Hotel

When the power went out and we were trapped between two floors, I knew those dark hours were going to change everything. And I did nothing to stop it.

A year had passed since the last time. I turned a corner downtown and crashed into her: the same perfume, the same gaze, the same desire I thought I’d forgotten.

When the coach asked her to observe the boys, she agreed with a smile. No one suspected the woman in the blue suit had already chosen her two favorites.

The motel terrace connected to his, and from the dimness a deep voice called me “pretty.” I should have gone inside and locked the door. I didn’t.

Damián saved half the city and took the rookie up to his suite to celebrate. Tomás admired him like an idol, until that night he discovered who was really in charge.

I offered the bus window seat to the old lady and she didn’t even look at me. I had no idea the real journey would begin in the hotel dining room, across from two strangers.

I pretended to be asleep so I could watch him. What I saw in the other bed that night completely changed the course of that trip.

I put on the lingerie she would never wear and wait for him to knock on the motel door. I know he’ll come back: at home there’s a man starving.

He lowered his voice to a rough whisper on the other side of the partition, and I knew I’d never sit across from him in a meeting again without remembering it.

I’d been at the company for three weeks when he leaned over the table and told me I had something that caught people’s attention. That same afternoon, I followed him.

When that man put his hands on my back, I knew it was no longer about the fever or the exhaustion from the trip, but about something I had been avoiding for years.

I told her to bring the most outrageous outfits she had. I wanted to parade her through the city and, back at the hotel, lose myself between her feet for hours.

The receptionist handed me a package with no return address. Inside, a metal plug and a note in his handwriting: “For our date, I want you to wear it.”

I agreed to go with him on the trip, knowing I’d be his woman for a few days. What I didn’t know was that my body was already part of the deal.

She had never touched a belly like that without gloves and a gown in between. This time it was Marisol’s, her sister-in-law’s, and she couldn’t pretend she was only there to feel for the twins’ kicks.

I had imagined it in silence for years, never telling a soul. That night, at the bar of a strange hotel, a stranger decided for me.

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.

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.

When I opened the backpack he handed me in the lobby of that run-down hotel, I understood the meeting was nothing like I’d imagined. And it was already too late to turn back.

He left me on the sofa blindfolded, my hands sweating. When a hand climbed my leg and the music started, I knew I’d never forget that night.