Lingerie

I came home with my body still trembling from the night before. I never expected to find him sitting on the sofa with my laptop open on the table.

He left the sheet on the bed, folded in four, with my new name written at the top. Every line was an order, and I already knew I would obey them all.

I thought my future would be decided by the owner of the coast’s most expensive club. I never imagined the final test would be given by his right hand, a woman seasoned by years in the trade.

The night before leaving, we turned on the screen, played the videos from that mansion, and let the memories prepare us for what the island had in store.

I kept it as evidence for the case, but that night, alone, I slipped the silk over my body and saw in the mirror someone who had been waiting years for me.

It was meant for Andrés, my boyfriend. But the blue double check appeared three seconds later, and I realized, my stomach turning cold, that I’d sent it to the wrong man.

I came downstairs in the set I’d hidden for weeks, and from the way he looked at me, I knew there would be no turning back that night.

In front of the mirror, adjusting my garter and blonde wig, I allow myself the most dangerous luxury of all: imagining someone who stays afterward.

I texted him, “Door ajar, if you dare,” and turned off almost all the lights. When he came up the stairs, I knew there was no turning back.

Her husband spent months at sea and she was climbing the walls. I only went to move some furniture, but that afternoon the house was empty and the door was open.

Before the mirror in that room, a box of unfamiliar garments opened, and each one he put on erased a little more of the man who had entered.

Most of the time I’m the man I was born as. But some nights I put on the wig, look in the mirror, and let Sabrina go out looking for what she really wants.

I left home in an ordinary dress, but underneath I was wearing something only he would see. I knew what he was going to ask for, and I had already decided to say yes.

The corset hugged his body like a second skin and the satin tightened around his wrists. In front of the mirror, Adrián stopped pretending and finally became who he wanted to be.

I took a seat in the third row with a cold coffee and my skepticism folded inside my notebook. I didn’t know every word she said would rewrite who I was, down to the last button.

I dressed up for the first time, got in the car with the other two girls, and crossed half the province without knowing that night would teach me to endure contempt with my head held high.

When the mirror showed me a face that wasn’t mine, I understood that I no longer ruled this house. I only obeyed and wanted to please her.

When she opened the door in that black lingerie and that cold smile, I knew there would be no talk tonight: only orders, and I was ready to obey every one.

When I blindfolded her, I didn’t expect to see the old man on the balcony watching us. And instead of lowering the blind, I offered my girlfriend to him.

Renata wanted to take up more space; Damián wanted to stop deciding. The ritual granted them exactly that, and by morning their bodies began obeying another desire.