never imagined my father’s friend would look at me like that—or that I’d look back without a trace of shame.

When I saw the bills my sister had hidden in the drawer, I knew our life at that bus stop was about to change forever—and that nothing between us would ever be innocent again.

I wore the skirt under my pants, got into the car, and let him decide my name. That night I stopped pretending to be someone I wasn’t.

I thought I’d have time to pull myself together before he came back from the kitchen. I was wrong. His voice behind me came just as I was whispering his name.

I was curious and a little disgusted, but she kept insisting until I heard myself say yes. What happened that afternoon at her house still makes me smile.

It was raining, his place was empty, and I had a surprise waiting. I’d never done it before, but that afternoon I decided it was time to find out what desire tasted like.

I was fifteen, had a free period, and my boyfriend’s house was empty. What happened that afternoon I still remember in every detail.