Masturbation

It was eleven at night, the street was empty, and I decided to take my clothes off right there. I had no idea someone staggering on the corner was watching me.

For months, we played at letting others watch her without her knowing. That night, with two friends on the sofa, I discovered she had controlled the game from the start.

The two towels on the rack told me I wasn’t alone. The smart thing would have been to leave. Instead, I stayed pressed against the glass.

At six, her friend's message came with three kisses, and Amparo knew before answering that this call would not end like all the others.

I thought it was just another night of studying until she turned her head, looked straight at me, and said the words that changed everything between us.

We had a simple arrangement: a missed call when they started, and me appearing on my balcony as if by chance. That night changed everything.

I told Mateo I would tan on my front. I never told him the real pleasure was knowing every passing man stopped to stare at me.

I got up before the second alarm. I knew that, if I played my cards right, we’d both arrive at work with smiles that would be hard to hide.

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.

I didn’t turn on the light. I only felt her hands pulling at my clothes and her mouth seeking me in the dark, without a single word, as if she knew by heart what she had come to do.

The first order came at seven in the evening, and I understood that night I would obey everything without asking, in front of a camera and a man I knew only through his written voice.

I went up to the apartment alone to shower before the others. What I didn’t expect was someone across the courtyard waiting for exactly that moment.

Bored in front of the television and alone in a bed that was too large, she closed her eyes and let her hand do what she hadn’t allowed herself to do for two years.

I’d carried that secret for years. That night, between tequila and neon lights, Carla asked for the one story I’d never dared tell.

From my balcony I could see her bed. That night I went out for air as usual, never imagining she’d turn on the light and strip in front of me.

It was nine on a Sunday morning, and I was the only person out on the street. That’s why I was the only one who saw her leave the shop almost naked, unaware that I was watching.

I raised the blind just a little, as always. But that night Marina was standing in front of the mirror, and for the first time she didn’t look away from my window.

I saw her when I boarded and knew I wouldn’t sleep. I never imagined I’d spy from the shadows as another man took her against the window.

My phone fell into the water, so I had to use my mother’s. I never imagined a saved chat would show me who came into our house when I wasn’t there.

For years no man had looked at me the way he did from the next balcony, and that afternoon I discovered I didn’t want to stop being watched either.