Mature

I was 48, in a stable marriage, and living a perfect lie. Every week I crossed that door and became another woman. One I never knew existed.

Ten years of widowhood and silence. Until one night I saw light under her door and went closer. What I found on the other side changed everything between us.

When Roberto’s car disappeared around the bend, Sofía looked at Raquel. They had three hours, two men waiting, and a plan that seemed foolproof.

I had been fantasizing about her for weeks, but the snowstorm and that couples’ motel finally broke down the barriers between us.

He came to help me with my new television, with his defined arms and that gaze that avoided mine. He was twenty, and I already knew what was going to happen.

Eva asked me to meet her two hours before her flight to Boston. When she arrived, she brought a new perfume—and a very clear idea of how to say goodbye.

I’d been serving coffee at the truck stop for two years when he walked in without saying hello and recognized me from another life. I knew at once I wouldn’t sleep soundly that night.

At two in the morning I got into the pool naked, thinking I was alone. When I heard her steps coming closer, there was nothing left to hide.

Martín arrived with a ladder and a toolbox. Doña Carmen watched him take off his shirt in the sun and knew the job would take a long time.

When I saw her at the bus stop, with her copper hair and that tight blouse, I knew something was going to happen. I had no idea that afternoon would change everything.

When I entered that room and saw my mother riding my best friend, I knew nothing would ever be the same. What happened next shattered every rule I knew.

I caught her naked in bed, with two fingers buried in her cunt. What I didn’t expect was for my own mother to show up and join the game without asking.

When she closed her fingers around the card, she whispered that I had twenty minutes to decide whether I was going up to her apartment or staying a journalist.

When Doña Hilda opened the door and looked us up and down, I knew that night by the fire would cost us far more than a dry roof.

I thought everyone was asleep when I got naked in the pool. Then I heard the kitchen door and saw her silhouette approaching, not hurrying to look away.

That Saturday he came over to correct my posture without being asked. By Monday, we already had a silent arrangement and I had chosen the right thong.

I went to the terminal to meet one lover. Two hours later, I left with my body burning from another man who didn’t even know my name.

When I looked out the window of my new room and saw them naked in the pool, I knew that year would teach me far more than biochemistry.

When he took off his T-shirt in my living room, I recognized the tattoo my wife zoomed in on every night. The anonymous single was there, sweaty and smiling.