My Neighbor Showed Me What I’d Been Denying for Years

My name is Bruno, and I have the body of someone who never knew what to do with it. I’m just over six feet tall, broad-shouldered, and I carry a few extra pounds that I’ve resigned myself to since adolescence. That afternoon I had just moved into a tiny apartment in the city center, the first one I paid for with my own money, and university had left my body battered after an endless day of classes.

I was surrounded by half-open boxes when a sharp thud echoed in the stairwell. It came from the apartment across the hall. I peeked through the peephole more out of curiosity than anything else, then opened the door slowly. In the doorway opposite, a huge guy was wrestling with a box that clearly weighed more than he’d expected.

It was hard not to look at him. He had to be a few years older than me, dark short hair, arms defined like someone who trained seriously. I later learned he played rugby. At that moment I only registered the T-shirt stretching across his back every time he bent down.

—Want a hand? —I said, and my own voice sounded more uncertain than I meant it to.

He turned around, gave me a slow once-over that made me uncomfortable and flattered at the same time, and smiled crookedly.

—I wouldn’t say no. I’m Darío.

—Bruno. I just moved in across the hall.

The two of us lifted the box and carried it into his living room. I could feel his gaze on me more than was normal, lingering on the shirt that was too small for me and clung to my chest. When we set the load down on the floor, he straightened up, wiped his forehead with his forearm, and looked at me hard.

—I owe you a beer for this. Are you in a hurry?

I wasn’t in a hurry. I had a thousand boxes waiting for me and not a single desire to go back to them. I nodded.

***

His apartment was twice the size of mine and smelled like wood and something citrusy. I sat on one end of the sofa and he came back from the kitchen with two cold bottles. Instead of taking the other end, he settled right beside me, close enough that our knees almost brushed.

We talked nonsense at first: the neighborhood, the noisy neighbors, how expensive life was for a student. But there was something underneath the conversation, a current I couldn’t quite name. Every time I laughed, he watched me a second too long. Every time I drank, his eyes dropped to my mouth.

—Do you live alone? —he asked.

—For the first time in my life.

—It shows. You look like someone who still doesn’t know what he likes.

I didn’t know how to answer that. I brought the bottle to my lips to buy time, and with that gesture his hand settled on my knee. It wasn’t an accidental touch. It was a firm, open hand that slid slowly up my thigh while he kept looking me in the eyes, waiting to see whether I’d push it away.

Move it away. Say something. Get up.

I didn’t do any of those three things. I stayed still, my heart pounding so hard in my chest I was sure he could hear it.

—I’ve always been curious about someone like you —he said softly, leaning in until I felt his breath on my neck—. Big, shy, untouched.

—I don’t know if I… —I began, but I couldn’t find the end of the sentence.

—You don’t have to know anything. That’s what I’m here for.

His hand kept climbing. My face burned with embarrassment and something more urgent than embarrassment. I had never been with a man. I hadn’t even allowed myself to seriously think I wanted one. And there I was, with Darío’s hand on my thigh and my body responding before my mind decided anything.

—Will you help me unpack the bedroom? —he asked, with a wink that left no doubt about what he was asking me for.

I nodded. I could barely find my voice.

***

I followed him down the hallway, watching his back, his shoulders, the way he moved without doubting a thing. When we got inside, he closed the door and, before I could say a word, he gently shoved me against the wall and kissed me.

It wasn’t a timid kiss. It was a kiss that took, that decided. His tongue found mine and I moaned against his mouth without meaning to, my hands hanging uselessly at my sides, not knowing where to put themselves. He took them and placed them on his waist, giving me permission to touch him.

He had a hard body under his clothes, all muscle and heat. His hands traveled over my torso through my shirt until they reached the buttons, and he undid them one by one without stopping kissing my neck. Each kiss left a hot mark on my skin, and each mark sent a new shiver through me.

—You have such soft skin —he murmured against my collarbone—. And you blush all over. I love it.

He opened my shirt completely and let it fall to the floor. I tried to cover myself by instinct, embarrassed by my body, but he pushed my hands away firmly.

—None of that. I want to see you.

And by the way he looked at me, for the first time in years I didn’t feel awkward in my own skin. I felt desired. He lowered his head and caught one of my nipples between his teeth, biting just enough, and a jolt shot straight down to my stomach. I groaned louder than I intended.

—That’s it —he said—. Don’t hold back. There’s no one here but us.

His hands kept moving lower, stroking my sides without my extra weight seeming to matter to him in the slightest, until they reached my belt. He unbuckled it slowly, looking me in the eyes the whole time, savoring my ragged breathing.

***

He took me to the bed and made me sit on the edge. He knelt between my legs and finished taking off my pants, and then my underwear, which no longer hid the obvious. The cool air against my hot skin made me tremble.

—Look at you —he said with a slow smile—. And you said you didn’t know what you liked.

I was going to answer something, I don’t know what, an excuse, a joke to hide the nerves. He didn’t give me time. He lowered his head and licked me from one end to the other, unhurriedly, and all thought vanished from me at once. I grabbed the sheets with both hands and let out a sound I didn’t recognize as my own.

I had never felt anything like it. His mouth was warm and wet, his tongue moved with the skill that only experience brings, and every time he looked up at me I came apart a little more. He took me in completely, slowly, until I felt the heat of his throat, and then he started moving with a rhythm that dragged me toward a brink I had never even touched.

—Darío… —I gasped—. Wait, I’m…

He stopped just in time, let me go with a wet sound, and laughed softly, his lips shining.

—Not yet. There’s no way you’re finishing that fast your first time.

He bent over me again, but this time his hands started exploring too. I felt his fingers, slick, press carefully into a place no one had ever touched before. I tensed instinctively.

—Relax —he whispered, lifting his head—. Breathe. Trust me.

I breathed. I trusted him. His finger went in slowly while his mouth returned to me, and the mix of the two sensations was so intense that my vision blurred. The strange became pleasure in a matter of seconds. My body opened under him at a pace he controlled better than I did, taking me right to the point I could bear and not a step beyond.

When he added a second finger, there was no turning back. Pleasure gathered in my belly like a wave that kept growing, and when he sped everything up at once, I came with a hoarse cry, my hips lifting off the bed of their own accord. Darío did not pull away. He waited until the last shudder passed, and only then did he climb up my body and kiss me long and deep.

***

I stayed lying there, wrecked, staring at the ceiling while I caught my breath. He propped himself up on one elbow beside me, watching me with a satisfied smile he didn’t bother to hide.

—You’ve got a lot of potential, rookie —he said, brushing a damp lock off my forehead—. This was only the first lesson.

—The first? —I asked, still breathless.

—The first of many. If you let yourself, of course.

I turned to look at him. There was something in his confidence, in the calm way he took it for granted that I’d come back, that instead of frightening me lit me up all over again. For years I had been denying myself what I’d just discovered in a single afternoon, hiding it under layers of excuses and fear. And he had read it in me the moment I opened the stairwell door.

—What if I do let myself? —I said, holding his gaze for the first time without looking away.

Darío smiled, and started pulling his shirt over his head, revealing a torso that made me swallow hard.

—Then you’re going to have a very attentive neighbor —he replied—. And a lot left to learn.

I sat up on the bed, my heart racing again but with none of the shame from the beginning. The boxes in my apartment could wait. That night I had something much more interesting to unpack across the hall.