Forbidden

I arrived at the square expecting a polite coffee with the woman who taught me to read poems at seventeen. What happened next wasn’t in any book.

When he told me he looked like the singer behind the counter when he dressed up, his mother smiled and I understood it wouldn’t stay a joke.

When my phone buzzes at four in the morning I know it’s him, that no one else wanted him tonight, and that he’ll pay anything if I show up.

She was twenty-one and the daughter of my best friend’s partner. I taught her equations; she taught me not to ask where she’d been on the nights she disappeared.

When I felt his cock against my ass in the darkness, I knew neither of us would sleep that night. Fifteen years later, I still think about it.

When the lights went out on the 22nd floor and I knew we’d be alone with him for hours, I had no idea how far he’d be willing to go.

The first time was an accident. After that, every night he had company, I moved the armchair to the window and let my hand drift down on its own.

Andrés locked the door even though he knew there was no one else on the floor. When he stood in front of me again, he was no longer my boss but something else.

At midnight, wearing her shortest miniskirt and a white blouse without a bra, Carolina crossed the garden toward the bricklayers' container.

I dressed up like never before to see him: miniskirt, heels, wig. What I didn’t expect was his sister showing up and, with one look, reading everything we were hiding.

We had been flirting for months over the internal chat. When I suggested closing the office on a Saturday, I never thought you’d come. You did—trembling, but you came.

Three in the morning. A short nightgown. Nothing underneath. And the feeling that every park lamp was a curious eye, waiting for me to go one step too far.

I went back to the club for a second escape looking for pleasure, and a new guy chose me. What promised to be an easy lesson left a mark I didn't expect.

The phone rang just as he walked through the door. It was my boyfriend. I couldn’t hang up. And my ex wasn’t about to wait for me to finish the call.

When she told me her mother was an idiot for leaving me, I still thought it was an innocent compliment. Five minutes later I was kissing her.

I thought we were only going up to the pine grove to eat omelet and drink red wine. I never imagined my cousin would ask me to touch her among the trees that afternoon.

My boyfriend introduced me as his friend to his entire family. His uncle noticed and slipped me a note with his number and one word written on it: «later».

That October Sunday we came down from mass soaked by the rain. We went into her kitchen to dry off. And there, against the wall, I kissed her the way I’d wanted to kiss her all my life.

Diego always turned me on and I avoided him because of my boyfriend. Until that afternoon he took me to the gym sauna and I realized I couldn't keep lying to myself.

That afternoon on the beach, all I wanted was to switch off. When the blonde woman in the bikini came over asking for a light, I knew my plans for solitude had just changed.