The Mature Neighbor from the Fifth Floor Kept Me Awake at Night

Lucía liked older women, and ever since she had moved into the building, she had eyes only for the neighbor on the fifth floor. Her name was Renata, she lived alone, and she always came and went at the same time, never accompanied by anyone. She was forty-seven, although anyone who caught only a glimpse of her would have taken her for ten years younger.

She was tall, with fair, freckled skin and black hair that she always wore loose, falling over her shoulders. Large blue eyes, defined brows, and a mouth with full lips. She dressed with exquisite taste, in skirts that showed off her legs and necklines that hinted without revealing everything. Those freckles across her cheekbones made her, to Lucía, utterly irresistible.

Every morning, Lucía found a way to be in the entrance hall when Renata came downstairs. They exchanged good mornings with polite smiles and nothing more. The same happened in the afternoons. Lucía was young, blonde, ivory-skinned, with a braid that gave her a girlish air and a body that made men and women alike turn their heads. She had no shortage of suitors. But none of them interested her.

She could be my mother, she sometimes thought, and yet she’s the only one who keeps me awake at night.

Lucía had always known she liked women, and from a very young age she discovered that she liked older women. It had happened at school, one afternoon when she entered her mother’s friend’s room without warning and found her half-dressed. She couldn’t get that image out of her head for months. From then on, she was clear about what moved her, and she learned that seducing a mature woman was an art that required patience.

So she didn’t get desperate. The few women who had passed through her life had done so after months of patient courtship. Renata would be no different. The problem was breaking the ice.

***

What Lucía didn’t know was the story Renata carried with her. Six months earlier, she had gone back home to retrieve something she had forgotten and found her partner rolling around in her own bed with a coworker. Since then, she hadn’t wanted anything more to do with relationships.

That betrayal had struck her to the core. It had made her stop feeling desirable and shattered her confidence in herself. Little by little, she began switching off her phone, avoiding her friends, and shutting herself away at home with a glass of wine and a book. She only went out to work: she was an interior designer, and there she managed to forget everything for a few hours. But the happiest moment of the day was still coming home and shutting herself away again.

There was, however, something Renata couldn’t escape. Her body still demanded release. She had bought a vibrator in the hope of calming her desire, but no matter how much she used it, she never felt satisfied. She was missing contact, kisses, a real mouth on her skin. At night she watched videos and imagined that it was her being touched, and she came two or three times in a row, yet that emptiness remained, the one no device could fill.

What she missed most was a tongue. She had a large, extremely sensitive clitoris, and she remembered that with the right mouth she could come again and again, without pause. The vibrator, even at its highest setting, came nowhere near that sensation.

***

They say perseverance pays off. One afternoon, Renata was coming back from the supermarket laden with bags when, just as she passed in front of the entrance where Lucía was waiting, a couple of them slipped from her hands and spilled across the floor.

“Here, let me help you,” Lucía said, crouching down to pick them up.

She carried the bags up to the fifth floor. Renata, who had always seen her being so attentive during their morning greetings, felt she couldn’t simply say goodbye to her like that.

“Would you like to stay for a glass of wine?” she offered.

At last, they introduced themselves properly and began to talk. They discovered that they had more in common than they had expected: the same music, the same books, the same films. The more they talked, the more they realized how alike they were.

“I love the way you dress,” Lucía said. “You have incredible taste.”

“Thank you. My job requires me to take care with it—I’m an interior designer.”

“That explains it. You come downstairs looking gorgeous every morning.”

“Do you really think so?” Renata asked, and something in her voice trembled.

“Absolutely. I wish I had half your style.”

The words reached Renata more deeply than Lucía could have imagined. Every compliment was a crack of light in six months of darkness. She could feel her battered ego slowly beginning to swell again. She filled their glasses once more.

The conversation grew more intimate with every drink. Renata ended up telling her about her partner, the betrayal, and her withdrawal from the world. Lucía listened without interrupting and then told her, with a sweetness that didn’t seem her age, that she couldn’t shut herself away from the world or she would end up alone and bitter. To Renata, those seemed like the most sensible words she had heard in months.

“I’ve been alone for two years,” Lucía confessed. “So I know a thing or two about loneliness.”

The glasses emptied and were filled again. Both women were already quite tipsy when the conversation drifted, almost without meaning to, toward sex. Renata, feeling a level of trust she couldn’t remember ever having with anyone, told her the truth: that desire wouldn’t leave her in peace, that the vibrator wasn’t enough, that she was desperate to feel something real.

Lucía let her finish. Then, in a low voice, she told her that she understood her better than anyone because her life was exactly the same.

***

“Show me that vibrator,” Lucía asked.

Renata brought it out and switched it on. Lucía pressed it against her own clothes, over the fabric, and let out a sigh.

“That feels so good. Now I want to see how you use it.”

“Like this,” Renata murmured, pressing it against her underwear.

“No, that’s no fun. Take that off and really show me how you put it on yourself.”

Renata hesitated for a moment. Then she took off her underwear, hiked up her skirt, and showed Lucía how she touched herself. Lucía didn’t look away. She took off her trousers and began touching herself as she watched.

What came next was almost inevitable. Renata set down the vibrator and placed her fingers on Lucía’s sex; Lucía did the same, and the two of them began to moan softly, caressing each other. Renata brought her mouth close, and they kissed, slowly at first, then hungrily, for long minutes, as if it were the last kiss of their lives.

Lucía took her by the hand and led her to the bed. They undressed each other amid nervous laughter, and for a moment they lay still, looking at one another. Renata’s body was more imposing than Lucía had imagined during all those mornings in the entrance hall. Lucía’s, on the other hand, struck Renata as something delicate that needed to be treated with care.

***

Lucía laid her back on the bed, climbed on top of her, and kissed her again while caressing her breasts. Renata began to moan. Lucía’s mouth moved down her neck, kissing it slowly, continuing to her nipples, where she lingered while her fingers played between Renata’s legs. Renata arched her back, moaning louder and louder. At last she was feeling something real.

Lucía couldn’t believe that what she had wanted for so long was actually happening. She silently congratulated herself on the patience she had shown all those mornings. Renata’s body was beautiful, incredible for her age, and her nipples felt perfect in Lucía’s mouth. She slowly slid her tongue down Renata’s belly until Renata realized where she was heading and shuddered in anticipation.

When Lucía’s tongue finally reached her sex, Renata let out a long moan. Lucía explored her completely, unhurriedly, and then focused on her clitoris, playing with it, circling it. Renata clutched the sheets and curled her toes. This—exactly this—was how she needed to feel. The first wave caught her almost immediately; she let out a short cry and her entire body tensed.

Lucía realized at once how sensitive she was. And she decided she wasn’t going to stop. She continued with her tongue without respite, and Renata came a second time, then a third, each orgasm separated from the last by barely two or three minutes, the discharges running through her body from head to toe. She had lost control. Every time she managed to relax, a new wave made her tense up again.

Renata was drenched in sweat from the effort. Lucía penetrated her with her fingers without stopping her mouth, faster, deeper. Renata arched her entire body, lifting it off the bed, came for the fourth time, and, completely spent, gently pushed Lucía’s head away. She couldn’t take any more. Then she sat up and gave her a long kiss.

“I don’t have the words to tell you what you’ve made me feel,” she murmured.

“I enjoyed it as much as you did, believe it or not,” Lucía replied.

***

“Now it’s my turn,” Renata said, with a mixture of desire and shyness. “Although I don’t know if I’ll know how. I’ve never done this to a woman.”

“Just think about what you like having done to you. That’s all I need.”

Renata laid her on her back, kissed her, and began moving down with her mouth as she had just learned to do, pausing at her breasts and navel. When she reached Lucía’s sex, she stared at it for a moment, almost reverently. It was the first time she had had one like that before her, entirely at her disposal. She gave it a soft kiss and began exploring it with her tongue.

For the first time in her life, she was tasting another woman, and the sensation aroused her in a way she couldn’t remember ever having felt before. Is there anything more daring than this—with a stranger, the first time? she thought, and she liked the idea. Lucía was young and beautiful, the perfect companion for a first experience she hadn’t sought out but no longer wanted to end.

Renata placed her tongue on Lucía’s clitoris and began stimulating it. Lucía couldn’t stop moaning. She could hardly believe that the woman she had spent months silently desiring was now between her legs. Renata began penetrating her with her fingers without taking her mouth away, and her fingers slid in without resistance. Lucía moaned louder and louder, waves of pleasure following one another without giving her a moment’s respite, until she could barely breathe.

“Don’t stop,” she managed to say. “Please, don’t stop.”

Renata continued, growing more confident with every moan. Knowing she was capable of making another woman feel pleasure gave her back something she had thought lost. And she also discovered how much she enjoyed doing it. She thought this was the end of the vibrator, the end of lonely nights in front of the screen. She sped up, sucked harder, and Lucía, who had been holding back to prolong the pleasure, couldn’t take it anymore and came in her mouth, trembling from head to toe.

When she caught her breath, Lucía sat up and kissed her.

“Why did it take you so long?” Renata asked, insecure again. “Wasn’t I making you feel good?”

“Quite the opposite. I was holding back on purpose, so I could feel everything I possibly could. I could barely breathe.”

“I’m such an idiot. I’m always assuming the worst about myself.”

Lucía gently pushed her so she lay back down. This time she wanted to take her time. She moved her tongue slowly, with barely any pressure, exploring her entirely from below to her clitoris again and again. Renata trembled with every pass, moaning without pause, astonished that a stranger cared so much about her pleasure. No one had ever made her feel that good for so long. When Lucía decided the time had come, she pressed her tongue down, sucked hard, and Renata came again, clutching at her.

Renata then gave her the most sensual kiss of the entire night.

***

There was one question hanging in the air, and Renata, who had learned the hard way what staying silent could cost, decided to be direct.

“So what are we? Was this just for tonight?”

“I’m glad you asked, because I was thinking the same thing,” Lucía replied. “I really like you. If it were up to me, I’d never stop seeing you.”

“You have no idea how happy I am to hear that. I was terrified you’d disappear tomorrow.”

“Then there’s nothing to think about. From now on, it’s you and me.”

And they kissed again, slowly, as if that kiss sealed a pact neither of them intended to break.